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I think the best answer were given by The Economist in 2010
OTHER Latin Americans think of Brazilians a bit like the rest of the world thinks of Americans: loud, flashy and rich. This is as it should be, because a strong argument can be made that Brazil is actually is the United States—just disguised beneath a Carmen-Miranda-style fruit hat.
Sounds a stretch? Think of two continent-sized countries built on gold rushes and cowboys, on sugar and slaves. Think of the United States being the first country to recognise Brazilian independence. Above all, think of the two countries' topographies. Both consist basically of big cities on the coast where most of the people live; a vast, spectacularly beautiful and largely empty wonder of the natural world in the deep interior (the Rockies for America and the Amazon for Brazil); and, in between, endless savannahs where all the food grows. In either place, it's soyabeans as far as the eye can see. Looking down from an airplane as it traverses the flyover states, you would be hard pressed to know whether you were crossing South Dakota or Goias, Mato Grosso or the corn belt.
Perhaps Australia and Canada might say the same. So consider the people. Both the US and Brazil have similar collections of ethnic and racial groups. Each has big minorities of indigenous peoples, of blacks (because both had slavery until the second half of the 19th-century), and of immigrants from Italy, Germany and Asia (Chinese predominate in the US; Japanese in Brazil). São Paulo makes many of those hard-to-verify claims about itself: it is the largest Japanese city outside Japan, the largest Portuguese city outside Portugal, the largest Spanish city outside Spain and the largest Lebanese city outside Lebanon. In the same vein, New York is the world's second-largest Jewish city, its second-largest Italian city, and so on. Parts of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, still look and sound German, rather as parts of Cleveland used to. Even the largest ethnic groups are of comparable scale. In Brazil, people of Portuguese descent make up just over half the population. In the US, whites are just under two-thirds, and heading downwards.
Then think about the cities. Obviously São Paulo is New York—the commercial, industrial and financial capital; a city that never sleeps; a 24-hour traffic jam; a gaudy megacity that works; “an oceanic sprawl” (to quote Norman Gall of the city's Fernand Braudel Institute). Equally obviously, BrasÃlia and Washington, DC are sisters under the skin; all boulevards which are too wide, public buildings which are too big, public spaces without grace and public life without liveliness. It's true that many invented capitals plonked in the middle of nowhere—which was true of Washington when the site was chosen—could say the same.
But less obviously think of a coastal city of blazing sunshine and hedonism; of beaches and beach culture; a city that helped define the 1960s and then began to sink backwards into its problems; a city, therefore, also of drug gangs and brutal police. Rio de Janeiro or Los Angeles? Well, both: cities of God and the Angels.
Obviously, the list of dissimilarities would be as long as your arm, or as Brazil's coastline. But if this English blogger can be allowed one further indulgence, a big difference lies in the inheritance from the colonial power. Britain bequeathed to the United States a language; a legal system; a political elite (WASPs); a middle-class liking for commerce; a tradition of political liberalism (in the British sense); and a certain puritanical impulse. Portugal bequeathed Brazil the language and Catholicism. And that is about it. Brazil itself developed the rest. And it did so with something that most of the United States lacks: a Dionysian spirit, a happy sense that all the squalor and conflict will end—or at least be suspended—in a samba.
But believe me, we do not like to be compared to the US. The US is the US, period. Brazil is Brasil, period.
1. Language <- Hard to tell.
2. Climate <- Hard to tell, but I suppose Argentina and Chile (huge forests, mountain ranges, deserts etc)
3. Religion <- Hard to tell
4. Family Structures and views on them <- All families are different, uncomparable
5. Architecture <- Chile, Brazil,Argentina
6. Driving "styles" <- Chile
7. Transportation systems, ie. use of buses for travel versus planes<- Chile & Argentina
8. Employment and expectations of it <- Chile
9. How much the "informal" economy exists <- Chile
10. Cuisines and meal portion sizes <- Argentina, Uruguay maybe Brazil
11. Drinking habits <- Hard to tell, that is highly individual
12. Attitudes towards gambling and prostitution <- Hard to tell.
Argentina is not like USA at all, maybe just in variety of climates and landscapes, only.
I see Chile as more similar to USA in other aspects.
But overall USA is bigger and very multicultural and in that aspects it cant be compared to any Latin/South America country. Maybe only Brasil but USA is still bigger and more varied.
Multicultural Country: Bolivia
Country with high level of Immigration : USA
I just came back from Colombia and it is nothing like America. There are a few zones in Bogota that look and feel like SF or NY, but overall it is super different. Colombia is an awesome country, I love it!
Mexico is similar to the U.S. in some ways, and very different in others. The standard Spanish spoken on TV and radio in the U.S. seems to derive from standard Mexico City Spanish. The two countries have a lot of trade and cultural exchange. Sprawl lines the highways (though not the freeways).
Costa Rica is also a probable candidate, although it is still Latin American. The culture seems more similar to the U.S. than Mexico.
Guatemala is certainly disqualified by its poverty and indigenous culture, as are Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
In South America, it's probably Brazil or Chile, but I wouldn't know. The latter has, from what I've heard and read, a Protestant-like work ethic.
I would say Brazil is like the US. Both are very big and dominate their continent. Both are international players. They also both have a ton of inequality and problems, while having several good things.
Having traveled all around South America, I also found Brazil to be quite similar.
Social problems, their histories, their dominance, they both have sizable immigrant groups, etc.
Mexico seems so different from the U.S., although sometimes on the US/Canada border I'll see Mexicans that dress kind of like Texans! Big cowboy-like hats, etc. But, since I'm not Texan, I can't relate to that either. Plus, mostly Mexicans in the U.S. are usually more mestizo or sometimes very indigenous.
Whereas Brazil has a much larger black population and European-immigrant groups populations, which is way more familiar to Americans.
Having traveled all around South America, I also found Brazil to be quite similar.
Social problems, their histories, their dominance, they both have sizable immigrant groups, etc.
Mexico seems so different from the U.S., although sometimes on the US/Canada border I'll see Mexicans that dress kind of like Texans! Big cowboy-like hats, etc. But, since I'm not Texan, I can't relate to that either. Plus, mostly Mexicans in the U.S. are usually more mestizo or sometimes very indigenous.
Whereas Brazil has a much larger black population and European-immigrant groups populations, which is way more familiar to Americans.
To which Americans? What a typical East Coast perspective! To us Americans in the Southwest and the West, Asians (Filipinos, Chinese and Japanese especially) and Latin Americans (particularly Mexicans) have long been part of our very AMERICAN history. Blacks/African Americans didn't reach the west and southwest in big numbers until later on.
Based on this, I would say that Northwestern Mexico and the Southerwestern U.S. are very similar, and share the history and culture. Much the way that the Pacific Northwest has that share history and culture, whether you are talking about the U.S. or Canada.
If we are talking about the Eastern board of the United States from Maine to Florida, I would say Brazil. You have comparable metropolis (Sao Paolo to New York City, Rio de Janeiro to Miami), the diverse populations attracted to those cities (including Asians and Middle Easterners), plus that historical North South divide driven by slave labor and industry (our North is Brazil's South/Southeast - think industrious and European immigration, our South is Brazil's Northeast - think plantations with huge African presence).
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