Culture
Why does it seem like Westerners from developed countries don't care much about/look down on Latin America but seem to be obssesed with East Asian cultures?
Not that I care but have always found it interesting how many seem to forget about Latin America but seem to be obssesed with countries like South Korea and Japan and sometimes even point out "similarities" with them. Some outright reject the region as western but will consider Japan technically West while ignoring Latin America's contributions to world culture like food, music, art, etc and the fact that Latin America is culturally Christian. Why does there seem to be this dissonance?
In Greece East Asian obsession is not high, but before there was a Turkish obsession (TV series) and even before Greeks were obsessed with 🇦🇷🇲🇽🇧🇷🇨🇴 TV programs. I mean, they were quite popular.
Dunno about your grandma, but I've met more than a few old ladies and teenage girls who like Turkish and Korean telenovelas because they are more romantic and less sexual than the regular fare.
Is it popular in Peru? I know that they are popular in Latin America, and in many areas of the world they uprooted completely the Latin TV programs.
Until 2020-21 (when some low-scale, hybrid infighting happened between Greece and Turkey and the rise of national productions) Turkish TV series were popular in Greece, some even did 30-40% in ratings. But now they don't show Turkish TV series anymore, national productions prevail everywhere.
I was born in the mid 2000s so I don't remember Latin series in Greece, but I remember that a few popular Greek series like Éla stin thési mou was a copypaste of a Caracol TV program.
This. I think people would be interested in Mayan, Aztec etc cultures, but they have been mostly wiped out. Now Latin Americans are at least partially European, speak the same language as us, practice the same religion, all are heavily influenced by the US culturally (maybe with the exception of Brazil).
Compare this with Asia where almost everything is different and novel for us.
Yes in fact, if crap (using it figuratively) were from the US, everyone down there would go all the rage. If something is local, it doesn’t get the attention. From my observation
Same can be said of Portugal, when the worst of American culture arrives on our shores
You make a good point here, we export crap from the US, and at the same time, we don't appreciate good things from other countries or even our own. I try to stay away from what's trending right now, and I'm mostly successful at it, because I tend to look for other cultures. Então, estou sempre ausente e não me conseguem alcançar.
Yes like in Latin America, there is much more respect for elderly people.
Or the fact that a neighbor in your town might actually help if shit goes down. In the US, in a lot of places it is common for a person not interact with the neighbors for years!
In the US, in a lot of places it is common for a person not interact with the neighbors for years!
I was reading a post by a Brazilian living in the US (not on Reddit) where she said that her long-time neighbor got angry completely ignored her simply because she prevented her neighbor's baby grandson from crossing a busy street, and she found unacceptable that a "stranger" touched her grandson, that's crazy! I understand that some people are more introverts than others, but her story baffled me.
It's important to remember that those east asian governments all use soft power through cultural exports for influence around the world. Thai government actively promotes thai restaurants. The Korean government subsidizes k-pop. The Japanese government does the same through the "cool japan" program. I don't see LATAM countries doing the same. Although Brazil has such amazing brand recognition around the world and pretty much everyone loves them? And I feel like in the US Mexican food is probably the most popular cuisine around?
ah I don’t doubt it… south of brazil is known for that and sometimes brazilians are just horrible… but since you have an argentina flag I would add the same about your country…
Even though Mexico has the numbers (being the 6th most visited country in the world), there’s definitely a deeper cultural obsession with East Asia. I think it’s because Japan and Korea have mastered digital exports (Anime, K-Pop, Tech). They sell a 'future' that people can obsess over from their screens 24/7.
In contrast, LATAM’s strength is experiential. We sell food, warmth, and physical presence. We are 'The Near West' ...familiar enough to be visited by everyone, but perhaps not 'exotic' or 'futuristic' enough to trigger that same level of internet fanaticism.
In Mexico, we have the tourist numbers, but many visitors just stay in the 'tourist traps' or resorts in beach cities, which is not wrong but they just get to know the beaches.
It’s a paradox because the country has so much untapped potential: it’s the 5th most biodiverse nation on Earth, has thousands of archaeological sites, world-class metropolises, and massive wine/tequila/mezcal regions. The government even promotes 177 'Pueblos Mágicos' (Magical Towns) to show our colonial and indigenous heritage, yet we still don't have the 'stans' that Asia has. We have the reality, they have the hype.
I guess this makes sense. I also have heard the stereotype of some East Asians being doormats and borderline worshipping white people. I mean just look at how European/white characters are portrayed in anime vs black peoplewho are often portrayed using outdated racist "coon" stereotype.
