In today’s class, we went through an overview of the history of Latin America in the latest 500 years. A key take-away is that Latin America is statistically the most unequal region in the world and a rising middle class population. One reason behind this phenomenon was the entrenched structural inequalities by colonialism. Before occupation of colonial powers (Spain and Portugal), there were civilizations, such as the Aztec Empire, the Maya Empire, and the Inca Empire, throughout North and South America continent with large-scale agriculture and big urban spaces. The colonizers took advantage of Latin America as both planter and extractive colonies. This heavily influenced the economic, political, and social structure of the region. And even after the colonies gain independence in early 20th century, their economy and society were not able to break free from the control of former colonial powers (neo-colonialism).

Another take-away is that the culture of Latin America is not static. Similarly, both the place and the history of Latin America is not a result of a teleological process (Thomas Holloway). Instead of passively being influenced by the cultures of colonial powers, Latin America also impact these dominant cultures in an ongoing transculturation process.