I had just found out that Latin America is described as being a conservative religious continent, all this time in my entire life I always assumed Latin America was one of the most left wing liberal continents on Earth unless if my definition of what being a liberal is wrong. When I think of Conservative regions I think of South Asia and the Middle East with countries such as Pakistan and Iraq and not countries like Brazil and Mexico.
In Brazil for example having sex before marriage is generally not frowned upon, women can wear revealing clothing, LGBTQ is allowed with São Paulo holding the biggest LGBTQ parade in the world, before officially getting married the concept of having previous relationships is considered normal, women wearing bikinis on the beaches and drinking alcohol, similar trends seem to happen for the other Latin American countries.
This could never happen in South Asia or the Middle East as both of these regions have strong conservative traditional family values, strong belief in religion which result in conservative social norms for example in Iraq and India even holding hands or being seen with the opposite gender is taboo and they have a high “honour in the family” type of culture.
Latin America seems to be the complete opposite with regards to social norms, political and religious values of the conservative Middle East and South Asia, I would even say if we compare all cultures in the world South Asia and Middle East have to be the most alien to Latin Americans yet Latinos and North Americans seem to describe the region as being conservative? I would just love to know what is the reason for this?
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it depends on the country but the Spanish/Portuguese were never seen as conservative by other Whites. They were called degenerate for being catholic and race mixing.
It depends on your frame of reference. If you compare it to Middle East or South Asia, then yes, LatAm (especially bigger countries like Brazil, Chile, and even Mexico) are more liberal, but LatAm is more conservative than Western Europe and North America.
If your culture was shaped by catholicism and US backed dictatorships, it is kinda expected to be conservative
It’s conservative in the sense that marriage and family is highly valued and the church is pretty respected and has a lot of social power in much of the country. People aren’t expected to be perfect but the ideal Brasilian is in many ways traditional.
latin america is religious, yes. like a lot of places on earth, cities are much more tolerant to different lifestyles and maybe that’s really not the case outside of them. also latin america isn’t a nation, but that was probably a simple mistake.
LATAM is very culturally/socially conservative, but I would say more left leaning, politically speaking than many western countries.
It’s not conservative.
There’s a huge difference between how Rio or CDMX tolerates socially progressive lifestyles versus how rural Colombia or Honduras does. Your average Latin American town probably is more religious and conservative than one in France or California.
But I don’t think anybody thinks it’s conservative compared to Saudi Arabia or Vietnam, it’s more so in reference to the rest of the western world
I think because people think that Latin America is a monolith, that all Latin American countries are like the three Latin American countries people know (Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador?) and that those countries are universally conservative instead of nuanced.
In South America, at least, the general tendency is towards liberalism in the cultural sense, with a few exceptions in topics and countries (Argentina might have approved gay marriage over a decade ago, way ahead of most of the world, but we were very late in things like abortion).
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Latin America was one of the most left wing liberal nations
Not a nation. Do you eat sushi often? You know, cause you’re from Asia like the Japanese
LATAM (or at least Brazil) is way less conservative than US even, they complain about sex scenes in movies. People just think religious always equal conservative.
Latin America is very religious, but we practice religion a little bit different. At least here in Brazil not all religious people are conservative, 93% of Brazilians have some religious affiliation, but over half of the population is ok with progressive stuff like gay marriage, and of those that are against, more than half don’t care either way.
It is very common for nominally Christian Brazilians take part in some traditions from Afro Brazilian religions, there is quite a bit of syncretism going on.
I recall that when pope Francis was elected, Argentinian journalists where saying that he was considered a conservative for the Argentinian church, and yet for the rest of the world he became know as a progressive pope.
I think that this mismatch between the perception of Latin America being conservative and it’s actual values are that way because most of us underwent dictatorial governments that didn’t address the changing social climate, but society was getting more progressive nonetheless.
And here many people don’t feel they have to choose either their faith, or their progressive values. As a matter of fact, religious leaders where one of the feel outspoken members of civil society against the dictatorship. And not only Christian’s either, there was a Rabi here in Brazil that refused to bury victims of the dictatorship near the walls of the Jewish graveyard. Per tradition, those that commit suicide get buried near the walls, but since those Jews were killed in captivity, and didn’t commit suicide like the government claimed, he openly defied them.
I think is more a heritage of having militar dictatorships during the last half of 20th century that were very conservative.
