The United States and Latin America

The lazy greaser asleep under a sombrero and the avaricious gringo with money-stuffed pockets are only two of the negative stereotypes that North Americans and Latin Americans have cherished during several centuries of mutual misunderstanding. In this unique study, noted scholar Fredrick Pike probes the origins of these stereotypes and myths and explores how they have shaped North American perceptions of Latin America from the time of the Pilgrims up to the end of the twentieth century. Pike's central thesis is that North Americans have identified themselves with "civilization" in all its manifestations, while viewing Latin Americans as hopelessly trapped in primitivism, the victims of nature rather than its masters. He shows how this civilization-nature duality arose from the first European settlers' perception that nature - and everything identified with it, including American Indians, African slaves, all women, and all children - was something to be conquered and dominated. This myth eventually came to color the North American establishment view of both immigrants to the United States and all our neighbors to the south. Pike also acknowledges the complexity of North American society and recognizes that counterculture movements, which celebrate the natural, primitive, and instinctive, have always existed in some form. When counterculture attitudes have prevailed, as in the 1960s and 1970s, North Americans have paid more heed to the rights of the environment, of minority groups, and of women and children. A unique feature of the study is its close scrutiny of U.S. cultural currents, as manifested in literature, art, and music. In particular, Pike explores how rock-and-roll and itsNorth American cult shed light on hemispheric relations. Pike concludes that Latin America has undergone Americanization, while the United States has in many ways been Latin Americanized. The old myths and stereotypes may never have explained very much about reality, but now they exp