Latin America and the Caribbean

The term Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)[1] is an English-language acronym referring to the Caribbean and Latin American region. The term LAC covers an extensive region, extending from The Bahamas and Mexico to Argentina and Chile. The region have over 670,230,000 people as of 2016, and spanned for 21,951,000 square kilometres (8,475,000 sq mi).

Map of Latin America and the Caribbean

List of countries and territories by subregion

Caribbean
Main article: Caribbean
See also: Southern Caribbean

Scattered islands in the Caribbean Sea
Further information: List of Caribbean islands

* Disputed territories administered by Colombia.

West Indies
Main article: West Indies
Antilles
Main article: Antilles
Greater Antilles
Main article: Greater Antilles
Lesser Antilles
Main article: Lesser Antilles
See also: Leeward Antilles, Leeward Islands, and Windward Islands
Lucayan Archipelago
Main article: Lucayan Archipelago

Latin America
Main article: Latin America

Central America
Main article: Central America
See also: Middle America

† The UN geoscheme includes Mexico in Central America.[2]

South America
Main article: South America

* Disputed territories administered by the United Kingdom.

† The UN geoscheme includes Bouvet Island, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in South America instead of Antarctica.

Somewhat are included

Economy

It is estimated to attribute for over 400 billion dollars that form the core for economic stability, however, a few countries, notably Venezuela, is a member state of OPEC.

Instability

The region has a unique history and varied between stability to instability, included various deadly conflicts, though its level remains conflicted. The two deadliest conflicts in the region are the Colombian conflict and the Mexican drug war; and more recently, the crisis in Venezuela. Some other bloody conflicts include the internal conflict in Peru and gang wars in Argentina, Brazil, and Honduras. Other conflicts include the Mapuche conflict in Argentina and Chile; and the Insurgency in Paraguay. These conflicts, however, have received lesser attentions from international media, and varied by time, with Colombia in headline in 1990s, Mexico in the 2000s and currently, Venezuela.

Culture

Religion
See also: Religion in Latin America, Religion in the Caribbean, Religion in South America, List of religious populations, and List of Gurdwaras in South America

Most countries are dominated by Christianity, the largest being Roman Catholic. Smaller groups include Protestantism (including Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses) and Orthodoxy and other forms of Christianity. There are many venerated folk saints and folk religions namely folk catholicism as well as african diaspora religions (syncretic african traditional religions) as well as Native American religions including shamanism. Many folk healers also practice folk magic. Specific Creole peoples often have their own religions/spiritual practices like the Maroons's Rastafarianism and Garifuna's belief system (or New Orleans Voodoo and Melungeon in North America).

Especially in the Caribbean, Central America and Brasil, there are Jewish (including Messianic Jews), Muslim, Hindu, Baháʼí Faith (especially in Panama, Bolivia and Belize), Buddhist, Shinto and Romani mythology, Chinese folk religion, Dravidian folk religion (among others) practitioners. The Muslims and especially Jews and Gitanos are often descendants of the peoples forced into Crypto-Judaism and Crypto-Islam (and even Crypto-Paganism, for lack of a better term) from the Reconquista. There most likely is Sikh and Jainist groups (and possibly even smaller Zoroastrianism, Samaritan and Druze groups). There is also a growing movement of unitarian universalism/new age/neo-paganism-type unorganized spirituality; goddess worship is especially popular with younger, often progressive people like feminists. Again, these movements are often also syncretic, such as Pachamama or other Pre-Columbian Deity worship. Atheism/Agnosticism is quite dichotomous with a few countries having high percentages, but most are small and may be growing slowly.

Music
See also: Music of Latin America and List of Caribbean music genres

The region is extremely popular for its own distinct music which can't be found somewhere in the world. Began since the conquest of Spain, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal in 15th century, due to the greater diversification including indigenous, Asian, African and European population merged, it expanded popularity of their music, dated from 1950s and rampant globalization, music from the region has become widely noticed, and has been nominated for several music awards.[3]

Sports

The region is rich at sporting activities, especially in association football, which have some of the world's strongest football teams like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, etc.; though baseball, tennis, cycling, volleyball, rugby union, basketball, hockey, and cricket, also gain recent popularity.

See also

References
  1. Latin America and the Caribbean
  2. UNSD Methodology – Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49)
  3. MUS305H1: Latin American and Caribbean Music
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