Also the Catholic Church play a very important influence in the idiosyncrasy and politics although I think catholism is more open minded than prostestantism.
In general since at least the 1990s the region has open up a little more into liberal ideas a little late compare to countries in Europe and North America that had their liberal renaissance in the 60s and 70s
Because a lot of people considers us as a monolith culture based on stereotypes.
In latin america being left wing doesn’t necessarily means that you a progressive in social problems, you can be left wing and being against LGBT right. Evo Morales, for examples, said that chicken hormones produces homosexuality (for some reason, the video is banned here). But without going to that extreme, Pedro Castillo (peruvian communist) also considers him conservative. They aren’t extreme as European or American can be.
It’s also the same for the right, the right here isn’t full religious conservative unless they are heavy on evangelism. Even the center right is somewhat progressive in that way.
Even Catholics aren’t that conservative today, they mostly have the same ideas as always, but they aren’t that active with it today (those fanatical Evangelist are another breed)
Outside political parties, latin america can be more conservative in some aspects, and more liberal in others, it also depends on the background. For example, people of indigenous background, particularly near the Amazon, are way more confortable with nudity than some progressive in urban areas, but at the same time dislike the lgbt community.
I guess it stems from the older generations, plus the dictatorship doesn’t help, currently here at least it’s more progressive, but it ain’t hard to find conservative young folks as well
Probably because of Catholicism and Operation Condor installing far right dictatorships within Latin America
at that I don’t think most Latin Americans are as loyal to the conservative brand as like say Republican voters in America, there have been instances of left wing parties sweeping political power across Latin America
*No I’m not saying conservatives should be loyal to conservative parties only it’s just an observation good Lord I’d love for some Republicans to come on the Democratic side would help us out immensely
Economically it is all over the place. Countries have gone from socialism to ultra liberalism from one president to the other.
Socially conservative. Perhaps, due to centuries of Catholicism.
There is a lot of hypocrisy though. Because of tradition and religion, couples remain married, despite known cheating and or years-long mistresses.
Views on sexuality are all over and depends on age bracket and region. But it has been definitely rapidly changing (for the better) the last decade in certain areas.
I think you may be conflating the US version of “conservative” with the standard conservative notion.
With what everyone is seeing now thanks to what is going on and the amount of news we see from that country they have bastardized the definition of what a conservative is.
We are conservative in the sense that we keep to our traditions, tastes and general morality. We are heavily Catholic (not the new far-right Christian) and follow many of the guidelines set by our religion, though we aren’t beholden to the book as some others are.
Are you familiar with the concept of hypocrisy?
Yes all of what you said is true. We are more liberal in terms of sex, PDA, clothing (seriously, i dare any muslim to keep that amount of clothes at noon in the middle of Manaus),we appreciate a good party, and although family is very important to us we will cut ties with relatives who are mistreating us. Most of our best festivities are culturally catholic.
At the same time, sexism is very rampant. I can confidently tell you more than half of latino men are open to at least experimenting sex with another male while still being vocally homophobic, cheating and domestic violence are quite common, ppl will tell you they are devout christians, attend mass every sunday while running a ponzi scheme.
Heck, we have a “christian conservative, lesbian politician who runs a brothel and got elected by blackmailing some of her influential clients”
So yeah, many latinos are hypocrites. Still wouldn’t choose another region to be born. I just wish we weren’t so economically fucked.
Latin america is conservative, it’s just not lunatic conservative. The Catholic church still has a strong presence in the region, evangelicals are growing in numbers, with even more conservative views. Also, you can’t even compare a country like Uruguay with Peru for example, vastly different societies when it comes to social liberation.
That being said, I’d say your issue is how much you’ve normalised and called attitudes “conservative” when they shouldn’t be a thing in this day and age, not even being able to hold hands is insane behaviour, psychologically repressive, and shouldn’t be normalised. If by comparison latin america seems more liberal than south asia and the middle east it doesn’t make it essentially liberal, it’s just less insane with the social control
This is because 2/3 of USA’s political terminology is backwards to what Europe and Latam use
Currently visiting Guatemala and it is in fact very conservative despite the people I’m around not being Catholic. I’ve heard more than one anti-lgbt comments and all the help wanted signs specify a preferred gender. They acknowledge Trump is an idiot but they prefer him to any alternative.
