Portal:Latin America

Latin America was a name coined by "Emperor of Mexico" Maximilian I in an effort to gain legitimacy, since his patron, Napoleon III, spoke French, a Latinate tongue like Spanish and Portuguese. Maximilian did not last, but the coinage of "Latin America" is one of the most successful of all time. Latin America is traditionally defined as the regions of the Americas where Spanish, the language of Spain, and Portuguese, the language of Portugal, were spoken -- in other words, every part of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of Suriname and a few small islands that speak Dutch, that was not Anglo America. (English is a Germanic language.) Therefore, virtually all of the Western Hemisphere except the United States, Canada, and the non-Hispanophone countries of the Caribbean and South America have tended to come under the heading of Latin America. Other areas where languages derived from Latin, such as Papiamento and Creole, predominate are sometimes included and sometimes excluded from Latin America, depending on the speaker. See also: Latino, Hispanic, and Ibero-America Show new selections below (purge) Selected panorama Panorama of The Ruins of Sacsayhuamán, a main sight in the City of Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire and Peru. It is a major tourist destination and receives almost 1.5 million visitors a year. Selected article ARA Moreno was a dreadnought battleship (Spanish: acorazado) designed by the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company for the Argentine Navy (Armada de la República Argentina). Named after Mariano Moreno, a key member of the first independent government of Argentina, the First Assembly (Primera Junta), Moreno was the second ship in the Rivadavia class. Argentina placed orders for Moreno and her only sister ship, Rivadavia, in response to a Brazilian naval building program and border disputes, particularly in the River Plate area. During their construction, the two dreadnoughts were subject to numerous rumors involving Argentina selling the two battleships to a country engaged in the First World War, but these proved to be false. After Moreno was completed in March 1915, a series of engine problems occurred during her sea trials which delayed her delivery to Argentina to May 1915. The next decade saw the ship based in Puerto Belgrano as part of the Argentine Navy's First Division before sailing to the United States for an extensive refit in 1924 and 1925. During the 1930s the ship was occupied with diplomatic cruises to Brazil, Uruguay, and Europe until the Second World War broke out. During this time, Moreno was employed little as Argentina was neutral. Decommissioned in 1949, Moreno was scrapped in Japan beginning in 1957. Did you know... ... that an unrecognized state called The Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia was established in the 19th century by a French lawyer and adventurer named Orélie-Antoine de Tounens? ... Juan Vucetich, an Argentine chief police officier, created the first method of recording the fingerprints of individuals on file? ... that seven currencies of Latin America are named "peso"? Subportals for geopolitical entities Territories (in bold), dependencies, and subnational entities of a country not located primarily in Latin America are italicized. Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic French Guiana Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Martinique Mexico Montserrat Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Puerto Rico Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Uruguay Venezuela Latin American News February 19, Ecuador: Lenín Moreno defeats Guillermo Lasso (both pictured) in the Ecuadorian general election, but both will go to a runoff election.The Guardian October 2, Colombia: A referendum rejected the peace deals with the FARC (pictured), by 50.2% to 49.8%.BBC August 25, Colombia: The Colombian conflict comes to an end with a peace deal between the government of Colombia and the FARC.The Guardian August 5, Brazil: The 2016 Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro. June 7, Peru: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski narrowly defeats Keiko Fujimori in the presidential elections.The Guardian May 31, Organization of American States: Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States, request an evaluation of democracy in venezuela, which may cause their suspension from the body.The Guardian May 31, Brazil: Fabiano Silveira, minister of acting president Michel Temer, resigns after scandal of leaked tapes.The Guardian Selected picture Portrait of an Argentine gaucho, a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil. 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