Darcy Ribeiro stresses the existence of a geographical, continental Latin America that has not yet become a political or linguistic unit. According to the author, the countries in the region do not live together as a single body; they “coexist” in the same area, each nation an isolated entity that focuses out toward the great population centers of the rest of the world. As regards ethnicities, there is a mixture of European influences that combine with indigenous people, blacks, and other races to produce a partially homogenous blend. Ethnic groups with enduring racial traits tend to be seen as socially inferior, and prejudice ensues. In Ribeiro’s opinion, the ideal condition would be total fusion, the rise of the mestizo or neo-American, a trend that can only be seen clearly from abroad. Latin Americans are united by their colonial heritage as well as, of course, by the prosperity and the violence that are an essential part of the colonialism that imposed foreign languages and customs through an administrative class always focused beyond the Atlantic. The expression “Latin America” would only be meaningful if it were expressed as a form of united antagonism to Anglo-American influence; that is, from the position of poverty and economic dependency, underdevelopment and backwardness created by the civilizing process imposed by expansionist Iberian goals. That would indeed have transformed Latin America into a distinct, homogenous entity in the eyes of the world, operating as a macro-ethnic entity that might eventually attain some form of supranational political being.