I mean, compared to middle east, a lot of regions would look liberal, but in LATAM, and in my experience, especially in Central America, you still have politicians gaining popularity and pushing conservative laws based on their religious beliefs (homosexuality is a sin, abortion is a sin, etc)
Many of the examples of “liberal” behavior you mentioned happening in Brazil is mostly considered normal in the United States including the conservative areas. The only thing in that list conservative people still argue over is LGBTQ but other than that the US and Brazil are pretty similar in their values. And yes South Asia and Middle East are much more conservative than the Americas in general.
When people call Latin America conservative they mean that areas that are more rural and lower income are much more religious and conservative in general. Pretty much all countries have a political rural-urban divide where the poorer rural populations are more conservative while the richer urban areas are more liberal. And the less wealthy the country is the more religious and conservative it is likely to be.
Yeah, try to do that in what most of this continent is: countryside. Lest see how it goes for you. The cities are a minority, most of the people still live in villages with barely electricity or education.I lived in a regularly sized rural town. We have a lot of stuff, yet some people still duel with guns like is the 18th century.
Latin America or at least Mexico has been recently liberal, we’ve had liberal parties but they were only in power for a little bit. Latin America usually has had either dictatorship, failed monarchies and fascism. Some countries had communism but it wasn’t the majority.
You are thinking of the cities, and even that is recent. Up until about 10 or 15 years ago a lot latin america was very conservative as a whole, even if politically countries tended to vote to the left.
Because it is. But it’s also pretty liberal at the same time.
From the economic side: Catholicism is far more flexible than American Protestantism. See the Church’s Social Doctrine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_social_teaching or https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html).
I would say that in Brazil while sex before marriage is not that frownable upon, casual sex, specially with people you don’t know, is trash. AIDS campaigns in the 90s helped to cement that mentality.
I’d say Brazil isn’t conservative at all, not even by Western standards.
Edit: This might be an exaggeration regarding the West part, but I wouldn’t say it’s a specially very conservative country or anything like that.
In El Salvador we have legal prostitution and a miss trans El Salvador.
I don’t get it either.
Because we are mostly catholic, and Catholics in the USA are very conservative, but that’s not the case in latam
Latin America is still very much Conservative compared to the US and Europe.
There is also a dissociation between how Liberal/Progressive it can be Legally, and what Society actually accepts.
For example, there is Gay marriage, but also a lot of violent homophobia.
There is still a lot Machismo.
There is a lot of contradictions and double standards.
Everybody thinks that Latin America still lives in the times of the Spanish Inquisition.
Spanish, I can say that among the Latin American immigrants who arrive in the country I have found quite sexist and outdated attitudes that no longer exist here. Of course I do not know all the Latin Americans who have come to Spain and it may be an anecdotal study, but in general also from the comments seen on social networks there is an abundance of controlling and jealous behavior in the couple, for example. In Spain we are seeing this with great concern among young people as a return of those inexplicable attitudes, since it was something that seemed quite outdated in generations like mine, who am forty years old. It seems that in this case social networks are not working in our favor, there are many videos of people promoting control and a very traditional way of seeing women and men. Of course what I say about Latin America, as I say, is a generalization, America is a huge continent and there are regional differences, between countries, from rural areas to urban areas…
That’s because of ignorance and a little bit of racism.
Latin America was shaped by “western” institutions (Spanish language, Christian religion, Napoleonic code and Roman law) so their politics are mostly similar to Europe and the US.
Latin America is not “conservative” in the same sense as China or Morocco, but as Texas or Greece.
And the continent is big, so there are exceptions. Argentina or Uruguay are one of the most progressive societies in the world, same for Brazil, at least the bigger cities.
Honestly, part of it is because a lot of Latin American immigrants who move to the US, and thus have louder voices and a bigger platform, tend to be more conservative than the general LatAm population.
Of course, most of them aren’t absolute dregs of society like Eduardo Bolsonaro (thank God). But moving and settling into the US does require some level of buy-in to the “American way of life” and some level of positive perception of the US as a country, both of which correlate strongly with right-wing views in Latin America.
I do wonder what you are defining as conservative or progressive, because Latin America is definitely on the conservative side in almost all issues.
Easy example, Bolivia. The law allows trans people to change their gender and given names in their documents without much issue. However the overall population is still extremely transphobic and you could be subject to physical violence depending where (as well as many other forms of discrimination).
Violence against women is also super high and the idea that women somehow “ask for it” is still very prevalent, even among young people.
