Is "Latin America" part of the "west"?

[viewit]

Latin America is very much part of the West.  Especially considering that "The West" is a cultural/civilizational term--it has nothing to do with wealth, economics, or political orientation. 

True, in economics Latin America is generally "developing" (or in older more loaded terminology third world), and it may not be "aligned", or even socialist (Cuba)-- but throughout history, other western nations have been autocratic and centralized (France of Louis XIV, Nazi Gemany, East Germany, etc...).  In fact autocracy, feudalism, and other non-liberal traditions are very much part of western tradition.

Perhaps, there is a bit of a problem with how we use this word in the English-speaking world.  We have The West (civilization), also "The West" which is another thing altogether having to do with NATO and being opposed to the USSR, generally in a camp with the US.  Perhaps, in German it is expressed better.  The West as a civilization is "Das Abendland" (land of the evening), and "the West" as a political grouping is "Der Westen"--two different words, no confusion.  So, for example, Poland could be part of "Das Abendland" but not part of "Der Westen".  By the same token, Mexico can be part of The West (Abendland) but also be a developing nation.

Any talk of people's skin color in these countries is totally beside the point.  Latin America--largely catholic, products of Spanish colonialism, rooted in judeo-cristian and greco-roman culture, much like the ex-British colonies (i.e. the USA, Australia, etc...).  In fact, it could be argued that Latin America is more "western" than the US since the US stems from Britain, which has historically been more of an outlier in European culture--at least as much as Russia.  Though, I would certainly consider the US or Britain as part of the West.

The fact that the Spanish in the past talked about going to Europe as if it were somewhere else was also something that happened in Socialist Poland, at various times in Scandinavia, even in Britain--where people look at the continent as another sort of place.  This is all due to various historical and geographical reasons--Scandinavia, Spain, and Britain are on the edge of Europe.  Poles felt a bit isolated behind the iron curtain.  But, it never really meant that they felt they were not part of Europe or Western Civilization, it was just a way to highlight their feeling of isolation at that time.

[viewit]

 Tnowacki, Poland absolutely is part of "Der Westen" now, obviously because of EU, NATO.  But 25 years ago it wasn't--neither were the GDR, Hungary, etc... Of course, that just shows how shallow political allignment is.  However, civilization is much deeper, and in that sense Poland was always part of The West (Abendland).  I think it can be argued that Russia and Greece are also part of the civilizational West, though they are more problematic--mostly due to the Eastern Orthodox religion, though with it still being Christianity, and their having connections to the Greco-Roman civilization they are also rather western.  Latin America certainly is without a doubt.  And if in some parts of Latin America indigenous traditions have survived (that are not particularly western), various corners of Europe are full of little folk traditions that are just as "non-Western" too (Baltic, Celtic folkways, etc...)--in that they are not Greco-Roman or Judaeo-Christian in origin.  Each Western country has a bit of its own local color.