Do some seem to forget Latin America and the Caribbean are new world, immigrant "melting pot" nations too? (wage, disposal)
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When I was in Peru I spoke with a man in Lima who was somewhat connected to local and national affairs though not in the government. He was saying that Peru was looking at the German influence in Chile as a good thing and resulted in more efficiency and organization. Peru was looking to adopt some of that. There is also a significant Asian influence in Peru. On the other hand, there are vestiges of the old Spanish colonialism that may be more apparent to outsiders. One requirement to be president of Peru is being Catholic. We see what we expect to see.
I don't really find Latin America to be all that diverse. Sure, a different last name here and there.. but big deal. It's hard for an American to see most South American countries as a melting pot when they are not even close to as diverse as us. While they might have some levels of diversity, it's almost nothing compared to the United States.
Go to Bogotá, what do you hear in the streets? Spanish. Only Spanish, unless you see a couple tourists walking around. Ethnic restaurants? Nah, just Colombians working there. You aren't going to find the same type of Ethnic food around Latin America like you do in the United States.
Sure, some Americans are dense and think that everyone who speaks Spanish is a poor Mexican.. but at the end of the day it really isn't like that. People just like to exaggerate the ignorant people and forget the well informed.
I do think Brasil could be more diverse than most people would guess.
Exactly, its not a big deal. That is the whole point of this post.
Sure but you get the full picture so to speak, because you are a Latina. Americans speak English, not Spanish, and aren't watching Mexican TV, or listening to Colombian music. We aren't hanging out with Mexicans, and outside of the southwest we usually know very few Mexicans unless we work in a particular trade. We are culturally and linguistically linked with Britain, Canada, Ireland and Australia, the "Anglosphere", and as a result are far more likely to be aware of the cultural history of these places. Similarly, a Mexican will have a better idea of Colombia than an American, because they are culturally similar, and are part of the "Hispanosphere".
Of equal importance is the fact that our main contact with Latin America comes through massive immigration. When we meet Mexicans, they are overwhelmingly unskilled low-wage workers carrying typical Spanish last names. Ramirez, Gomez, Gonzales, Torres, Sanchez, Martinez, Velasquez. Since Mexico was not a 'land of opportunity', at least not since the days of Cortez, a disproportionate percentage of the immigrants to Mexico have been landed immigrants rather than unskilled workers seeking the 'Mexican Dream'. Because of this, those in position of wealth, power, and influence in Mexico disproportionately carry non-Spanish last names, while the common Mexican people are far more likely to have only Spanish names. French names, for example, are well represented due to the influence carried over Mexico during the 19th century; this influence even led to France's attempt to install a Mexican puppet. These upper class Mexicans are not the Mexicans Americans tend to come into contact with. When we travel to Mexico these are for the most part not the Mexicans we see.
These facts are reinforced by statistics. T[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_common_surnames_in_North_America#Mexi co"]he top ten surnames from Mexico are all typically Spanish surnames[/URL]. Because of this, we do not see a Mexico where 20% of people have non-Spanish surnames. Instead we see masses of Spanish names like Sandovals, Herrera, Reyes, and Diaz. Additionally, the [URL="http://names.mongabay.com/data/hispanic.html"]Latinos in America have Spanish surnames with only a handful of exceptions[/URL]. It takes reading until about number 120 to find a name that is clearly non-Spanish (Rangel, a German name). Even still, out of 1000 names finding more non-Spanish names is like picking needles out of a haystack. There is little doubt that within particular social settings among Mexicans, non-Spanish names are common, but within the overall Mexican context this is statistically not the norm. Because of all of this, it becomes clear and understandable why Americans are generally unaware of the existence of diverse names with Mexico and Latin America.
The people I mentioned in my post are all in the United States, and we are not from upper crust families. Your explanations are all great and make perfect sense. I am still saying people should not be so shocked about these things. We can debate this in detail, but l will continue to agree with the OP.
I also don't find it that diverse. It's very different compared to the diversity found in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia etc. I travel there (Latin America, Caribbean) quite often, so I'm not talking out of my rear end here.
Even though I guess that a 20% of non-Spanish surnames in Mexico sounds a bit too much, you must be cautious with this kind of statements. Spanish surnames aren't very diverse, so we are likely to see that a bunch of them are very prominent.
For fun, I've just checked the surnames from the sheet of employees at my office.
I found the following results:
19 Italian
14 Spanish (including 1 Catalan and 1 Basque)
3 French (1 of them might be Catalan)
2 Polish
1 British
1 German
1 Slovenian
1 Portugese (might be Galician, hence Spanish too)
Not sure about two of them (Scuka and Jakomin)
Well, it's enough to look at the last names of south american presidents... Dilma Rousseff, Michelle Bachelet, Cristina Kirchner... none of them have iberian last names.
Well, I don't think she could count as an example, her real name is Cristina Fernandez.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. "Kirchner" was the last name of her husband - who also served as president of Argentina.
Even other former presidents had foreign surnames: Alfredo Stroessner (Paraguay), Julio MarÃa Sanguinetti (Uruguay), Juscelino Kubitschek/Kubiček (Brazil), Ernesto Geisel (Brazil), Alberto Fujimori (Peru), Roberto Micheletti Bain (Honduras), are some examples.
For fun, I've just checked the surnames from the sheet of employees at my office.
Not sure about two of them (Scuka and Jakomin)
I have an Italian surname.
Appears to be czech.
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