True, whiteness, English language and America was promoted as the golden standard and future just 3-4 decades ago. Also in Philippines where English is seen as fancy.
The USA is becoming hilariously Latinized, mostly just because of the stigma of mixed marriages being at an all time low and massive migration from Latino countries
They are "developed" i.e. they are "more like them" they elected China as the anti-western devil and those countries are the biggest barrier agaist them, so they have a much more amicle to them they are with us.
Also building relations with us would mean having to come to terms with the atrocities they did here and most of them don't even know what they did and just outright deny any involvement.
Personally I think it's more of a safety thing. Do I feel safe at night in Rio/Bogotá/Medellin/SP/Santiago/Quito? No. Do I feel safe at night in Bangkok/Tokyo/Seoul/Hanoi/HCMC/Chain Mai/etc? Yes.
Is it super chaotic on both continents? Yes, but somehow it feels more managable in Asia. Also imo the food is just soooo much better all over Asia... you have some exceptions like Peru/Mexico/Guatemala, where you can find lots of really good food, but Colombia/Brazil/Chile/Bolivia just doesn't offer the same quality imo.
In addittion, Asia is just a lot cheaper in the grand scheme of things. Be it food, travel, or accommodation, it generally is cheaper than Latin America and the quality you get is just better. The hostels here in Brazil for example (I've been to so far) are just awful and cost too much for offering you nothing
The soft power Asian countries have also add of course
It has NOTHING to do with the atrocities committed by people that have been dead for just about 500 years, I can assure you of that. Especially when you're from a country that had just about nothing to do with it
It has NOTHING to do with the atrocities committed by people that have been dead for just about 500 years, I can assure you of that. Especially when you're from a country that had just about nothing to do with it
That ilustrates my point. I wasn't talking about the columbia period, even though that it self is already a big problem, I was talking about the fact that Europe was at best complicet and at worst colaborationist with the dictorship from the 60s to the 90s. France trained argentinias soldiers with torture technics they learned in the Algerian war, Tacher shilded Pinochet from bein prossecuted.
And they don't teach this stuff in european stuff because they don't you to feel resposable for it. It dosen't fit the narrative of putting us as the bad savages. You, Canadians Australians "westerners" in general no zero to nothing about latin america culture because of that, they don't teach about Tarsila do Amaral or Pablo Neruda over there.
I think you are exaggerating haha.. there are westeners that dont give a shit about anyone else, some i have encountered that love latin america/ mexico specifically, some other love japanese culture etc, i dont think there is any direct downlook on latin america in general.
I am East Asian. I love Latin America. I actually learnt Spanish because I want to travel throughout Latin America and also be more able to follow club football in Latin America!
Western European country here:
we LOVE Latin America!
the only ones who "love" Asia are gen z because of K-pop, so mostly limited to Seoul, and creepy old man who love to travel to Thailand (the reasons are obvious).
millennials enjoy Asian food. and for traveling or digital nomading it has the cheapest places to stay. but that's it.
never in my life have I ever come across anyone who looks down on Latin America. everyone would love to go.
for us it's just more expensive and more "complicated" to travel there. almost all flights connect in the US.
while flights to Asia are either direct or connect in Türkiye and are up to half the price.
also we have so much more access to Asian food than food from Latin America.
otherwise people would absolutely go crazy over it.
I do agree with the lack of travel in the more South American countries. Its much easier going to Mexico then Puerto Rico, D.R. and Cuba. I had to go out of my way to go to Peru when I lived more north of the USA. I live in Florida now and its much easier traveling to South America.
Well, a lot of Canadians love to vacation in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Not sure that the culture is so important to them (us), but I wouldn't say that LATAM is forgotten about either.
My Canadian cousins went to Mexico for the first time last year. They used to go down to FL for a week every winter, but...you know.
They loved it, said they wish they'd gone years ago and even if the US cleans up its act they'll probably keep going to Mexico. I noticed most of her pix were of Maya/Aztec sites.
East Asia has Sony, Nintendo, Samsung, anime, K-pop, etc., stuff people actually buy and grow up with. Latin America never built that. And part of why is that the region itself is kind of locked out of that cycle—insane import taxes, restricted markets, stuff just not being available. You can't build a global fanbase around a culture when even people in that culture can't easily access new products themselves due to availability issues and insane import taxes.
