History NationalStereotypes / CentralAndSouthAmerica

* There are few notable Costa Ricans on the global scale. Actor Creator/HarryShumJr was born there but moved to the United States at a young age.

* Guatemalans are known to be very divided among themselves, but always friendly to foreigners.

* After Paraguay, Peru is the second best-known producer of piracy and bootlegs in the region. He is especially known for his pirated DVDs that contain weird videos as bonus content.

* Famous Chilean people on an international scale include Series/JerseyShore reality star Snooki and Music/{{Slayer}} frontman Tom Araya.

* As a result of being poor, these countries often [[DevelopingNationsLackCities lack big cities]]. It's mainly shown as just villages and towns with crappy, dilapidated buildings.

* Miguel Cabrera of MLB fame and Creator/WilmerValderrama are from Venezuela.

** There's also something unique about Argentine audiences. Their soccer supporters have a special name, ''hinchas'', but whether it be a sport match or a musical concert they will always react with tremendous enthusiasm and great gratitude. They even sing entire songs (not just verses!) in the stadiums and change the lyrics into actual chants fit for the occasion. Even when their team is losing they will keep on singing. Other countries started [[FollowTheLeader copying this trend]]. [[labelnote:*]]In a bizarre twist of events the Argentine songs traveled all the way through the Pacific Ocean and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpRKBoCLB18 not even Japanese football fans resisted the urge to make the Argentine songs their own, and so you have extremely bizarre moments like Japanese people singing a song from la Mona Jiménez, a popular singer from the tropical genre called cuarteto. [[/labelnote]]

* In (beat 'em up) videogames, Brazilian characters are prevalent, and generally come in one of two flavours. Firstly, there is the AmbiguouslyBrown, [[FunPersonified exuberant]], grinning DanceBattler type, a depiction no-doubt deriving from the native UsefulNotes/{{Capoeira}} martial art. Examples include Ricardo Maia/Richard Mayer (owner of the Pao Pao cafe, no less) and Bob Wilson from ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and also ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'''s Eddy Gordo and his ''unbelievably'' [[ForeignFanservice fanservicey]] student Christie Monteiro, who evokes the classic Brazilian carnival queen. Elements of this character can also be seen with Sean and Laura Matsuda from the ''Franchise/StreetFigher'' series and Team South America from ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighteres The King of Fighters XIV]]''[[note]]While Nelson and Bandeiras are Brazilian, Zarina is actually Colombian[[/note]]. The other type is the jungle-dwelling, BeastMan from the Amazon, most famously realized with Blanka, the first Brazilian character from the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series (who's actually quite well-loved in his native land), as well as Tam Tam & Cham Cham from ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'' and Rikuo from ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', who's a straight-up ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'' shout-out.

* Don't ask Brazilians, Argentinians or Uruguayans [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguayan_War what happened in Paraguay between 1864-1870]]; what, are you crazy? You might start another war if you ask too much! Just be glad that Paraguay still exists even after '''that'''!

* Uruguay was the first country to host the World championship soccer, which happened in 1930. Uruguayan soccer is known in South America for the perceived tendency for rough playing, which has led their national team to be nicknamed "La Garra Charrúa". Though well versed and world-famous, some players have had considerable trouble for taking it too far. A national team that has to play the Uruguayans has to acknowledge that they are going to leave the pitch really sore, even if they defeat the "Charrúas".

* Miguel Cabrera of MLB fame is from Venezuela.

* Many foreigners think Brazilians speak Spanish, while in fact it's a Portuguese-speaking country, the only in Latin America and the largest in the world (although note that obviously, due to the geographical proximity and similarity of the anguages, there are really a lot of Spanish-speakers in Brazil too). Nevertheless, in foreign films and TV shows people will always talk with a Spanish/Latin accent whenever they impersonate a Brazilian.

** {{Music/Megadeth}} went to say that they always enjoyed playing in Argentina because of the audience reception there, they even recorded a DVD to show it to the rest of their fans, and the world. {{Music/ACDC}} recorded an entire DVD in the River Plate stadium, and {{Music/Ramones}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg3Jhdke_pk were chased around in the streets of Buenos Aires by obsessive fans]]. The band even choose the country for their final international concert.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Latin America is sometimes depicted as overwhelmingly and devoutly Catholic. While that may have been true many years ago, much has changed. Most South American countries and historically Catholic countries have legalized same-sex marriage, and, while UsefulNotes/ThePope is still very popular, many Latin American Catholics have become Evangelical Protestant, [[http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/11/14/why-has-pentecostalism-grown-so-dramatically-in-latin-america/usually Pentecostal]].