I think it’s because diaspora Latin Americans have a vision of their homelands frozen in time from when they left, so that means for some it’s several decades old, and to others it’s been mythologized from past generation’s stories, but in reality, at least for Mexico, things we consider normal would get you branded a raging communist north of the border, like free universal education and healthcare, social programs, government participation into the economy, LGBTQ rights, abortion, universal vaccination, plus there’s the fact that a lot of the conservatism in current Mexican society stems from evangelical influence permeating across the border
Guatemala is probably the only of one of the few conservative countries in Latin America. Culturally, it’s not comparable to others, especially in South America which are much more liberal, despite having a lot of religious people.
Much of what you’ll hear about Latin America will come from US born “Latinos”.
Who, much like “Italian-Americans” and “Irish-Americans”, have a shaky grasp on the place they claim to represent.
They will often want to present the place as being more chaotic and in opposition to US standards of normality, as they think it makes them look cool and edgy.
Here’s a quick summary of things US Latinos push on the world that isn’t close to reality –
Spicy food – most Latin cuisine has no spice and most Latin Americans have a low tolerance for spicy food. Spicy food is actually far more Anglo than Latin.
Beating your children – as with any western societies, most people with any degree of education in Latin America don’t beat their children like it’s 1950. The typical western university influenced ideas of treating children with dignity and listening to them, has penetrated middle class São Paulo, Rio, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, etc, every bit as much as it has in New York, San Francisco, Boston, etc
Pretending Latin American culture is some loud, wildly overt, overbearing nonsense like the worst 1940s stereotype of an Italian, blown up to the size of an entire continent.
I think that what essentially gives off this impression is that we tend to be religious even in liberal and progressive circles, unlike, let’s say, in the US or EU.
Most “westerners” I know that are religious are conservative and vice versa (liberals are mostly atheists).
But I don’t feel like that applies to LATAM or at least that’s not how I perceive it. And some expressions like “vai com Deus” or “pelo amor de Deus” we get to look more religious than we actually are ig
Latin America is more conservative than Western Europe or the US but less conservative than Africa or Asia.
As an example sex with strangers is a massive taboo in most of Latin America while it’s acceptable in large parts of Europe and the US.
Although legal in many countries, gay marriage is still a very divisive issue.
Because abortion is heavily restricted, with only Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba and a few Mexican states fully legalizing it.
El Salvador, Venezuela and Paraguay, in particular, don’t even allow exceptions for rape or the woman’s health.
Thailand and Philippines are also very liberal despite being in South East Asia. Nepal is in South Asia and it legalised gay marriage.
Taiwan close to South East Asia and has gay marriage too
It is considered fairly conservative because there’s a closer link between religion, usually Catholicism, and culture, and a lot of socially progressive topics, especially gender and sexuality related issues, tend to be rejected or are accepted more slowly than in other places.
Lack of education. Latin Americas overwhelming pack of education allows for religious claims for everything, hence conservative views are increasingly prevalent.
that is the issue that mainly europe fails to understand, latam is left/liberal leaning in economics, but right/conservative leaning in culture and society.
Also you seems to be thinking in black and white. Surelly one can put latam in the right/conservative spectrum for culture and society, but its nowhere near the examples you mentioned. For example, couples here would not have problems holding hands, kissing in public or introducing dates to your family, but moving in with your gf/bf (like in EU) is definitely frowned upon in most cases.
EDIT: I saw now you are from Bangladesh, which for international standards is extremely conservative, then I can understand how at first glance everything that is a bit less restrictive already feels liberal. Its a matter of perspective.
I am from a main city. We have a pride parade. Gay clubs in the middle of the richer neighbourhood.
A pride flag was also burned down a couple of years ago in the middle of june. Someone once gave me shit because ‘Short hair isn’t natural on woman’ in a bus stop and half my family was scandalized when I got birth control at seventeen.
I tend to frequent more liberal spaces, but they are not the norm.
It refers to “religious conservatism, in traditions” not to the economic issue.
Because you are comparing Latin America, an overwhelmingly catholic region, with the muslim world, which is famously more conservative and has generally different rules regarding many things. In catholicism/christianism, there’s much more up for interpretation, and christians don’t tend to be as devout as muslims.
If you compare us, however, with other catholic/christian cultures, you’ll see what people mean. Western Europe, Canada, even the US, are much more socially liberal than most of Latin America.
