Why is it called "Latin America" when it's mostly Spanish spoken there?

Question

How did South America come to be be called "Latin America"? Latin isn't spoken anywhere anymore.

Answer 1

Quick answer: because Latin America is the region of the Americas where Romance languages (those derived from Latin) are officially or primarily spoken.

Answer 2

Because spanish is a derivative of Latin. Latin isnt spoken anywhere, but there are countries whose languages come very close and all of Latin America is the largest example. In the category of latin America also goes Mexico and Central America. Plus many people who come from these areas do not like to be referred to as Latin Americans so be careful who you word it to.

Answer 3

That's because Spanish and Portuguese (which are spoken in Latin America) have their origin in Latin. Many centuries ago Spain and Portugal were part of the Roman Empire and the influence of the language stayed.
By the way, not only South America is considered to be part of Latin America, you also have Central America and Mexico which is in North America.

Answer 4

Due to the fact that the Spanish language, and the various "dialects" of it, which are spoken throughout central America, south America, the islands, etc, is directly derived from old Latin. This is why it's called, or was originally called, "Latin America". It's the same as why many people will still refer to certain European countries, such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France for example, as "Latin" European countries. It's simply a linguistic definition. Italian and French are sometimes called the "Latin / Romance" languages, for example. It's kind of like how people call Jews and Arabs "Semites". They're not a separate "race" or anything like that, but it's a linguistic definition. Speakers, or descendants of speakers of, Semitic language(s).

I don't truly know where the term "Latino" came from. That could just as easily be applied to anyone who is a native speaker of or is a descendant of native speakers of any Latin-based language. Thus, we'd really have to call Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Frenchmen, even Romanians I believe, "Latinos" , at least here in America.

The central and South Americans though are really an ethnically-mixed people, speakers of a Latin-based language (Spanish, or Portuguese in some cases), and bearing a lot of "Latin European" DNA for sure due to their being the descendants of native American peoples conquered by "Latin", or "Hispanic", Europeans. But also they definitly retaina good bit of their native American "blood" as well, which is sometimes more visible in appearance than others. Some of the Caribbean islanders will have a degree of African in them as well, due to mixtures over generations with slaves brought over there from West Africa, which is why for example some Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans, etc, are dark, sometimes even vaguely African or African-American looking, while others look more Caucasian / European.

Answer 5

Both the Spanish and the Portuguese languages that are spoken in most of Latin-America are Romance languages, which means that they evolved from vulgar (popular) Latin.
To bring both Spanish and Portuguese under one denominator the term Latin (as in Latin-America) was invented, reflecting the Latin origins of the languages and the culture.
People from Latin-America call themselves and are called Latinos, a name they are proud of. Never make the mistake to include people from Spain in this group, they are just Spanish. The same goes for U.S. "Hispanics", who are direct descendants of Spanish immigrants and who have no connection with Latin-America.

Answer 6

They speak portuguese in Brazil, which is a huge chuck of Latin America. Obviously, that prohibits us from calling it "Spanish America". Add to this that in colonial times, there were french colonies as well. Since Spanish and Portuguese are both latin languages (they descend from Latin, just like Italian and French), Latin America seems to be a perfect way to describe the language "style" of the area.

Answer 7

Meriam is basically correct in that Latin America refers to countries in which the main languages are Romance Languages; languages dreived from Latin. Originally the term may have been applied to the French colonies in the Americas. Never-the-less people now usually associate the term with Spanish America now more commonly known as Hispano America.. Hispano America means only the regions in which Spanish is spoken. Ibero America means nations which derive their language and part of their culture from the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal. You could say Ibero America is Hispano America plus Brazil where Portuguse is spoken.Latin America includes Brazil, the Spanish speaking countries and everywhere that French or Patois derivitives of French are spoken in the Americas.

Latin America, in fact, includes parts of Canada, the U.S. (Louisiana), and Mexico in North America, all of Central America ( even Belize where the langauge is English) South America and most of the Carribean Islands where Spanish and French or Patois are spoken.

I find it amusing that people in Latin America are not aware that the French,Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and Rumanians of Europe are also Latins.

Answer 8

The original language was Latin, from there Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian sprung. These languages are called Romance languages. Anyone born in these countries are Latin descendants. Ergo Latin America was populated by the offspring's of these languages.

Answer 9

Spanish and Portuguese, the two principal languages of Latin America, are both languages that descended from Latin. "Latin America", then, is a term that is used to cover regions that speak both Spanish and Portuguese.

Answer 10

Spanish, like Portuguese, French, and Italian, is a "romance language," based on the language of Rome - Latin.

The dictionary says:

Main Entry: Latin America
Function: geographical name
1 Spanish America & Brazil
2 all of the Americas S of the United States
- Latin-American adjective
- Latin American noun

p.s. - but multiple goobers disagree - not that I'm particularly surprised