Modern Latin American Culture

Abstract

A MATTER of some significance in the modern world which has not perhaps been fully explored is the probability, amounting almost to a self-evident fact, that two large and distinct areas of culture have developed and are continuing to develop in the Western Hemisphere. Northward of the boundary of Mexico we find the great area of Anglo-American culture (to use the term frequently employed by Latin American writers and other outside observers), whereas Middle and South America comprise the region of Latin American culture (to use no more picturesque term). It does not seem that we are engaging in empty polemics when we say that one of the reasons for the difficulty of North Americans in understanding the Latin Americans better than we do is our failure to recognize or to identify properly the cultures of Latin America as cultures in their own right. It is at least a tenable hypothesis that we make a fundamental error when we assume that Latin America is on the road toward developing into merely a Spanish-speaking version of the United States. Of course, it may be said, and with considerable truth, that we do not understand ourselves from the cultural point of view. Perhaps we do not sufficiently understand culture as culture, despite the labors of the social anthropologists and other social scientists. But these are matters which cannot be debated within the restricted scope of this article. At least North Americans have some familiarity with their own culture, even though they may not understand fully its basic patterns and premises. And on the basis of their own mode of life they are often wont to make snap judgments concerning the fundamental configurations of the patterns of living south of the border. This has often proven to be a serious error, not only on the personal level, but also and more spectacularly, in the realm of national policy. Since a culture is an organization of patterns of custom whereby people think and carry out the activities of daily life, a realistic comprehension of what is going on in Latin America has the pragmatic values of enabling us to understand what happens there after the fact and to come nearer to a reliable prediction of events before the fact, to mention no other advantages. It is always dangerous to generalize briefly about cultures except on the basis of the soundest and most complete analysis of facts gathered in the field and from other sources. Therefore, the present remarks concerning Latin American culture and certain of its regional and substantive aspects are explicitly tentative; they are hypotheses, as it were, amenable to testing by more research. In fact, their main purpose is to serve as guides for the collection and analysis of more data according to modern methods. First, it seems that both North America and Latin America share a sufficient number of certain patterns to enable them to be included within the area and broad general pattern of that culture we call Western Civilization. When that is said, however, it would appear that they represent varieties, and rather divergent ones at that, of this general organization of life. They follow different roads; they use distinct vehicles. Our tendency and that of most Europeans has been to identify the modern way of life in Latin America, either with some indigenous configuration or with European civilization in one or other of its European national traditions. We have persisted in viewing the Latin Americans either as degenerate Indians struggling with the ruins of a conquest-wrecked native culture or as tainted Iberians fumbling with the traditions of Spain and Portugal. It is as if, since cake contains appreciable amounts of sugar and beaten eggs, we should refuse to recognize it as an angel food cake, but insist on considering it