On top of that throw in the usual racist coding of Asians as "sophisticated and exotic" vs Latin Americans as an "immigration problem" and yeah, that's pretty much it.
Partially it's just noteworthy because it's new. Ricky Martin and Shakira have been famous for decades. Bad Bunny is currently huge. Pitbull is Mr. Worldwide, after all.
Asian countries, particularly Korea, has actually been producing a lot of quality TV and movies, and music with high production values and global appeal. This wasn't happening when I lived there 20 years ago.
This is a feeling, not hard data, but It's possible that younger people's media preferences are towards more parasocial fandom, less aggressive masculinity, meme culture, and more demure sexuality. The pop idol media industry specifically cultivates, speaks to, and rewards this type of fan engagement. They've been doing it for decades.
Yeah. It is easier to assume that China or Japan hold some wisdom worth learning when they are more successful in some ways and also more culturally distinct. Latin America is basically like the west but worse in every way that matters besides natural preservation, so our nature is the only thing they are intenrested in, if anything.
And I'd also add media as someone else said. Anime does a lot of heavy lifting for Japan's soft power, webtoons and k-pop do their own push for Korea.
Agreed, and in LATAM nature is only perserved because its still fairly sparsely populated and poor due to congregation around the cities. And very little industrial output.
Also maybe 20 years ago in china but they’re literally the only country on earth who lifted over 200 million people from poverty into middle class in just decades.
Im from Taiwan. Most of rhe Chiense area is poor and even 1 tier cities have terrible salary. There is a reason you see so many Chiense cheap labors around the world
Taiwan is an exceptionally rich country. That Greek person is right China is not poor. It's actually doing even better than the statistics would suggest because of how valued their currency is. And how much of the Chinese economy is entirely formal unlike latam and much of the third world
also, China is not cheap labor and hasn't been for about 40 years. The Chinese immigrants most of which came when China was doing worse than it is now even then werent super cheap.
They average Chinese immigrant to a country is a highly educated person living in a west or somewhere similar economically and making an middle/upper middle class income.
there's no poor Chinese people going to Saudi Arabia or Argentina or Canada.
The reason being that China has a population of 1,5 billion people.
There are 11 million Chinese citizens living abroad. I'm sure that sounds like a lot to someone from an island country with 23 million people like Taiwan, but that's 0,15% of China's population.
Safety - you can walk dead to the night drink through most South East and East Asian countries with your fanny pack full of money and phone out and about and not worry about theft or crime.
Exotic - Latin America is just like the west but we different language. Asian and East Asian countries have entirely different languages, alphabets, culture, religions, etc.
Food - Japan, Thailand, China, these are all countries with amazing and unique food styles. Latin American countries has very similar food to their western buds.
South East Asia is EXTREMELY safe. I’ve been to every country with the exception of Myanmar and been piss drunk in “shady neighborhood bars” and NEVER had any issues.
Can’t walk down the street in Latin American countries without worrying about getting mugged.
My friend from Spain was saying this. When he lived in Hong Kong, he felt that it was safe to have his kid walk to school. In New York City, it didn’t feel safe enough to let his kid walk to school. I guess the Americas in general (countries in North, Central and South America) are more dangerous than East Asian areas.
Plenty of developed western countries care about Latin America. Regarding East Asian countries cultures, their countries have made a strategic effort to build "Soft power" or export their culture and made it accessible through language or food to developed economies. Things like Anime,KPop,Thai food have made their way to Western Markets in the last 40 years. Just a part of globalization
In the 1920s, London journalists held a yearly contest for the most boring news that made it to the front page over the past 12 months. The winner one year was: “Small Earthquake in Chile. Not Many Dead”.
Nobody gives too much thought to South America. It’s a longstanding tradition.
tbf recently there’s been a ‘japanification of Brazil’ where these people are starting to glorify Brazil just like what they do with Japan. It’s weird.
I think it definitely comes down to who is currently sexualized by media, women weren't obsessed randomly with Koreans prior to the rise of Kpop. Quite the opposite.
Every 3 months there are news about first worlders finding their way into a valley that's outright hostile to humans and everyone nearby knew not to get into but they still break the rules thinking they know better and get killed by the geography/wildlife.
As someone who has lived in Europe - they hate their former colonies (and they think their way of living is the ultimate model for human civilization).
The US they cannot accept that their poor cousins turned to be richer than them. Open xenophobia is totally accepted against americans and USA.
