ABSTRACT
Any discussion of adult education in Latin America cannot be isolated from a context of poverty and increasing income polarization. Neither of these issues can be isolated from larger economic and political changes in the region, which in turn cannot be examined without reference to global dynamics. As we move full swing into the twenty-first century, Latin America continues to be the most unequal region of the planet. Current trends in many Latin American countries suggest that this situation is not improving, and in some countries it is actually getting worse. With a few exceptions (such as Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Cuba), more than 30 percent of Latin America’s total income is concentrated in just 10 percent of the households, and in many countries the figure is over 35 percent. In contrast, the portion of total income corresponding to the poorest 40 percent of households falls between 9 and 15 percent (CEPAL 2002a). For large sectors of the region’s population, such inequality is expressed in high levels of unemployment, underemployment, malnutrition, and overall poverty. Presently, about 220 million Latin Americans (about 45 percent of the total population) are living in poverty. Among them, about 90 million are below extreme poverty, living in indigence. This is the context in which Latin American educators face the reality of 42 million illiterate people and 110 million adults who have not completed primary school.
