A History of Latin America

3

The Colonial Heritage

of Latin America

The Great City of Tenochtitlan (detail), 1945, by Diego Rivera. National Palace, Mexico City,

D.F., Mexico. © Banco de Mexico Trust. Schalkwijk/Art Resource, NY.

OR MOST NORTH AMERICANS, perhaps, the colonial past is a remote,

picturesque time that has little relevance to the way we live now.

The situation is very different in Latin America. “Even the casual

visitor to Latin America,” says the historian Woodrow Borah, “is struck by the

survival of institutions and features that are patently colonial.” The inventory of

colonial survivals includes many articles and practices of everyday life, systems of

land use and labor, and a wealth of social relations and attitudes.

Characteristic of the Latin American scene is the coexistence and mingling of

colonial and modern elements: the digging stick, the foot plow, and the handloom

coexist with the tractor, the conveyor belt, and the computer. In Latin America the

colonial past is not a nostalgic memory but a harsh reality. It signifi es economic

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