* Latin Americans, particularly in Spanish speaking countries are stereotyped as servile towards Spain in many aspects, mainly in the norms and rules regarding the Spanish Language and their general attitude towards the Spanish Monarchs; the latter in particular is rather confusing, as the King Juan Carlos is still referred to in the media as "His Majesty" even when the countries gained their independence hundreds of years before.
** ''Other'' countries' Kings and Queens are referred to as "His/Her Majesty" by Latin America media, and UsefulNotes/ThePope is referred to as "His Holiness" as well. (Specially the media that politically leans towards the right-wing) [[ValuesDissonance It's just out of common etiquette, which others aren't necessarily bound by.]]

* Historically the continent is most famous for several native peoples like the Maya, the Aztecs, the Olmecs, the Incas,... These cultures built large temples, pyramids and cities, most famously Macchu Pichu in Perú, though [[AncientAstronauts some people would rather give extraterrestrial aliens credit for this]]. Since they ritually sacrificed many of their own people to the sun and were slaughtered by [[EvilColonialist Spanish-Portugese conquistadores]] as well there aren't many of these people left.
* Another famous location is the thick and unpenetrable UsefulNotes/TheAmazonRainforest, best known as a popular location in adventure stories. Travellers might seek legendary cities of gold, unknown archeological sites, {{Mayincatec}} mummies, huge monsters, primitive tribes unaware of modern society or [[LostWorld descendants]] of the [[{{Mayincatec}} Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Inca culture]] who managed to survive in secret after all those centuries. Usually all kinds of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' booby-traps prevent explorers from taking these long lost treasures along with them. Or the TempleOfDoom just collapses. HollywoodNatives might try to kill them as a HumanSacrifice as well. Or they encounter a famous explorer lost for decades whom they presumed was dead, but actually [[GoingNative went native]]. While on expedition they will also inevitably come across several South American jungle clichés. First and foremost: Amazonian Indians. Like all tribal societies in Western popular culture they are depicted as being dumb, primitive and always head-hunting. They use blowguns to fire off poisoned arrows or make {{Shrunken Head}}s out of their victims. [[CapturedByCannibals Or they just eat them]]. Other obstacles are dangerous animals like jaguars, pumas, leopards and black panthers leaping from trees. Anacondas and boa constrictors will strangle you, huge bats and mosquitoes suck your blood, poisonous tarantulas the size of dinner plates [[BigCreepyCrawlies crawl everywhere]] and when you fall in the [[RiverOfInsanity river]] [[PiranhaProblem piranhas]] or caimans will rip you to shreds. Some less threatening jungle animals might also have a cameo: anteaters, chinchillas, armadillos, howler monkeys, sloths, humming birds, parrots (particularly macaws), toucans, flamingos,...

* All novels written in Latin America are written in MagicRealism. All adaptations of those novels have a minimalist and endlessly weepy soundtrack by Music/PhilipGlass.

* South Americans are derogatorily referred to as "Sudacas" (a portmanteau of "Sudamericanos" and "sweaty") by Central Americans, Mexicans and Spaniards.

* Honduras is also unfortunately known for being one of the unsafest countries in the world, housing the World's Murder Capital, the city of San Pedro Sula.

* Nicaragua is poor even by Latin American standards and given its southern neighbor is one of the richest countries in the region, there are stereotypes related to that.

* It has a famous canal.

* Argentina has the most Caucasian citizens of any Latin American country, along with Uruguay (mostly people of Italian descent). This makes it somewhat less exotic for North Americans and Europeans, who feel more at home; this is also [[ExploitedTrope played by the Argentine Bureau of Tourism]], which made Buenos Aires the most visited city in Latin America, with heavy contribution of North American and European visitors.
** Argentina's "white" reputation and magnetic attraction for European visitors and immigrants might also explain why ArgentinaIsNaziland. Since the end of the Second World War, many former Nazis fled to the country. Given that Argentina had its share of Fascist dictators in the past it may not come as a surprise that these war criminals were able to live there without fear of deportation, until the return of democracy for good, back in the 80's, since then every single one of them ever found has been deported to whatever country wanted them to be judged for the war crimes they committed. Now that most of them are finally dead this stereotype might die out as well.

* In Spain and Latin America Argentines are stereotyped as cunning, treacherous people who enjoy taking advantage of others.

