At the same time, given the indigenous people were largely destroyed; colonists made Africa a source of labor supplement for their plantation agriculture in Brazil and many other Latin America countries. Obviously, those who are captured from Africa and forced to work as slaves were more cheap and easy to control, because they were not organized and it was hard for them to get sympathy and support from local people. It is a very successful strategy. According to Brea, approximately 4 million indigenous people were killed by 1650 and colonists brought about 9 million Africans to Latin America as slaves at the same time. Brea continue feature out that in the following two centuries, the European settlers were not numerous in the amount but they control the economic and political power in Latin America and he named this period “Slow Growth” because “the high death rates throughout Latin America produced a low rate of population growth” (5).
The really rapid population growth comes after the independent movement of Latin America countries since 1950, accompanied by the improvement of the economic situation in this area. Form the data of Brea’ book, we can see that the annual increasing rate of population is more than 3 percent or higher for decades and there are 520 million people in 2000.
Language
According to historical definition of Latin America, language is one of the most important characteristics of culture. Most people living there speak similar languages, including Spanish, French and Portuguese, which are all derived from Latin language. According to Brea’s research, before the arrival of European colonizers, there are only native languages in Latin America, including Quechua, Mixtec, Kekchi and many other languages. But nowadays, the majorities are Portuguese, Spanish, French and English. “Brazilians, who make up nearly one-third of the region’s population, speak Portuguese” and Spanish is the national official language of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, etc.(Brea 4). The similarity of language brings those countries the advantage that is the people can easily communicate by their official languages with people who comes from the other countries in this region.
However, there are still many minorities of languages in this area and have fewer and fewer speakers and that made the characteristics here both coherence and diversity. Furthermore, people here “speak in different dialects or speech patterns. For example, in Mexico today, Indians from the Yucatan lowlands and Indians from the highland of Chiapas have difficulty understanding one another’s language, even though they are both Maya-speaking people” (Dorothy Chaplik 4).
Diversity of Culture
There are some typical Latin America cultures need to be mentioned here and the first and foremost one is Maya culture. According to Chaplick, the Maya culture began about 800 BC and expanded on the achievements of the Olmec and became a great civilization. “Their territory ranged from what is today southeast Mexico, through Guatemala to Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya had a profound understanding of mathematics and astronomy. They devised an accurate calendar and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing” (Chaplik 8). Unfortunately, the Maya culture went in to a decline for unknown reasons, which many scientists are still researching, and Maya people abandoned their cities and migrated to other regions of America. Today, “a large number of Mayan-speaking Mexicans live in the Yucatan peninsula and Chiapas Highland in the southern Mexico and Guatemala” and there are only ruins of wonderful buildings and monuments for us to research (Brea 9).
“The Teotihuacan culture lasted from about 150 BC to 750 AD. Although this was a shorter time period than the Maya or Olmec cultures, much was accomplished by these people. The City of Teotihuacan, located near what is now Mexico City, became the largest urban center in the Americas. It existed about the same time as the Roman Empire and was comparable in size. It was the first Middle American city built on a grid pattern, and covered about eight square miles” (Chaplik 8). Chaplik also said in the book that Teotihuacan’s religious center included pyramids dedicated to the moon and the sun, and to a feathered serpent god believed to the part bird and part snake. The interesting thing is that this god was worshiped by every culture in Middle America.
From the book “Latin American Arts and Cultures”, we can see that throughout the history of Latin America, there are also many other cultures, including Toltec, Totonac, Veracruz and Mixtec. “Some disappeared mysteriously, perhaps due to natural disasters, such as storms or earthquakes” (Chaplik 8), and we now can not find a successful culture which has a direct ancient ancestor on the land of Latin America.
Religion
Due to the long colonized history and immigrant from Europe, the majority of Latin Americans are Christians, especially Roman Catholics. This religion was first introduced by the European settlers, such as sailors and farmers. There are many Catholic churches in Latin American countries, no to mention Christ the Redeemer, a famous statue in Brazil, which was located on a mountain named Corcovado and famous for people around the world. “Brazil, which was discovered and colonized by the Portuguese, is sometimes called Portuguese America” (Paul Kramer 51).
Although Catholicism possesses the dominate position in the theology, there are still some other religions exist in this Area. According to Benjamin Krutzinna’s book, Roman Catholicism, the professed faith of over four-fifths of population, is by far the dominant religion, but in the some rural areas, the faith is highly syncretistic, that Catholicism be blended with indigenous beliefs (19). “The survival of ancient cultural traditions was frequently achieved in defiance of the colonial authorities’ attempts to impose European ways” (Duncan Green 90). “The polytheism of native religions enabled the indigenous people to integrate Catholic tradition into their own religious system” (Krutzinna 19). Krutzinna also notes in his book, Let's Go Central America, that there are other religious forces begin to undermine the dynamic relationship that has traditionally existed between Roma Catholicism and native religious beliefs. The trend of religions in Latin America may to be more diversified in the following decades.
Annotated Bibliography
Brea, Jorge A. “Population Dynamics in Latin America”. Population Bulletin. Vol. 58, No.1. Washington: the Population Reference Bureau, 2003.
This Population Bulletin offers readers a chance to see how Latin America's population composition in varied dimensions. It also helps readers to analysis the meaning behind the data. Also, Population Bulletin discusses many of the aspects of the Latin America population, including population growth, continued immigration and colonization, changes in the family, and population growth outside urban areas.
Chaplik, Dorothy. Latin American Arts & Cultures. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2001.
This is an introduction book for Latin American Arts and Cultures. The author use data and pictures demonstrate the art and religion, old pyramids and architecture, statues, murals and textiles, ceremonial art and the modern life style. From this book, readers may have a direct image of Arts and Cultures of Latin America and the people there, without being there personally.
Green, Duncan. Faces of Latin America. London: Latin America Bureau, 1997.
This is an introduction book of Latin America, including trade, land, environment, culture, identity and politics. Each introduction of the aspects is given by a related article.
Krutzinna, Benjamin. Let's Go Central America. Cambridge: Let's Go, 2002.
This book actually is a tourist’s guide for traveling around the world. As one of the serial books published by Let’s Go publisher, it provide reader useful and precious information about Latin America and point out the way of how to have a nice travel there. Furthermore, the historical introduction is also provided by this book, in order to help tourists to thoroughly understand the indigenous people and culture.
Kramer, Paul and Robert Mcnicoll. Latin American Panorama. New York: G.P.PUTNAM’S SONS, 1968.
This is an anthology book, which include some articles about Latin America. Readers could find the characteristics of the Latin America in different respects.
