Abstract

This essay focuses on Latin American culture and its relationship to the notions of cultural identity and dependence. The objective is to analyze the particular characteristics of this culture which bring out a regional identity, although it is generally recognized as a marginal one, a subculture dependent on a dominate culture, that of the European countries. The “conquest” of America by Spain and other European powers is a fact that marks the beginning of Latin America’s cultural dependence on Europe, which remains today as an overall prejudice in the literature. The dimensions and characteristics of Latin American culture can be analyzed as an argument the case that despite being born as a subculture dependent on a dominate culture the region’s development incorporated native traits that gave Latin American culture its own identity. The theoretical concepts of modernity and postmodernity are also considered, as their deep cultural content is an essential reference in any socio-cultural and philosophical debate of the 20th and 21st centuries.