Representations and Misconceptions

Throughout the years, literature about Latin America has had a huge impact on its image.  Early on, travel accounts written by Europeans who visited Latin America helped shape outsiders view on the region.  As Jones discusses in the Companion to Latin American Studies, these travel writings more often than not depicted Latin America as an exotic place of grandeur where the landscape was portrayed as vast and untamed.  While not entirely inaccurate (Latin America is home to a number of breath-taking places), the accounts tend to exaggerate about untamed wilderness and would depict the indigenous peoples as primitive and barbaric, as wild as the land, or entirely absent from the picture.  These misrepresentations often lead to the minimization of important aspects of Latin America’s culture…a culture shaped and bound to its land.

More Than a Landscape

A region’s geography has a strong influence on its image.  Or perhaps I should say, it has a strong impact on its perceived image.  For one thing, geography is more than simply the physical characteristics of a place.  Of course, the first thing one thinks of when describing geography is the physical characteristics of a place, but in truth, there are multiple forms of geography.  For instance, cultural geography refers to the culture, traditions, and society within an area, rather than focusing on physical traits such as mountains and rivers.  Indeed there is also more to physical geography than just landscapes.  For example another aspect of geography describes the geographical location of a region.  This becomes an important question with Latin America.  Besides encompassing a large area on the map (as shown to the right), it can be argued that Latin America extends beyond these boundaries.  The boundaries of Latin America are becoming more and more blurred.  In “the Companion to Latin American Studies,” Gareth Jones describes Latin America as being deterritorialized and says that “Latin America might be a distinct place on a map, but its geography is everywhere” (Jones, 2003). 

Globalization has contributed significantly to this aspect of geography through the transfer of commodities as well as ideas.  Jones also talks in depth about “imaginative geographies” and their effect on global cultural flows (Jones, 2003).  Instead of describing a landscape, these imaginative geographies describe different aspects of a culture and are called ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes, and ideoscapes.  As you might infer from the names, these terms describe things like ethnicity (or the people who make up a culture), media, ideas, technology, and finances – which deal with global markets (Jones, 2003).  These “imaginative geographies” illustrate the point that different forms of Latin America’s geography are spreading across the world, which brings us back to Jones’ point about deterritorialization.  Besides extending Latin America’s culture, people, and ideas to other countries, there is a negative side to this evolution.  These global cultural flows have contributed to a displaced Latin America, where there is a disconnect between the perceived location of Latin America and its actual cultural and geographic make-up.

What’s the first image that comes to mind when you think of Latin America?  When referring to Latin America, many people immediately picture the vast, limitless rainforests of the Amazon, such as the image shown to the right.  Others see the vast expanses of prime sun bathing opportunity present on Mexico’s sandy shores.  And yet others only see a cruise in the Caribbean.  While all of these references may be correct, it is a myth to belief that all of Latin America can be represented by a few select images.

In truth, the geography of Latin America is much more than the typical images painted for us in books, brochures, and even on TV and movies. The region is home to a diverse collection of landscapes and climates, including everything from sandy beaches, grassy plains, and mountain ranges, to vast deserts and rainforests (and pretty much everything in between).

In this blog, we will explore some of the fascinating diversity present in this unique part of the world.  The purpose being to disprove some common myths about its landscape by becoming more familiar with the actual geography.  Due to the multitude of regions and types of geography within Latin America (and because of certain time constraints), a focus will be placed on one country rather than the whole of Latin America.   For the emphasis, I have chosen Brazil.  Being the largest country in South America, Brazil alone is home to a variety of landscapes and unique features so broad it is impossible to investigate them all thoroughly, but, with the time I do have, I hope to expand your knowledge and open your eyes to some of the geographical wonders of this country.