For Americans, what do you really think of Latin Americans?

I'm originally from Costa Rica, but lived in both the US and Canada

The US has always had a major xenophobia problem, even in progressive areas and even before Trump. I grew up in a red area of a blue state before moving to the city. My experience growing up was horrible. Cops are relentless and will try to fabricate evidence to ruin your life if you're Hispanic. There's no nuance. Everyone called me Puerto Rican or Mexican by default, even friends.

Canada is different, Costa Rica has a much stronger presence here and people are much more aware of it (though I've yet to actually meet any other Costa Ricans). My experience as a latina has been better by comparison, though unfortunately it's because a lot of the racism and xenophobia gets directed at South Asian people instead. Not to say Canada is perfect (and obviously it varies by area), but Canadians are generally just more pleasant to be around.

Biggest pet peeve is when people think texmex is traditional Hispanic food. Fuck off with that hard shell BS

People are people, some good, some bad. Love learning about the cultural differences and mythos though!

I do get annoyed when anyone lumps the cuisine just 'Mexican food'! They're all SO DIFFERENT!

I have no opinion because "Latin Americans" are human just like me. They have the same struggles, the same worries, the same joys, the same priorities. Their game pieces are the same; it's only where on the board they put them that's different.

 

To paint a whole group of literal hundreds of millions of people spanning across a geographic region of 1½–2 continents (depending on reckoning)

 

and twenty countries

 

is utter nonsense.

Optimi sunt.

Jokes aside, they're just people like the rest of us, by and large. Except for the Quebecoise...

Okay jokes aside for real this time, Latin America is too big and diverse to lump together. There's a few commonalities, like:

• soccer / futbol
• jus soli citizenship
• good food

...but two out of three of those you'll also find in Anglo-America.

I’m mainly just sad about the history of US coups in the region! Not to mention all the Caribbean colonialism before USA as well.

What do I think about latinos? They’re people? I’m interested in learning more about the Zapatistas. I appreciate the diversity of Latino culture too. Idk hth

I don't

Any more than I think about Canadians, or Italians, or Welsh, or Czech.

When pushed, best I got is "you do you"

I know some pretty stupid Americans and they know that Mexico isn't the only Latin American country, if someone says that to you they're probably being dumb on purpose

Many people think Mexico is the only country that exists,

No, some people that you know think that "many people" believe that...

It doesn't make it true

I don't know much about the smaller ones. Im lucky enough to live in a large metro area. I have met people and eaten at restaurants and they are all different outside of many of them speaking spanish. cuba, mexico, brazil, argentina, peru, chile. Now granted I have met many, many, people whose parents or grandparents came from mexico and only a few from the other countries. So not exactly massive sample sizes. Not surprising everyone would seem different.

Ngl I assumed "latin america" was just a synonym for "south america" before I looked it up just now.

So... I know I might be wrong but my mental image is just: spanish speaking + developing countries, and a vibe like the portrayal of Mexico in the media

I mean when you don't have much info, the only thing thats sticks in your mind is just mass media depictions, and honestly I don't know too much about them.

As of the people? Please excuse me for the streotyping but the "Machismo" thing comes to mind... again its probably because the media portrayals that got stuck in my mind.

I don't view people as any better or worse, I as an immigrant and minority have faced racism and xenophobia, and having grown up in an environment of diversity and multiculturalism, I've learned to be more accepting.

I dunno, but the majority of interactions I've had with visiting, or immigrated, latin Americans has been great. I know that doesn't necessarily indicate anything other than me maybe having good luck, but it has left me with a default stance of friendliness and welcome for folks from the rest of the continent/s.

In terms of exposure, yeah, most of my interactions have been with Mexicans. We have a really big Mexican population in the area.

But we also have sizable contingents of Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Guatemalans, and a smattering of Brazilians, with a few from most of the other south American countries. Never met a Peruvian though. One of my best friends is a second generation Nicaraguan immigrant, and you'll never meet a better guy.

Now, in terms of deep exposure to the cultures of central and south Americas, it's mainly Nicaraguan for me, plus Mexican for the North American contingent. I really love the experiences I've had with my friend's family, so definitely a fan of Nicaraguan food and at least their iteration of the traditions.

I also really appreciate how community driven the Mexicans in my neighborhood are. There's almost always a gathering of some kind in a given week, and they're all really open to neighbors dropping in and chilling. Great food, great music, and they don't make fun of badly mangled Spanish. My neighbors next door were having a small get together today, so there was music going while I was in the yard working, and it was really nice. A mix of tejano, norteño, and mariachi. I dunno what they were cooking, but it smelled amazing at least.

Are there some friction points? Yeah, of course. A lot of the machismo stuff can get old fast. There's also a fairly conservative religious skew that can be difficult to navigate, what with me being a pretty damn staunch lgbtq+ rights proponent. But even there, I've not run into hatred often, more the kind of cultural prejudice that's also present in us culture to begin with.

But I can say this much for sure. If the cultures and people that still live south of the us match what I've experienced here, then I consider those folks good neighbors too.

There's only one right answer.

I forget who does the dancing in costumes with bells sewn on?

They are smarter than I am. I could never properly conjugate "Romans go home".

in my own life, I've only met Chileans and Argentinians with good enough English that I could have conversations with them. we VERY RARELY will get news written by Brazilians. with the language barrier, our understanding of the south is pretty heavily influenced by narrative and rumored stereotypes.

but also it's like, I feel pretty confident that if you asked the average American what continent Guyana is on, there's a 50/50 chance they'll get it wrong.

I think it has to do more with experience in the USA.

For a large part of the USA, Mexicans are the dominant immigrant group. Americans also have the most experience with portions of Mexican cuisine that they don't have with other regions. So, people hear Latin American and auto complete to Mexican because that is what they know.

I guess theyre less annoying than people who ask stupid questions baiting blanket responses for retire demographics which natively spans multpile continents accross oceans of seperation.

Latin Americans are Americans, last I checked.

I know more low-information, backwoods, ignorant, redneck losers than I can possibly count, and I literally do not know anybody thinks Mexico is the only country that exists. It's just that they don't care to differentiate or acknowledge the difference when they refer to anybody and everybody with a "latino" appearance as "Mexicans".