How Much do Americans know about what happens in Latin America?

30 Agosto 2007
Who\'s responsible for America\'s ignorance about the rest ofthe world?
Eteena Tadjiogueu >
authenticated user Corresponsal

Hispanic culture is increasingly becoming popular and accepted by mainstream America.  When Colombian-born singer Shakira's song "La Tortura," featuring Alejandro Sanz, landed on the American music charts despite the fact that the song was completely in Spanish, Americans had to recognize the fastest growing segment of our population.

Shakira isn't the only thing from south of the border that has permeated American culture.  Reggaeton, Salsa music and dance and the emergence of foods containing dulce de leche (at stores like Starbucks) are a few of the many things that are no longer exclusive to Latin America. But what do Americans really know about the nations below our southern border, about Latin America's politics and history, and current events?

Despite the close proximity between the United States and Latin American, Americans really don't know much, or have the opportunity to learn about what's happening in the region. I consider myself a dedicated reader of international news but I must admit Latin America is one region that rarely catches my interest.

The only fact that I could conjure up about Chile when I was asked what I knew about the nation, was the name of the capital. I wasn't even 100% sure if I was thinking of the right country when I answered, "Santiago".

The "important" Latin American countries are Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil, and that's really only in relation to negative topics such as immigration, drug trafficking, crime and bad governance. 

I know that my theory that Americans are fairly ignorant about Latin America probably isn't surprising to most people outside the US who consider Americans ignorant in general to everything happening outside our borders, but I want to make sure I'm not completely underestimating the intelligence of my fellow citizens. I decided to ask a few friends some straight forward questions regarding some current events in the region.

It's always hard to say what "Americans" think or feel, because Americans are so diverse and come from so many different backgrounds. So I talked to three people of three different ethnicities. One of my friends, an African-American, refused to answer any of my questions because she has not watched the news in weeks and "doesn't know anything about anything."  My Mexican-American friend Judy correctly guessed the name of the current president of Venezuela, incorrectly guessed the name of the president of Mexico, and mistakenly gave the name of the president of Argentina when asked for the president of Chile. My Asian friend Kaye didn't know the names of the presidents of Venezuela, Chile or Mexico and stated that "the names are hard to pronounce" and that makes them harder to remember.

Both Judy and Kaye knew about the earthquake that has recently devastated Peru, and both also said that they wished American newspapers covered more issues related to Latin America because of personal connections to the region and because of a desire to learn more about the culture.

An interesting issue emerged when I asked both interviewees which area(s) of the world they thought American media covered the most. Judy thought that North America and Europe are the most covered because these two areas have the largest concentration of money and "superpower" status. Kaye however said that Europe and the Middle East were the most covered areas in American media, and felt that after September 11th the only issue of importance to many Americans became terrorism and immigration. 

When President Bush was elected in 2000 he pledged to make Latin America his top foreign policy priority. But then September 11th happened and Latin America has been largely ignored, like many other regions of the world.  Still, Latin America is so close in proximity to the US and in 2005 Hispanics became the largest minority in this nation. To better understand some of the complex issues that are emerging because of the influx of immigrants from Latin America, it couldn't hurt to know about the current political situations in the region.

It's a fact that the coverage of international issues and foreign reporting by American news organizations has significantly diminished in the past 20 years. It's more and more common for editors to have to fight to put an international story in a newspaper. So, it's not simply that Americans don't know much about what's happening in Latin America, we really don't know much about what's happening in a lot of places, and it's not entirely our fault.

The definition of news is changing rapidly in this country. Even you are reading this story online. The internet is quickly becoming the easiest way for many Americans to get their news. With the shift to cheaper ways to produce and spread news came smaller budgets for a newspaper to operate a foreign bureau in a city like Santiago. 

Now though Americans, and anyone with access to the internet, have the opportunity to not just read about international issues but go directly to the website of a newspaper in Ecuador and see what local journalists are writing about (that is if they speak Spanish or the paper is bi-lingual.) Journalism is undergoing significant changes that I believe will prove beneficial in the future to truly keeping Americans educated and informed. We want to know what's happening outside of our borders. We know what happens when we don't.

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Comentarios

Imagen de eduardo

hi::.

hi::.

well I'm a chilean n' I had the oportunity to live outside my county (europe and asia) ...one thing that impresed me was how much irish people know about us in southamerica.....in the case of vietnam ..wel they have their on world there...

the thing is ..people fom USA tha I 've met in my time abroad doesnt seem to be hungry to knowing about anything non related directly with their country ....like a buble (same thing I've founded with people from spain) ......true the are societys better educated than others an this have nothing to do with the amount of money or tecnology of those countrys....its about "to be hungry for knowing " to be curious" to wander.....thats a personal task 'cos the way to do it is accesible for all and never more easy than now just a "click of distance.......finally ...people from EEUU ...they drive the goverment that drives the world...so every single one of them have the responsability to KNOW! why what when and where ...about at list international afairs of eeuu politics and tactics.....only they have the tool to peace...and ignoranse is a good friend of fear ...and fear does it with agresion .......so ......that is a TASK ignored for too long and nothing is random about this sort of things.....they have to ask themself who is geting beneficiated with their ignoranse??? ..silence of a sleeping people is a good unvaluable for those who want to break rules and trusts

history allready showed us that .....several times

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