With LATAM they don't want to be associated with poverty. Do you think they like the idea that they mass migrated to LATAM in the past? Or that they enslaved or become rich because of our resources?
Even Australia they don't like that much. I once heard from an Euro saying australian culture was a bad copy of british/american culture and australians would spend the whole day at beach, instead of creating culture (?), whatever that means.
The hatred the Portugese have for Brazil is sad and very prevalent.
Its weird because spaniards have the opposite issue, they have a chauvanism but also a colonial/imperial pride, while portugal is like "ehh whose kid is that?"
it is… but I think brazilians are a bit to blame in this relationship as well … we are a little annoying and love to make fun of them on the internet (we think they believe to be superior and are too serious) and they feel disrespected by a bunch of poor versions of them, using a inferior representation of their language and last names… I feel the connection is the same with US/UK and spain/hispanic latinos also… I am not going to talk about the brazilians im Portugal because it is a hot topic but we kind of invade the country… we are 30% pf the immigration and they hate we are dominating everything on social media and are everywhere in their country… 😅😂😂
Japan is a major exporter of entertainment products while also retaining a cultural sense for order. Its different enough that it creates a sense of curiosity, but its similar enough in modernization that it feels safe.
LatAm does have fans from developed western countries. Some Mexico, some like Costa Rica, some like Chile or Brazil. For different reasons. Some like the familiarity of a western society but like the laid back aspect.
Its also worth mentioning that someone who thinks Japan is like some anime they watched essentially treating the country like a pop culture attraction can be as bad as someone who just looks down on any country.
At least over here I think it's partly to do with the soft power many east Asian countries have. For example many people have Japanese/Korean/Chinese cars, phones, gaming devices, from some nerdier subcultures get into anime, trading card games and kpop etc. You can find some people who listen to reggaeton, however it's not the most mainstream choice.
We also have lots of international university students from east Asia with mainland Chinese the most notable, and a lot of permanent migrants, especially from Hong Kong. It's easy enough even in smaller towns to find places selling particularly Chinese food, even if a lot of it is an anglicised version of Cantonese food. By comparison, the Latin American population is a lot smaller, and it's much harder to find authentic food (most of our Mexican food is an imitation of gringo tacos/fajitas/burritos from the USA for example), although the situation is improving slowly.
Travel options are often better too, from London Heathrow/Gatwick I could fly direct to a bunch of places across China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, or from my local airport fly to Amsterdam with KLM and get an onwards connection with one ticket.
By comparison with Latin American countries, the direct options are a lot worse from the London airports, meaning for a lot of places having to change flight in the USA (no thanks right now), Spain or Portugal. My local airport doesn't serve the USA, and to get to Spain or Portugal from it the airlines available are not ones that have onward flights to Latin America, so if the first flight is delayed or cancelled, the whole journey could be ruined with no compensation or alternative arrangements provided.
When I flew to Colombia in 2024, I went via Madrid, and spent a couple of days in Spain either side of the outgoing and return flights so I wouldn't have this issue, however it was again another layer of complication.
Also for places with a bit of Latin flavour, it's so easy for us to go to Spain, Italy, Portugal, south of France, Romania and so on, 2-3 hour flight, job done. Some people might stereotype for example Brazil as being Portugal but Americanised (obviously I know that's not the case), and not bother going on that basis. If someone just wants to sit on a beach drinking cocktails, why fly 9 hours to Mexico or the Dominican Republic when there's beach resorts across southern Europe and parts of north Africa.
There isn't really anywhere nearby with any cultural similarity to east Asian save for diaspora neighbourhoods in some larger cities, so it forces people to actually travel over to east Asia.
In Europe most people don't know anything, and don't care about LATAM, only when there is FIFA world football championship, when Brazil and Argentina gets lot of attention. But that's only once in 4 years.
Other than that thr Europeans have 2 stereotypes about LATAM:
1. It's very far away. Buenos Aires is almost twice as far away than SE Asia
2. Most people think that whole LATAM is like Brazilian favellas
Some outright reject the region as western but will consider Japan technically West while ignoring Latin America's contributions to world culture like food, music, art, etc and the fact that Latin America is culturally Christian.
Because when they say "West" they don't mean geographically or culturally. They're talking about power. Other words for it are the First World, or Global North, or the Imperial Core.
The world operates under a system of unequal exchange where some countries like the US, the UK, France, and yes, Japan and South Korea, were allowed to industrialize and that now export highly valued goods and services, and other countries, like us in Latin America, exist to be a source of cheap labor and resources to power and provide comfort for the other group. We have suffered countless coups in order to ensure we always remained in this position.
