Why are South and Central American countries that was colonised by the Spanish called Latin countries?

Question

As far as I know, Latin is ancient language from the regiion Latium. But Latin is not spoken by the South and Central American people. They speak Spanish. So why?

I looked up wikipedia, and all the replies are correct, but does not form the whole picture. A combination of the 3 answers will be more correct. As such I'm unable to decide the beast answer.

Sorry guys, but thanks very much for your answers. It has cleared up a lot for me.

Answer 1

Actually, the term "Latin America" refers to all parts of the Americas (North and South America and the Caribbean) where Spanish *or* Portuguese are spoken, as well as (optionally) a couple of French-speaking areas (French Guiana, Martinique, etc.) south of the United States. They are called "Latin America" because Spanish, Portuguese, and French are all languages that descended from Latin.

Answer 2

It is because French intellectuals wanted to make France important in America (North and South) when they really didn't do anything in the discovery and colonization of America. They invented the term Latin America to make French influence here.

The real words should be Hispanic o IberoAmerica (from the Iberian peninsula where Spain and Portugal are). Only English or French speakers talk about Latin America.

Mr. Tim C, I know what I am talking about, and the only people who declares themselves as Latinos basically are Puerto Rican or Dominican people in the United States. And this is caused because the MSM, main stream media used this term profusely. You almost never heard someone from Central America or Mexico call themselves Latin. And usually the adjective refers to Music or food or any kind of mistaken stereotype.

Answer 3

Latin was the official language of Rome, the following languages are primarily descended from Latin and are known as Latin or Romance languages... Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, French, Catalan, Romansch & a few others.

wazup1971 doesn't know what he's talking about. I have often heard speakers of other "Latin" languages refer to themselves as "Latino".