Also, small caveat, but drinking is not a religious taboo in christianity. Catholics literally drink wine as part of weekly church service, it’s not condemned by the bible. Neither is dating nor hanging out with people of the opposite gender. Sex before marriage is technically against biblical teachings but no one cares.
What you read is true, like all big cities CDMX, Rio, Buenos Aires are more progressive towards lgbtq+ rigths or topics. However the smaller the city the more conservative (regarding these topics) it is. Take for example Tucuman a city in Northwestern Argentina it has according to statistics from 2022 (last census) 550k inhabitants (double that if you consider all the metro area) the place is very religious and quite intolerant (been there during summers) and I heard more gay jokes than in Buenos Aires where I live and spent most of time…
Same applies to most of the nw and center west of the country, I cant speak about other areas because I havent been a considerable time.
It’s conservative in the sense that authority is more respected and gender roles are mor traditional. Women wear bikinis, but they’re still expected to take care of the man and things like that. Though that’s changing.
Also, yes people have sex before marriage, but it’s still frowned upon way more than in most of the US or Europe. At least in the DR. People do it, but they don’t encourage it at all. In Europe it’s kind of expected. People also get married way younger to compensate in latam. And it’s getting even worse with the stupid Evangelicals from the US spreading their poison actually.
It highly depends on what (Latin American) country are you talking about. Regarding my country (Venezuela), I can say that it truly has a very bizarre and unique brand of conservatism.
culturally conservative, yet politically left of center. liberation theology at work right there
Lol, even Americans seem like conservative religious nutjobs to me sometimes.
When you don’t know you don’t know. That’s the difference from being a tourist than being a local.
The coloniser forced their laws on my island, for example gay rights for marriage and more lgbt rights. The legislature was on hold because they didn’t want to accept that.
The culture is very different from you northern hemispherians, and all you do is assume. But we’re not nazi racists like you in the north.
I feel LATAM has always been a place of extremes and poles, in Chile for example, you go to center Santiago and gay couples, pride flags, trans people and experimental b class queer cinema are common to encounter, and then a guy like Johannes Kaiser, who said that men who sexually abuse of ugly women deserve medals, has a considerable amount of votes to be president. You have socialist goverments in the past getting squandered by operation condor and people supporting it. I’m Brasil they went from Bolsonaro to Lula, in Argentina they now have Milei trying to defund pretty much everything while they’re here known as the paradise of the arts in LATAM
Summing up answers:
Difference between cities and outskirts
Religion, politics, and social values don’t always line up on one side the same way we expect in the US.
Things change faster than people’s perceptions, which are typically delayed.
The assumption between lower GDP and social/religious conservatism doesn’t always hold true
Chile and Uruguay are different. Not that conservative, not religious at all
My country got divorce laws only in 2006.
Latin America is not a continent. And we do have our cultural similarities, but each country is very different from the other. One similarity is that we are indeed mostly catholic christian, which does comes with some conservative concepts. But idk, as a brazilian, I feel like our way to be catholic is a little bit different. In a lot of regions catholicism kinda mixes with african yorubá religions, and a lot of people still live their life (and their sexuality) to the fullest without losing their faith.
Some countries in South America had right winged/military dictatorships in the last century, and we still live the impacts of that history. There are plenty of people that have very conservative political and economical views and still have the social behavior of a liberal person.
In the last years, the number of evangelical christians (who are politically and socially conservatives) is growing a lot here in Brazil. But well, carnaval is still the biggest party in the country, and you’d be surprised at how liberal people are during carnaval so… I can’t talk about other countries though
Left and right don’t have the same meaning in the region aswell, when people say left they tend to think of Maduro, Chavez or Castro type of government. But when someone in another places says left it’s not even close to that.
It’s all relative. I think most people are liberals or even left-wing minded, but when the conversation goes to defining sides, most people would consider themselves as being “on the right”. The majority of people would still align with conservative or traditional views on most topics (religion, abortion, LGBT rights, etc), but not condemn. There is still some very hypocritical acceptance of this situation (in Perú, for example, around half of all pregnancies end in abortions, even tho the practice is still ilegal), same sex relations in the army or even with trans people are very common and documented, although they would never be accepted in the public light.
When it comes to making decisions, most people would align with the conservative representation, but it would not be by a large margin (maybe 55-45 ? Would depend on the country).
I mean you said it yourself. You assumed. If you’ve ever met and spoken to a Latino you’d see. It just sounds like ignorance.