* The only South American country where the founder is internationally famous, due to the fact that his name became a toponym for the country: : UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar. Bolivar himself, however, was born in what is now Venezuela. Bolivia was merely one of the countries he helped liberate.

** Also, they like to [[ActionGirl fight in lucha rings]] while wearing traditional clothes. Bowler hats included.

* Many foreigners think Brazilians speak Spanish, while in fact it's the largest Portuguese speaking country in the world! It's also the only Portuguese speaking country in Latin America. Nevertheless, in foreign films and TV shows people will always talk with a Spanish accent whenever they impersonate a Brazilian.

*** The carnival in Rio also fed Brazil's reputation for late night parties in the streets that never seem to end. The country as a whole has a strong association with catchy and sexy dances, especially the samba, choro, conga, bossa nova, tropicalia and lambada. Some of the most famous South American musicians were Brazilians: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gilberto Gil, João Gilberto, Ary Barroso, Sergio Mendes,... Carmen Miranda (with her tutti frutti hat) was born in Portugal, but raised in Brazil and closely associated with the country.
*** Which also brings us to the idea that every Brazilian woman is a young, sexy, [[VaporWear scantily clad]] SpicyLatina with big bo soms and ''really'' nice hips/butts. They are all keen to dance and very open to sex.

* In (beat 'em up) videogames, Brazilian characters are prevalent, and generally come in one of two flavours. Firstly, there is the AmbiguouslyBrown, [[FunPersonified exuberant]], grinning DanceBattler type, a depiction no-doubt deriving from the native Capoeira martial art. Examples include Ricardo Maia/Richard Mayer (owner of the Pao Pao cafe, no less) and Bob Wilson from ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and also ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'''s Eddy Gordo and his ''unbelievably'' [[ForeignFanservice fanservicey]] student Christie Monteiro, who evokes the classic Brazilian carnival queen. Elements of this character can also be seen with Sean and Laura Matsuda from the ''Franchise/StreetFigher'' series and Team South America from ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighteres The King of Fighters XIV]]''[[note]]While Nelson and Bandeiras are Brazilian, Zarina is actually Colombian[[/note]]. The other type is the jungle-dwelling, BeastMan from the Amazon, most famously realized with Blanka, the first Brazilian character from the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series (who's actually quite well-loved in his native land), as well as Tam Tam & Cham Cham from ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'' and Rikuo from ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', who's a straight-up ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'' shout-out.

* The country is also known for the Easter Island, with its mythical ''Moai'' statues built by the local Rapa Nui people. Despite this, the connection the island has with Chile is not often brought up in media, being treated more as its own place in Polynesia.
* Chileans have also been known for not caring one bit during quakes [[OhCrap that send everyone else scrambling off their seats and into the back yard or street.]] As any Chilean over ten has probably seen at least one 7+ Richter earthquake, anything below that isn't worthy of their attention, other than to giggle at foreigners' reactions. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdDZbMQcANw As a proof, here's a video of a Chilean radio host who stays all calm through 2015's 8,4 earthquake.]]

** The Spanish spoken in Colombia, in Bogota in particular, has a reputation of being the "best" spoken Spanish available. This is debatable at best, as while in most cases the Spanish spoken there is easy to understand, it's mainly centered around groups of people with certain levels of affluence/education (the one most commonly shown on TV), as the Spanish spoken by people in Bogota's lower strata can be almost unintelligible to outsiders. This can be rooted in a very common and identifiable problem: barely opening their mouth to speak, and also, talking through their teeth, jaw closed.

* Colombians are also stereotyped as ''druggies''. In this respect, the actual trade consists in the fact that Colombia is a ''producing'' country, not a ''consumer'' country. Consumer countries are for example, the United States and the countries of the European Union, making them ''the druggies''. Actually Colombian drug trafficking has considerably receded compared to the likes of Peru and Bolivia over the last two decades and the stereotypes are related to the country's situation in the 1980's to mid-90's.

* Colombian cities are often stereotyped in Hollywood as being tropical and humid, especially the places where it's ostensibly not the case... Tell that to the people in the mountain ranges, or basically where ''most Colombians live''; they're not about to crack open their fans anytime soon.

* Colombia is also infamous for a torture technique called a "Colombian necktie", in which the throat is cut open and the tongue is pulled out through the hole. Luckily this is just an urban legend, as this is biologically impossible because the tongue isn't located in the neck, nor can't be pulled all the way down through the throat.

