ABSTRACT
The degree to which aboriginal racial and cultural traits are retained in modern Latin America varies greatly from region to region. Southern South America, including most of Argentina and all of Uruguay, is a great expanse of almost purely European settlement. Costa Rica, some parts of coastal Brazil, and most of the Antilles are also largely non-Indian in both race and culture. Other parts of Latin America are populated primarily by descendants of an early mixture of Indians and Europeans who live in essentially European-style communities, retaining only a few discrete traits of aboriginal culture. Paraguay and much of interior rural Brazil are the best examples of this type; but some of Western Argentina, middle Chile, lowland Peru, interior Central America, and parts of Venezuela and Colombia are also of this mixed Indian-European, or Mestizo, type of population. A third category is found most strikingly in the highlands of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, and Guatemala, where there are huge rural populations of pure Indian descent. Despite their long submission to the national political systems and many important modifications in the organization of their cultures, they tend to retain certain elements of the aboriginal traditions as well as a rather distinctive ethos. I shall refer to these three kinds of regions as Euro-America, Mestizo-America, and Indo-America.
