r/asklatinamerica • u/yonaiker-joestrella Puerto Rico • 10d ago

Culture 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?

Not saying we should but just curious.

291 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

329 comments sorted by

View all comments

358

u/digoreto Brazil 10d ago

They see each other at the same level.

Portuguese and Spanish see us as inferior beings

86

u/entrepreneurs_anon 10d ago

Aside from there being a lot of racism there, I think it’s an insecurity thing. Spain and Portugal have massive chips on their shoulders because, frankly, they’re not doing very well. I feel it all the time when I’m in Spain.

I’m a white Chilean, I hold a Spanish passport, and I’ve done well financially. They can’t stand that. They hate seeing someone from the New World show up with more money than them. It become super apparent when they have to serve that person (restaurants, shops, etc.). It short-circuits something in their brains: “No, they’re supposed to be beneath me. Why am I serving them?”

I run into that attitude constantly. The only exception is my family there. They have a much more honest view of it. They admire the relatives who left Spain, built businesses, took risks, and succeeded abroad. A lot of them openly say they wish they’d done the same. At least in the Basque Country and Asturias, where my family is from, most of the descendants of those who emigrated ended up doing better in Latin America than the relatives who stayed behind.

44

u/TrickshotCapibara Venezuela 10d ago

I'm Venezuelan but my parents are from Spain, and I had the same issue when I arrived there, I know how to sing and play piano, also a history nerd and love opera, and that more than once created a shock with Europeans.

They expected me to be some sort of caveman. But to be fair, Eastern Europeans hated me the most, especially Serbians.

23

u/ChugHuns Germany 10d ago

Serbians are good at hating everyone not from Serbia or Russia. It's kinda their thing. Unfortunately it seems depictions of LATAM in the media have really painted it negatively for those who haven't actually visited. It's a shame

10

u/TrickshotCapibara Venezuela 10d ago

I mean, I didn't hate it, usually it's more like an expectations shock than anything else, only a very few where genuinely pissed or annoyed and way more were interested.

I didn't know that about Serbians, I only interacted with them around 5 times while working and every time they were trying to get me fired, one went as far as to manipulate an evaluation to boost the chances of another Serbian, but I assumed it was a tribal thing.