Introduction: Latin America in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This volume consists of a collection of many previously dispersed articles and chapters on Latin America’s relative distinctiveness as compared to other “large regions.” As a comparativist with genuine interest in the rest of the world as well as my chosen region, I am unable to endorse any of the various “essentialist” characterizations of the subcontinent that can be found in the literature. It has multiple, overlapping, identities. There is not just one “Latin American civilization,” as Huntington would have it.¹ It is not controlled by its inescapably Hispanic Catholic traditions as Wiarda posited.² And contrary to Haya de la Torre, there is not just one “Indo-America,” but many fragmented indigenous legacies.³ Many regionally distinctive features are variants or offshoots of patterns developed elsewhere, particularly Europe and North America, even if the local adaptations also differ from their external inspirations in all sorts of easily neglected ways.