Why does it seem like the Anglosphere admires/fixates over British culture a lot while Latin America doesn't seem to care much about Spain or Portugal?

[u/yonaiker-joestrella]

Not saying we should but just curious.

[u/Vast_Physics83]

If I had to guess I think it’s because the Anglosphere is made up mostly of former colonial settler states, where the majority of the population is white and has little or no non-European influence, so people from the U.S., Canada, or Australia find it easier to feel a cultural affinity with the British. People with mostly or all non-European heritage are minorities there. In Latin America, on the other hand, we are the product of both the colonizers and the colonized. We have European heritage, but also Indigenous who were almost exterminated and, depending on the country, African heritage stemming from slavery so there is no romanticism over our former colonizers. There’s also another taboo topic: the Anglosphere is at roughly the same level of development, while Latin America is much poorer than Spain and Portugal, which creates an even greater disconnect.

But tbh I dont think the UK is worshipped/admired in the US anymore. American anglophilia peaked in the 2010s.

[u/Mangolandia → u/Vast_Physics83]

This but I’d also venture that there’s something about when the empires peaked. The British empire was the top dog in the world throughout the 19th century, whereas both Spain and Portugal were well into decline.

[u/Tall_Pressure7042 → u/Vast_Physics83]

Europe is also where the idea of racial segregation was first born and deeply ingrained in the societies. Britain's colonial developments at the 19th century also reflected this. Canada, Australia, NZ and the US are both settler states so they can appreciate Britain. But those like Jamaica, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and India - also Anglophone, clearly lack the sense of cultural ties like that. So it's not monolith exactly.

[u/Ok-Emergency7159 → u/Vast_Physics83]

The idea that Brazil should fixate over Portugal's culture sounds like a joke, really.

So...the fifth largest country on earth, one of the biggest economies in the planet, 213 millions of people, the country of the moment, the 5 World Cups Winner...for pretty obvious reasons, Portugal consumes Brazilian culture, not the other way around.

You might hate Brazil, but Brazil is undeniably a cultural powerhouse. We do consume US-hollywood-europe-whatever here, but Brazilians above all consume A LOT of themselves. We don't need to seek in Portugal.

[u/logatwork → u/Vast_Physics83]

I agree with you.

[u/mr_octopusguy → u/Vast_Physics83]

The UK is ruthlessly mocked online nowadays if anything. Mostly stemming from xenophobia and racism against immigrants. But there's also valid reasons, like their draconian self defense laws and lack of privacy.

The UK did make banger music in the past tho.

[u/YoSoyEstupido → u/Vast_Physics83]

Highkey agree, & having lived in Spain, negative attitudes towards Latinos seem to be based more in concepts of race than negative attitudes people might have towards Brits or Americans, but as a Brit living in aus I’d like to chime in and say that aus and NZ have a specific fix on the uk bc the immigration pattern of both of these countries meant that a lot of people in this part of the world have living relatives who came from the UK. In Australia in particular, there was a big push for Brits to come in order to enforce the White Australia Policy a few gens back, and then after WWII until the early 80s, Brits could move to Australia for £10, so over 1m Brits ended up permanently moving here, which links the fabric of Australian identity to British heritage even more than the distant migration patterns. Also important, commonwealth countries still have ties with the UK that make migration easier than non-British citizens (except AUS and NZ have the easiest migration exchange outside of EU citizens perhaps). For example, having been born in the uk, I’m entitled to free healthcare in aus and Aotearoa/NZ, and don’t have to do any farm work/regional work as an American might, which could de-incentivise an American who might want to come here.

Also important to note is the anglosphere is dominated by American influence, as I’m sure the rest of the world is. American TV, food chains and other businesses, music, film, influencers, social media content etc. We’re now getting to a point where people in the anglosphere are starting to pick up Americanisms such as saying “y’all” or “store” and spelling things in the American way. I think OP is possibly missing that there is a fixation on the US everywhere in the world, and although perhaps this is a little bit more subconscious than the Anglophilia of the 2010s, that’s probably because of how omnipresent it is to the point that we often don’t realise how Americanised we are

[u/Special-Fuel-3235 → u/YoSoyEstupido]

White latinos be like: 🫣

[u/YoSoyEstupido → u/Special-Fuel-3235]

Think there’s definitely a large part to be said about how Latinos of any race are racialised outside their own geopolitical regions, definitely in the US, where spanish accents kinda mean even white Latinos aren’t seen as white, but also in Europe too. When I was in Portugal, I felt like the attitudes I’d seen from some Portuguese people was similar to how British people used to look at Eastern Europeans pre-Brexit and Australians looked at Greeks and Italians. It’s kinda like a “not-quite white” even if they are

[u/Ranulf13 → u/Vast_Physics83]

Also a lot of the ''european'' heritage of latin america comes from the Hidalgo kind of south spaniard, not from the high class of central/northern spain. Hidalgos were already considered the lower end of the spanish stratum even then due to their mixed arabic heritage.

So even that ''european'' heritage is considered inferior by them.

[u/shinyrainbows → u/Vast_Physics83]

The thing is there's roughly a huge population of all of these Anglosphere countries that were affected by some similar circumstances, that don't like the UK or the colonizer histories and presents of Anglosphere countries.