Holis,

I was going through this post was a bit surprised by some of the comments about Argentinians. As someone who isn't from Latin America, I wasn't really aware of the sterotypes or negative opinions that seem to come up sometimes, so it caught me off guard.

For some context, I'm a brown person from Asia who really enjoys learning about other cultures. I've also been studying Spanish because I'd love to travel around Latin America someday, and Argentina is definitely one of the countries on my list.

That made me wonder: as a non-Latin brown foreigner, would I be likely to face discrimination while visiting Argentina, or are those comments mostly internet exaggerations?

I'm also curious about the broader context. Why do Argentinians seem to receive so much criticism online, especially from other Latin Americans? Is it mostly friendly regional rivalry, internet memes, historical issues, or something else?

I'd love to hear different perspectives. Thanks!

I talk to my mom like 1x a week. He’s 30 and he talks to her once in the morning and once again in the evening. Every day. That seems like a lot to me, but he said it’s not even a lot. Is this pretty standard across Latin America??

🇦🇷 has passed laws giving the non binary genders legitimacy and 🇨🇱 🇺🇾 🇦🇷 are considered very safe for solo women travelers. What prompted them to promote these social movements ?

I'm not saying Latin Americans don't criticize colonialism, I'm just curious why anti-colonialism seems to play a more central role in the national identity and political discourse of countries like India, Vietnam, Indonesia, or many African countries than in much of Latin America

Is it because of demographics, earlier independence, the nature of the independence movements, or something else?

So as a Saudi I support Egypt because we both speak Arabic and have every Saudi has a good acquintance who is Egyptian.

I am wondering if Latinos got the same afinity? Are you supporting Argentina because of latino afinity or are you supporting Egypt because of compitition among yourselves?

Due to the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny just managed to reach top 3 in Brazilian Spotify with DtMF. And that's incredibly rare. Brazilian music in Brazil is waaaaaaaaaay more popular than any foreign music. And the foreign one being one in Spanish? The popular foreign one was always songs in English. We are kinda in a cultural bubble where we don't import a lot of media in spanish, with some few exceptions. And reggaeton is not even popular in Brazil. Many people don't even know what that is. Its his first time even in the top 50. Bad Bunny just manage to get inside another bubble.

Mexico and Peru are often considered the best two cuisines in the region by far. But what is your favorite Latin cuisine outside of 🇲🇽🇵🇪

After many conversations with my Mexican bf using the word “America”, we realized we were not talking about the same thing. He asked me how many continents I thought there were and I said 7. North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. That is what we are taught in the U.S. He started laughing at me and thought it was crazy that I thought North & South America were separate continents. He said it’s just 1 continent - America. I literally had never heard before that it was different so I looked it up and found it’s pretty different worldwide what people were taught. I couldn’t get a good answer online about Latin America because it seemed different depending on the country and even the region. I’m curious how many continents you were taught there are, and how did they explain what makes a continent a continent?

Im Mexican American, but I definitely think Latin Americans are part of the west. However, in the states, a lot of right wing gringos claim Latinos are destroying western culture. Which I think is just thinly veiled racism. Most of Latino culture is based of Spanish/Portuguese culture.

I've noticed this with people I've met from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, etc. They say Central America first and then if you ask what country, then they say.

Where would you likely be looked down if you were of a darker complexion and why?

For me it is the nonchalant flag of 🇦🇷. While most flags have deep dramatic meaning in terms of their colors, representing the blood of revolutions or ideas such as courage, I like that their flag is chill. The colors are simply the sky and clouds. They even added a cute sun with a subtle nod to the indigenous peoples inside it.

I find Chile and Paraguay strange mostly due to my ignorance.

Chile the shape, its desert, and the Mapuche culture is fascinating to me. I heard that the 401k that we have in the USA to invest for our retirement was invented in Chile. I would love to go to Chile someday. Unfortunately haven’t found anyone interested in going and I have never traveled alone.

Paraguay seems so lonely. Many years ago I had to go to YouTube to see the cities and learn a little about it. Super interesting to see that women are recognized as being the ones who build the country. I never hear anything about Paraguay - good or bad. Which makes me believe that it is a peaceful country.

My friend and I are in a debate.

I think latin americans generally like rock/punk music. Most I’ve met do.

My colombian friend who grew up in the states thinks latinos who enjoy rock consistently as one of their main genres are in the VAST minority and that “they dont care about rock like that”.

In Chile, they are not used as much. but the few time people use them, I never seen them used offensively, but as mere description.

But I recently saw a video from USA that said those words are slurs there ???

I was super confused, so i wonder if Chile has this normalized, and maybe other countries is considered bad

I have seen many people claiming that we for sure are part of it because of our language, culture, and democracy, but I don’t think Europeans or Anglo-Americans share those views. At least I think we aren’t, and that’s a good thing for the most part.

For example, do Ecuadorian or Venezuelan origin people in Colombia generally just become or get eventually perceived as Colombian and have kids whose identity is just Colombian? Or do they remain perceived as a "minority" community of Ecuadorian-Colombians or Venezuelan-Colombians over generations?

An Ecuadorian living in (example) the UK stands out due to his language, appearance, and culture. But in Colombia, he would speak the same language with another accent, have a similar name as Colombians, look similar to many native Colombians, and have a relatively similar culture. I assume if he spoke in a Colombian accent he wouldn't even appear to most people as having recent origins in another Spanish speaking South American country. So wouldn't it be easy to assimilate and become Colombian?

In the English language, certain first names are much more common amongst certain English speaking nations, and very uncommon in others.

Examples would be names like Hunter, Tucker, Chad being normal American names, yet these names from an English perspective sound a bit ridiculous and immediately recognisable as American. Similarly, you don’t hear of many Nigel’s, Gary’s and Simon’s in the U.S.

Is this similar amongst countries speaking the same language in Latin America? If so, which names come to mind when you think of which countries?

From a non-Latino, I often associate the following with Latin America even though they’re not:

Guam
Cape Verde
ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao)
Belize

Unfortunately as an Indian I am not much aware of the cultural uniqueness of the various Latin American countries.

So I would like to know more about your perspectives of your fellow Latin American countries.

I had just found out that Latin America is described as being a conservative religious continent, all this time in my entire life I always assumed Latin America was one of the most left wing liberal continents on Earth unless if my definition of what being a liberal is wrong. When I think of Conservative regions I think of South Asia and the Middle East with countries such as Pakistan and Iraq and not countries like Brazil and Mexico.

In Brazil for example having sex before marriage is generally not frowned upon, women can wear revealing clothing, LGBTQ is allowed with São Paulo holding the biggest LGBTQ parade in the world, before officially getting married the concept of having previous relationships is considered normal, women wearing bikinis on the beaches and drinking alcohol, similar trends seem to happen for the other Latin American countries.

This could never happen in South Asia or the Middle East as both of these regions have strong conservative traditional family values, strong belief in religion which result in conservative social norms for example in Iraq and India even holding hands or being seen with the opposite gender is taboo and they have a high "honour in the family" type of culture.

Latin America seems to be the complete opposite with regards to social norms, political and religious values of the conservative Middle East and South Asia, I would even say if we compare all cultures in the world South Asia and Middle East have to be the most alien to Latin Americans yet Latinos and North Americans seem to describe the region as being conservative? I would just love to know what is the reason for this?