What Is Latin America?

Latin America is that region of the Americas (that is, the continents of North America and South America) where the Romance languages, predominantly the Spanish language and the Portuguese language (which have been derived from the Latin language), are either spoken as the national languages or the official languages.

Latin America differs from Anglo-America, which is the term which is used to refer to those countries in North America (namely the United States of America and Canada) where the English language is spoken as the national language as well as the official language.

There are 20 countries that make up the Latin American region. These are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. In addition to these countries, Latin America also comprises French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique (which are French dependencies), Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao (which are Dutch dependencies) and the United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico (which are American dependencies).