50 Fun Facts About Latin America

A politician from which country first printed the term 'Latin America' in 1856, in Paris?

Francisco Bilbao coined it; Napoleon III's France then embraced the label to justify its intervention in Mexico.

Roughly what share of Latin Americans speak Spanish as a first language?

Portuguese, almost all of it in Brazil, accounts for another 30%, and indigenous and other languages for the rest.

Which is Latin America's largest country and the only one where Portuguese is the main language?

Its size is why the region is 'Latin' rather than simply 'Hispanic' America.

According to a 2014 Pew survey, what share of Latin Americans are Catholic?

Protestants were 19% overall, but 26% in Brazil and over 40% in much of Central America.

Which language of the Inca Empire is official in Peru alongside Spanish?

Bolivia gives Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní all official status; Paraguay's Guaraní is spoken by most of the population.

Which French-based hybrid language is the most widely spoken in Latin America and the Caribbean?

Papiamento, spoken on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, is a Portuguese-based creole with Dutch influence.

Which country produces about a third of the world's copper?

It is also the world's largest producer of iodine and rhenium and second for lithium.

Which country is the world's largest producer of emeralds?

Latin America also produces half of the world's soybeans, led by Brazil.

On which date in 1810 did Miguel Hidalgo make the 'Grito de Dolores'?

Every year Mexico's president re-enacts it from the National Palace balcony, ringing Hidalgo's own bell and shouting '¡Viva México!' three times.

Bolívar led six modern countries to independence from Spain. Which of these was NOT one of them?

His list is Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela; Argentina's liberator was José de San Martín.

Bolívar was born in 1783 in which city?

He was orphaned young, absorbed Enlightenment ideas in Madrid and lost his wife to yellow fever in 1803.

The Haitian Revolution that began with a slave revolt in 1791 was unique in history for what?

It threw off French rule in what had been the colony of Saint-Domingue, and its shockwaves reached every slave society in the Americas.

The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas divided the newly found lands outside Europe between which two powers?

The line ran 370 leagues west of Cape Verde, which is why the eastern bulge of Brazil ended up Portuguese.

The Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was built on an island in which body of water?

Founded around 1325 and taken by the Spanish and their Tlaxcaltec allies in 1521, it was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas.

The Aztec Empire, more accurately the Triple Alliance, was a union of how many city-states?

It ruled the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until 1521; the people are properly the Mexica, and their language Nahuatl.

What was the capital of the Inca Empire, the largest empire in pre-Columbian America?

The Incas called their realm Tawantinsuyu, 'the four parts together', and kept records on knotted strings called khipu.

Machu Picchu was brought to world attention in 1911 by which American historian?

Locals already knew it and a Peruvian explorer had reached it earlier; it was probably built around 1450 as an estate for the emperor Pachacuti.

Which Mesoamerican civilisation had the pre-Columbian Americas' most sophisticated writing?

Their region covered south-eastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

The Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza was used to make offerings to which Maya god?

Dredging from 1904 to 1910 turned up gold, jade and human remains with wounds consistent with sacrifice.

Mexico City is the oldest capital in the Americas. At what altitude does it sit?

Greater Mexico City, with nearly 22 million people, is the Western Hemisphere's second-largest urban area after São Paulo.

The Panama Canal opened in which year, after France had abandoned its own attempt?

France dug from 1881 to 1889; the US took over in 1904; Panama took full control on the last day of 1999.

The Castros' revolution began with an assault on which Cuban military post on 26 July 1953?

The failed attack gave the movement its name; the Castros returned from Mexican exile in 1956 with Che Guevara.

Che Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary of the Cuban Revolution, had trained for which profession?

A motorcycle journey around South America as a medical student radicalised him.

Evita Perón was First Lady of her country from 1946 until her death in which year, aged 33?

She championed women's suffrage, ran a huge charitable foundation and founded the country's first large female political party.

Who was the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945?

The Chilean poet and educator was honoured for lyric poetry that 'made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world'.

Which Chilean poet, born Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, won the 1971 Nobel and served as a Communist senator?

His 'Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair' appeared in 1924, when he was 19.

García Márquez's most famous novel is set in which fictional village, based on his birthplace Aracataca?

The 1967 novel has sold over fifty million copies and made 'magic realism' a household term.

The Latin American literary 'Boom' is said to have peaked with which 1967 novel about the Buendía family?

Julio Cortázar's 'Hopscotch' (1963) opened the era, and it revived interest in precursors such as Borges and Rulfo.

Which Mexican painter is famous for self-portraits mixing realism with fantasy and folk art?

She belonged to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity.

Colombian artist Fernando Botero is instantly recognisable for what feature of his figures?

His plump people, animals and even fruit hang in museums and stand as bronzes in city squares worldwide.

The tango was born in the 1880s along which river, the natural border between two neighbouring countries?

It grew out of milonga, Cuban habanera and Afro-Uruguayan candombe in dockside bars; UNESCO listed it in 2009.

Samba originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of which Brazilian state?

Its roots are West African, and it later mixed with jazz and classical music to produce bossa nova.

Bossa nova, popularised by Gilberto and Jobim, blended samba with which imported style?

European classical music and Brazilian choro went into the mix too.

Reggaeton emerged in the late 1980s in which territory, developing from the Spanish reggae of Panama?

Its dance style is called perreo, and Puerto Rican artists have dominated the genre since the early 1990s.

A typical modern mariachi band uses a deep-bodied acoustic bass guitar called what?

The vihuela is the small high-pitched guitar; a full group can have several violins and two trumpets.

Mexico's Day of the Dead is traditionally celebrated on which dates?

It falls within the Christian Allhallowtide, and families gather to remember the departed, often with humour.

Pelé is the only player to have won the World Cup three times. In which years?

He was 17 at the first, still the youngest winner ever, and Brazil nicknamed him O Rei, the King.

Which country has won the Copa América most often, 16 times?

Argentina has 16 titles and has hosted nine editions; Ecuador and Venezuela have never won.

Diego Maradona shared the FIFA Player of the Century award with which other player?

The two joint winners were the Argentine number 10 and Brazil's three-time World Cup winner.

How many Ballons d'Or had Lionel Messi won by the end of 2025?

He won his eighth in 2023 while captaining Argentina and Inter Miami, and has been named FIFA's best player eight times as well.

Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue stands on the peak of which mountain?

Built between 1922 and 1931, it is the world's largest Art Deco sculpture and weighs 635 tonnes.

The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world's largest what?

It is the remains of seven Ice Age lakes and is so flat its elevation varies by under a metre across the whole surface.

Angel Falls, the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, drops from the Auyán-tepui in which country?

It lies in Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Gran Sabana.

Despite its name, the Panama hat is a traditional straw hat from which country?

It is woven from the toquilla palm and picked up its name from being shipped through Panama.

Roughly what share of Latin Americans speak Portuguese as a first language?

Around 10% speak other languages, including Quechua, Guaraní, Aymara, Nahuatl and French.

Guaraní is co-official with Spanish in Paraguay and in which Argentine province?

A majority of Paraguayans speak Guaraní, and most are bilingual.

Which two are the region's major trade blocs?

Venezuela withdrew from the Andean Community and G3 to be admitted into Mercosur.

Which was Latin America's busiest airport in 2024?

Mexico City, São Paulo-Guarulhos and Cancún completed the top four.

Which three countries make up the region known as the Southern Cone?

The area is predominantly white after massive European immigration from the late 19th to mid-20th century.

In which year did Brazil abolish slavery, a year before its monarchy fell?

Japanese immigrants were then recruited as cheap labour for the coffee plantations.