* Ecuador had hostile relations with Peru during the 80's and 90's, losing the Amazon to their southern neighbors in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenepa_War Cenepa war]].

* More modern depictions of Peruvians will be stereotyped as people who speak in helium-infused squeaky voices while wearing colorful robes and funny bonnets with ear flaps. Llamas, alpacas and vicuñas will wander around everywhere, pulling weird antics and spitting in tourists' faces.

* If talking in Spanish with a Venezuelan, don't be surprised if they surreptitiously throw the expression "verga" (cock) or variants of it like "vergación" (cock-ing) into the conversation. It's almost an autochthonous VerbalTic equivalent to "thingy" or "whatchamacallit". As a matter of fact, should they start throwing it, it means that there is a level of trust reached with you.

* More modern depictions of Peruvians will be stereotyped as people who speak in helium-infused squeaky voices while wearing colorful robes and funny bonnets with ear flaps. Llamas, alpacas and vicuñas will wander around everywhere, [[EverythingsBetterwithLlamas pulling weird antics and spitting in tourists' faces.]]

* Bianca Jagger, the ex girlfriend of Music/TheRollingStones frontman Music/MickJagger, is from here. Also of note is Ana Navarro, a liberal Republican commentator from CNN.

* In the countryside, all men are brave gauchos, generally noble, proud and stoic, who can even sew silk on horseback and [[KnifeNut tend to answer to the smallest provocation with a knife]]. They mostly eat read meat and drink gallons of wine and the mate beverage.

*** Which also brings us to the idea that every Brazilian woman is a young, sexy, [[VaporWear scantily clad]] SpicyLatina with big busoms and ''really'' nice hips/butts. They are all keen to dance and very open to sex.

* Chileans have also been known for not giving a single fuck during quakes [[OhCrap that send everyone else scrambling off their seats and into the back yard or street.]] As any Chilean over ten has probably seen at least one 7+ Richter earthquake, anything below that isn't worthy of their attention, other than to giggle at foreigners' reactions. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdDZbMQcANw As a proof, here's a video of a Chilean radio host who stays all calm through 2015's 8,4 earthquake.]]

* More modern depictions Peruvians will be stereotyped as people who speak in helium-infused squeaky voices while wearing colorful robes and funny bonnets with ear flaps. Llamas, alpacas and vicunas will wander around everywhere, [[EverythingsBetterwithLlamas pulling weird antics and spitting in tourists's faces.]]

* Panama is also known for its former United States nationals, who resided in the Canal Zone until the canal was surrendered to the Panamanians. Notable US nationals born there include late Senator (and former presidential hopeful) John [=McCain=], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_A._Murphy,_Jr Edward Murphy Jr.]], the creator of MurphysLaw. Other notable Panamanians include actress Creator/JordanaBrewster and baseball icon Mariano Rivera.

* Another famous location is the thick and unpenetrable [[TheAmazon Amazon rain forest]], best known as a popular location in adventure stories. Travellers might seek legendary cities of gold, unknown archeological sites, {{Mayincatec}} mummies, huge monsters, primitive tribes unaware of modern society or [[LostWorld descendants]] of the [[{{Mayincatec}} Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Inca culture]] who managed to survive in secret after all those centuries. Usually all kinds of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' booby-traps prevent explorers from taking these long lost treasures along with them. Or the TempleOfDoom just collapses. HollywoodNatives might try to kill them as a HumanSacrifice as well. Or they encounter a famous explorer lost for decades whom they presumed was dead, but actually [[GoingNative went native]]. While on expedition they will also inevitably come across several South American jungle clichés. First and foremost: Amazonian Indians. Like all tribal societies in Western popular culture they are depicted as being dumb, primitive and always head-hunting. They use blowguns to fire off poisoned arrows or make {{Shrunken Head}}s out of their victims. [[CapturedByCannibals Or they just eat them]]. Other obstacles are dangerous animals like jaguars, pumas, leopards and black panthers leaping from trees. Anacondas and boa constrictors will strangle you, huge bats and mosquitoes suck your blood, poisonous tarantulas the size of dinner plates [[BigCreepyCrawlies crawl everywhere]] and when you fall in the [[RiverOfInsanity river]] [[PiranhaProblem piranhas]] or caimans will rip you to shreds. Some less threatening jungle animals might also have a cameo: anteaters, chinchillas, armadillos, howler monkeys, sloths, humming birds, parrots (particularly macaws), toucans, flamingos,...