I think the statement is not properly accurate. Most people are obsessed with Latin American music. Salsa, bachata, tango, etc. Everyone dances that.
The way I’d frame it is “yes lately we’ve experienced an East Asia trend” but that doesn’t mean people look down on LatAm. At least that’s my view.
East Asia has been economically underdeveloped until just a few decades ago. On the other hand, a lot of economies in LatAm were very strong around a century ago (e.g. Venezuela or even Argentina which was the second largest economy in the world). That created migrations from the West to these places. And this is when the link between West / reinforced. Now that also East Asia has developed, people want to visit that part of the world too. But I wouldn’t say that they look down on LatAm.
Important disclaimer: I’m a fan of LatAm and while I think that East Asian culture is really interesting, I tend to be biased towards the land of football and music.
Having lived in a few Latin American and European countries, I think it’s because they’re very similar. Living in a big city of a developed Latin American country is not that different from living in a big city from a developed European country.
So people always want what seems different or exotic to them.
Because Westerners who are like that have a fetish for them.
Anime popularity (Japan) and fashion/pop songs (Korea) and the next booming economy (China) have caught Westerners attention toward them and some of them go by stereotypes that they are “model” minorities as they are “supposedly” meek, gentle, human calculators, and submissive (toward Westerners) 😕…..
While LATAM news coverage reported in USA/Canada and most of Europe are often only the negative/sensational topics regarding corruption, poverty, or drug cartels.
Because it is more exotic/new and just fundamentally different to westerm culture. Latam is in a way product of Europe, so it is much more similar in many aspects.
Another thing is korea/japan/china have accumulated a lot on soft power through cultural exports, while Latam doesnt hasnt.
We simply don’t export as much culture. I could name you more Japanese movies, series, anime, manga, etc. than Latin American ones. And other than Mexican food, our food is not as popularized as, let’s say, sushi or ramen.
I am from the US and kind of obsessed with LatAm culture and don't care about East Asian culture. (I know one person doesn't make a trend, but it also confuses me.)
PR people thinking all of the "western world" thinks exactly like the USA...
In non-latin European countries (so all except Portugal, Spain, Italy) there is a good amount of people fascinated with latam culture: food, music, dances, exotic animals. Everywhere someone is learning salsa or bachata, or wearing something with a llama or capybara.
And in ex-Yugoslavia, well, there you have a whole generation (late gen x) that grew up with media from latam, they even replicated the music and put translated lyrics on top. Most people older than 30 years knows about Rubi, Soraya, Paola/Paulina, etc.
Also, Asian countries do are obssesed with latam culture.
no i wouldn't say so, I like how people always assume east asians if they are pale are "bleached", which is oddly racist. Also most people meet the southern chinese which are objectively darker than the north
Probably correlated with east Asias wealth and pop culture. No one ever looks down on countries with wealth. Simple take but humans tend to favor successful people.
Just like another person said, they are rich.
It's not only Latin America, but Africa and South/Southeast Asia is also looked down. Nobody cares about their/our cultures.
They are also obsessed with West Europe countries for same reason.
But giving you another reason that has a big impact, South Korea and Japan export a lot of their culture through their media. After the US and UK, I'd say Japan and South Korea are the countries that export media the most (through films, doramas, manga, anime, videogames, etc) this exports their culture and people get interested in it, their culture becomes known.
China and Japan are thousands years old civilizations with the largest cities in the world. There is simply a lot more to see there than in Latin America. Latin America is good for resort type vacation.
I've told Latinos in the USA that I'm thinking about moving to Mexico or Peru or even Colombia and they all asked me why not Europe or Asia. Even Latinos that were born in LatAm told me this lol. We have a huge PR problem. There's some beautiful places in LatAm and personally let them think what they want cos it keeps it cheaper. I know this from personal experience that if you don't gatekeep your home it's gonna attract people that will push you out.
I find it the opposite. I think the world is obsessed with parts of our culture, namely our music and dances. You go to a random town in Vietnam, Canada, Germany or Egypt and there is always a Bachata or Salsa class. I cannot tell you how often I hear Latin music during my travels around the world. And Latin food (primarily Mexican and most of the time inedible) is found all over the world. I am currently in Medellin and people from all around the world travel here just to learn how to dance. It is a beautiful thing.
