Latin American Culture

Latin American Culture

Latin America represents 1/10 of the world's population, and geographically can be located from the land extensions of Mexico, until the Patagonia at Argentina. Some of the most relevant elements of today's culture in Latin America are; Religion, Values, Attitudes, Social structure, Social stratification, Language and Gift-giving hospitality. The predominant religion throughout history in Latin America has been Catholicism. From big cities to small villages, churches, basilicas, and cathedrals are found. Catholicism left its mark, from customs and values to architecture and art. During many years in many countries the Catholic Church had power over all civil institutions, education, and law. Nowadays religion plays an important role in Latin America, but the church and the state are officially separated, and the practice of other religions is freely allowed. As the author of our book states; the "catholic church is an important pillar of these societies." Other important factors of Latin American culture are values and attitudes. As our author states, " Cultural attitudes toward such factors as time, age, education, and status reflect these values and in turn shape the behavior of and opportunities available to international businesses operating in a given culture." In Latin American culture time is seeing as space. As the video shows, punctuality is not as important as resolving some problems that may arise in the way. Latin America besides being influenced by immigrants, conquerors, and slaves is also influenced by the occidental world when talking about architecture. Cities have both colonial and modern influence. The clothing has also a western and traditional tendency. Other important aspects of Lati...

... middle of paper ...

...with Argentina might be easier than doing business with Ecuador that doesn't have the necessary infrastructure. Another important cultural difference that might impact business is the concept of time. In some big wealthy mega-cities in Latin America time is seeing as money. This fact might be very helpful for some companies that think of waiting as a waste of time. The size of the country might also be an important key factor that might impact international business operations. Large corporations might want to invest on a big city that might have more demand than to invest on a low population city such a Uruguay. Big companies might want to target that 12 million people that live in Lima as instead of only targeting the 8 million that live in Bogotá. It is facts like these that a business person must look for when thinking about conducting business with Latin America.