* Another famous location is the thick and unpenetrable [[TheAmazon Amazon rain forest]], best known as a popular location in adventure stories. Travellers might seek legendary cities of gold, unknown archeological sites, {{Mayincatec}} mummies, huge monsters, primitive tribes unaware of modern society or [[LostWorld descendants]] of the [[{{Mayincatec}} Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Inca culture]] who managed to survive in secret after all those centuries. Usually all kinds of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' booby-traps prevent explorers from taking these long lost treasures along with them. Or the TempleOfDoom just collapses. HollywoodNatives might try to kill them as a HumanSacrifice as well. Or they encounter a famous explorer lost for decades whom they presumed was dead, but actually [[GoingNative went native]]. While on expedition they will also inevitably come across several South American jungle clichés. First and foremost: Amazonian Indians. Like all tribal societies in Western popular culture they are depicted as being dumb, primitive and always head-hunting. They use blowguns to fire off poisoned arrows or make {{Shrunken Head}}s out of their victims. [[CapturedByCannibals Or they just eat them]]. Other obstacles are dangerous animals like jaguars, pumas, leopards and black panthers leaping from trees. Anacondas and boa constrictors will strangle you, huge bats and mosquitoes suck your blood, poisonous tarantulas the size of dinner plates [[BigCreepyCrawlies crawl everywhere]] and when you fall in the [[RiverOfInsanity river]] [[PiranhaProblem piranhas]] or caimans will rip you to shreds. Some less threatening jungle animals might also have a cameo: anteaters, chinchillas, armadillos, howler monkeys, sloths, humming birds, parrots, toucans, flamingos,...

** Valparaíso and Viña people ''really'' love to party. They also sneer at tourists and whine because everyone ''but'' them DrivesLikeCrazy. Oh, and they will [[BerserkButton scream at you]] [[ArsonmurderAndJaywalking if you call crust bread "marraqueta" instead of "pan francés".]] Valparaíso people also live in the hills, in poor but very colorful wooden houses.

* Costa Ricans are more often than not confused with Colombians because of the closeness of their accents.

* Salvadorans are known to liberally use the ClusterFBomb in their speech, and are known to be loud in conversation.

* They are often confused for Mexicans like other Central American states due to their neutral accents. Do '''not''' even try to confuse Salvadorans for Mexicans. They don't like it.

* If Guyana is mentioned at all, people will often mistakenly assume it's Latin American just because it's on the Caribbean coast of South America. In fact, Guyana is the sole English-speaking country in South America, and its border with the Caribbean coast and shared culture with other former British colonies in the Caribbean Sea results in the nation having a Caribbean-based culture.

* Generally referred to as '''Latin America'''[[note]]Prior to the reign of Napoleon III of France (1848-1870) the term "Hispanoamerica" was much more common, but it has been replaced - even in Spanish - by the term popularized by Napoleon III as a justification for his imperialism[[/note]], because so many countries in this continent either speak Spanish, Portuguese or French (French Guyana). As a result, many Hispanic stereotypes about Spain and Portugal will also be used for Latin-Americans: people prefer having siestas, sing serenades while playing the guitar, women are SpicyLatina and men are [[LatinLover latin lovers]],... Despite this, not all countries in Central and South America have a Latin language based native tongue. There are also some Dutch speaking states (Suriname) and English ones (Belize, Guyana, The Falklands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands). And, of course, indigenous people also have their own languages.

* In (beat 'em up) videogames, Brazilian characters are prevalent, and generally come in one of two flavours. Firstly, there is the AmbiguouslyBrown, [[FunPersonified exuberant]], grinning DanceBattler type, a depiction no-doubt deriving from the native Capoeira martial art. Examples include Ricardo Maia/Richard Mayer (owner of the Pao Pao cafe, no less) and Bob Wilson from ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and also ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'''s Eddy Gordo and his ''unbelievably'' [[ForeignFanservice fanservicey]] student Christie Monteiro, who evokes the classic Brazilian carnival queen. Elements of this character can also be seen with Sean and Laura Matsuda from the ''Franchise/StreetFigher'' series and Team South America from ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighteres The King of Fighters XIV]]''[[note]]While Nelson and Bandeiras are Brazilian, Zarina is actually Colombian[[/note]]. The other type is the jungle-dwelling, BeastMan from the Amazon, most famously realized with Blanka, the first Brazilian character from the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series (who's actually quite [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales well-loved in his native land]]), as well as Tam Tam & Cham Cham from ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'' and Rikuo from ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', who's a straight-up ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'' shout-out.