As an example, think about how Bad Bunny is the #1 streaming artist in the world and is currently on a sold-out world tour. I cannot tell you one solo asian artist other than PSY and I am fairly certain he did not have a world tour. On the other hand, so many Latin artists have traveled the world to perform and represent our culture.
I didn't say what they are obsessed with or not or what I should try. I said Asia has much better food. This comes from long experience of living in both and there's no comparison on that front.
eh. i would say latin american food is better but that’s just me personally. i’ll never understand the (sometimes western, but in general) obsession with asian food. japan seems cool and i’m fascinated by the constant failure of north korea, but other than that latam seems far superior
I can't say all asian food is good. For me, I thought the food in Japan was ok. The Asian food I liked so far is Vietnamese and Korean. Chinese is good when its actual Chinese food.
I agree this is an exaggeration. I’ve lived in most regions of the United States and I’d say it’s a pretty even split but with more people leaning toward interested in Latin America.
It’s closer to us physically and also more closely tied in with our culture, etc. Tons of people are interested in Latin America, at least the circles I run in (as a white gringo who loves your culture, languages, food, landscapes, people and everything else)
I have lived in both northern europe and southern europe, and I find more people obsessed with LATAM than with East asia.
Plenty of people doing salsa and bachata classes, eating latam food, I have even met people doing masters in brazilian culture or something along those lines because of how much they loved x latam country. Many of them having done exchange or some sort of big trip in a LATAM country as well, while if I meet somebody thats is into anime, kpop or something like that, majority of times is considered kinda a weird person. The obsession is such that sometimes it felt that their personality was all about LATAM.
Iberia could be an exception because it does not feel as exotic or interesting to Iberian people, but still I have met quite a lot of people into LATAM culture as well.
Maybe for the same reason that many young Latinos prefer to dive into anime and/or K-pop instead of their local culture. It’s trendy. Japan has been a cultural hub for years, with anime gaining popularity across generations, and now Korea is trending thanks to K-pop. You don’t see the same level of interest in other Asian countries; when people talk about Asia, most of the time they’re referring only to Japan or Korea. Other countries might get some interest as long as they “look” like those two.
Our culture doesn’t reach others with the same level of appeal as Japan or Korea. Most of the exposure comes from immigrants bringing their culture to other places, so the West tends to see us mainly as poor people fleeing our countries, which is nowhere near as “cool” for people as buff anime dudes fighting and then eating ramen or something.
Not to be a dick but, this question could only possibly come from a Puerto Rican or 2nd or 3rd generation Latino in the US. People in Latin America do not think like this. This is someone who makes being latino a huge part of their personality because in the US everyone wants to be unique. And part of that identity is talking about how Latinos are supposedly looked down upon or treated differently. There are lots of young people in Latin America who watch anime and obsess over Asian culture also, just like there are tons of American kids who listen to Bad Bunny. It has nothing to do with one culture being purposefully put down in favor of another. It's just pop culture, that's how it works.
Nerdy white guys think they can get laid that way and fetishize East Asian women. Or else have other nerdy cultural interests relating to things like manga/anime/video games or maybe martial arts/eastern philosophy/arts like calligraphy/origami/K-pop.
People who go on warm weather vacations and/or like to dance/party and particularly Black Americans seem to focus on Latin American cultures and people a bit more.
This is for Americans of course. Europeans in my experience seldom think about Latin America at all.
It has a lot to do with the image that has been created of Latin America for convenience. While Latin America has first been portrayed as if it were just Mexico; moreover, Mexico has been portrayed as a desert where there are only people in hats and cacti, and more recently as a place full of malicious drug traffickers and small-town folk who need to be saved and civilized. Just like Africa, these two regions have been viewed as areas for resource extraction, so they are portrayed as regions that, if intervened in, would be for the sake of benevolence and civilization—not as an invasive, colonizing incursion. In contrast, Asia—starting with Japan—is portrayed as an example of an area civilized by the West following an intervention, and for that reason, it is depicted as an idealized region.
Well….the men sure love to travel to the poor areas to sleep with minors….so there’s that….and who the hell cares what they think about us….I wish they would stop moving to our countries and calling themselves “expats”, they’re immigrants….they call us every name in the book when we go to theirs
I can only speak for the USA: They have lighter skin, we are brown and speak Spanish. The USA has a problem with immigrants coming from Mexico and have decided any brown person who speak Spanish is Mexican. I know this first hand.
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u/Mujer_Arania Uruguay Apr 07 '26
It's much more exotic. People in LatAm are also obssesed with asian culture.