The video you watched about the DNAself-replicating material present in living organisms- the main constituent of chromosomes- the carrier of genetic information More findings shows you a fraction of the complex and diverse civilizations that are in the Latin American cultural region. Other Indigenous peoples like the Maya, the Aztec, Inca, and others also had unique cultures, languages, and societal structures. The pre-Columbian period had a wide variety of cultural expressions, including artthe expressive or application of human creative skill and imagination in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, or in music, literature, or dance; art is created primarily for beauty and emotional power; and "holds art is anything the viewer or listener finds aesthetically pleasing.", music, religionbelief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe; a personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship; a set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader, and social organizations, some of which you saw in the film.
The Colonial Period lasted from the 15th to the 19th centuries. The European conquest by Spain and Portugal began at the beginning of the 15th century and led to the imposition of European languages, religions, and social structures. The result was a blending of the occupying cultures with the Indigenous cultures.
When conquerors enter new territories, they bring items from their own countries, such as plants, animals, and diseases. The introductions have a profound impact not only on the Indigenous populations but also on the region’s environments and ecosystems. The exchange of animals, plants, and diseases by the colonists, became known as the Columbian Exchange.
Another important “exchange” was the transatlantic slave trade, which began in the early 16th century when the Portuguese completed the first slave voyage to Brazil in 1526. The slave trade brought millions of Africans to Latin America. This contributed even more to the cultural region’s diversitythe state of being diverse or different, variety and/or diversity is more than exhibiting "different" outward appearances; diversity is often much more about cultural differences. Such diversity was the Afro-Latin American cultures, again blending with European and Indigenous cultures. More blending also allowed for intermarriage between Europeans, Indigenes, and Africans. This kind of blending led to redefining populations as mestizo (mixed marriages and cultures). Mestizo became the defining feature of Latin American cultureculture is not genetically inherited, it is shared, learned, and dynamic- never static.
In 1685, a movement known as the Enlightenment began to shine on many people’s everyday lives. Seventeenth-century precursors included the writings and philosophies of two Englishmen, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes. Rene Descartes joined this movement in France. Then, there were the philosophers of the Scientific Revolution, including Galileo, Kepler, and Leibniz. Ships were going back and forth across the oceans and carrying these new ideals of liberty, equality, and self-governance. The messages weren’t carried as quickly as they are today, but such new ideas were hard to keep under wraps, and they fueled thoughts of independence across Latin America.
Wars of independence made different factions want to establish their own territories. This led to the establishment of new and independent nations, which came with the price of internal conflicts and instability. Political instability was prominent in the new and independent nations of Latin America, leading to dictatorships, coups, and other economic developments, which impacted all populations. After the wars of independence ended, many Latin American countries became dependent upon exporting raw materials to Europe and the United States, which led to economic inequalities. These inequalities led to labor movements, peasantthe word peasant was formally defined by Eric Wolf, cultural anthropologist, who insisted that peasants were no more than "rural cultivators" whose surpluses are transferred to a dominant group of rulers who uses the surpluses to underwrite their own standard of living and in turn distributes the remainder to other groups in the society who do not farm, but need to be fed because they produce goods and services useful to the society as a whole uprisings, and Indigenous rights movements, which challenged the existing social and economic structures. Independence is fiercely sought but not without rumblings and internal misgivings after the “fight” is over.
All of these uproarious activities led populations to search for their own unique and distinct Latin American identitythe name of a person, along with the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or a group different from others. Searching for identities was revealed in art, literature, and intellectual life. This longing and searching for cultural identitya person's sense of connection to a group or culture, shaped by shared beliefs, values, traditions, and customs, impacting how people see themselves and interact with others More in the 1900s led to the Mexican Revolution. It had a profound impact on Mexican societya group of people who are all interdependent and interconnected by their cultural connections; they live in patterned ways and their behaviors in various circumstances are well established; for instance in the Western world most people adhere to lines (cue) at bus stops, or movie theaters, or when checking out at a grocery store; patterned and regular ways of doing things are expected and accepted and culture, leading to both land reforms and an emphasis on Indigenous traditions.
In 1953-1959, there was the Cuban Revolution, which led to the establishment of a Communist socialist statea state is an independent political entity with a centralized government and set geographical boundaries where control is exercised by police or military; a state claims the right to defend itself from both internal and external threats by use of force; a state may have many villages and cities and/or millions or billions of people as in China and India. Communism in Cuba has had a significant impact on Latin American politics as well as culture. Next, from 1975 to 1983, was Operation Condor. This was a coordinated campaign of political repression and assignation attempts by dictators in South America. Human rights and the region’s cultural fabric were negatively impacted.
Here we are in the globalized 21st century, which has both opportunities and challenges for Latin American cultures. Global trends make it hard to preserve local traditions. Migrations within and out of Latin America are leading to cultural exchanges and the formation of new communities. This is not only happening in the Global Villagea place in the world where your ancestor may have lived, the world is divided into cultural areas, each area designated as a global village, see the Global Villages Map. of Latin America but also in other Global Villageson this site Global Villages are representatives of the 11 dominant culture regions, as designated by cultural geography maps around the world.