Where did the word "Latin America" came from?

I wouldn't say no european country is racially homogeneous. To me the term "Latino" trying to group every people speaking a Roman language has no value but linguistic. You would have to group Romania, France, Italy, 1/2 Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Italy in Europe and former French, Portuguese Africa and America.

What do they have in common?

 

 

That might be true, if it wasnt false.  If there is a "base language" of Christianity, it's  Greek or Hebrew. Latin is what one branch of what is collectively known as Christianity uses. What about Greek, Russian,Bulgarian,Armenian,Romanian, Ukranian etc... Orthodox, All or most Protestant Denominations, Pseudo-christian demononatins,( Mormonist, Jehova's witnesses, Christian Science). And they didnt exactly teach them to  " Read the holy Scriptures". If they had, then they probably wouldnt be worshiping giant granite crosses and native gods.

And what about the Phillipines? Dem. Republic of the Congo? Maronites in Lebanon? Should they not, by your definition be known as  Latin Asia, Latin Africa and Latin Middle-East respectively? How about  Maine and Boston? Shouldn't they be called Latin New England?

This can all be answered in one post, and it already has been answered here many times over. South and central America are known as "Latin America" because the majority Language throuout most of it( Guyana, Suriname, French Guayana, Belize and mosquito coast excluded) are ROMANce languages. Both Portuguese and Spanish have retained enough of Latin to be known as Latin derived. Maybe it dosnt explain anomolies such as Quebec and Equatorial Guinea, and maybe you, for some other reason refuse to believe it, but thats the one and only reason why Its known as "Latin America"

Quote \Pseudo-christian demononatins,( Mormonist /end quote

"
Pseudo-christian"
im sorry but mormans are indeed christian

Originally posted by phoenix_bladen Originally posted by Cywr I'v always wondered, could we not rightfully call Quebec "latin america"? I think its because in contemporary US culture, 'Latin' isn't merely a linguistic technicality, but an 'ethnic minority' thing, and the Quebecois are seen as 'white', and, even worse, Canadian . what do you mean ......even worst canadian ?  i am english-canadian and i find your comments very offending... so stfu

And one of the less humorous Candians on the forums to boot.

If it needs to be spelt out in plain English:
Americans (the USA variety) are not about to start percieving French-Canadians as 'Latin', when the US's Latin gaze is firmly fixed facing south, add to that the fact that Canadian's' be they French or otherwise are pretty much just Canadian in the mainstream US cultural imagination, and that French, despite its semi-Latin roots, isn't part of the generic South/Central America package and hence 'Latin America' package, and there's your answer.

The 'even worse' gag was a play on the old stereotype of American's not taking Canada very seriously. Whether its completly true or not i don't know.

Originally posted by Jalisco Lancer      Cwyr:    well, some people may disagree with me on this regards but, the Hispanic Peninsula was not only Spain, but Portugal as well.    Regards

Ooh, you've touched a nerve here. In a sense, Hispania once did designate the entire peninsula, until the Castillian monarchy decided to designate their kingdom "Spain". The Portuguese in fact considered themselves spaniards until the Restoration of 1640 (see, the word "Spain" functioned like the word "Scandinavia"; now imagine Sweden taking over Norway, and calling itself "Scandinavia", with little regard to Denmark"). Nowadays, it is incorrect to consider Portuguese as having anything to do with "Hispanic".

A more correct term to use would be Ibero-America. It excludes those countries that do not speak Spanish or Portuguese.