Spanish America, meanwhile, was trying to define its own identity by making a sharp distinction between the old and the new continent. Spanish America began breaking its ties with the battered and decadent Spanish Empire more than 150 years ago and Spain was to lose its last American possession, Cuba, in 1898. We Spanish Americans like to say that we descend not from those who stayed behind in Spain but from those who came to America and whose children stopped being Spanish, becoming first creóles, and later, intermingling with other ethnic groups, Latin Americans.
In other respects, the situation is much more complex. The unity of the Spanish language has thus been preserved, enriched by the contributions of the various regions in which it is spoken. This obvious phonetic difference can be considered a sign of richness, and fortunately it has not endangered the unity of our language, since "the peoples who emerged from the former Spanish Empire communicate much more with one another today than when they belonged to a single state". Referring to the unity of the Spanish language, the Spanish historian Ramón Menéndez Pidal said, "One can say that there are two types of educated Spanish, just as there are American and British versions of English, primarily distinguished by peculiarities of pronunciation."
Latin Americans received much more than their language from Spain, but language indicates the special way in which the Iberian heritage was transmitted. But although this Spanish influence should not be exaggerated, it should neither be minimized nor dismissed. It is obvious that much of Latin American culture comes from Spain. Emphasis has been put on the indigenous Amerindian and African heritage, while the differences or, as some would have it, the affinities which characterize Latin America's relationship with the West have been pointed up.īut there is another heritage, which one might call "intermediate", neither indigenous nor strictly speaking Western: the Iberian heritage. In recent years, the debate about Latin American culture has become increasingly lively. UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in DangerĪ hard look at the historical role of Spain in Latin America.MGIEP - Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development.
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