After reading the Cuban counterpoint by Fernando Ortiz, it became more clear to me how is it that the latinamerican culture is not easily defined, but was a result of the clash between many cultures coming into the territory and the pre-Hispanic traditions. I strongly agree with the perspective Ortiz shows when saying transculturalism is a more accurate definition for what happened during the colonization period. This term, indicates that there was not only a sort of trade-off between the European, indigenous and African culture, but goes beyond that. It recognizes the existence of acculturation and deculturation as part of this process, as well as neoculturation, which is teh aquisicion of a new culture. In my perspective I think all these elements were present during and after the colonial period and definitely left a mark on what we now call the Latin american culture. One of the reasons I think the idea of Latin america is so difficult to define is precisely because of this. If we take a close look at countries such as the Guyana or Belize itself which is in Latin america, their culture differ a lot from the same Guatemala or Venezuela, countries that are just bordering them. The main reason is the cultures they were influenced by during their colonization periods and how they adopted these new cultures and traditions from what we call the “old world” referring ourselves to Europe.

An instant thought that came to mind while reading it was that it is impressive how we can see the results of this transculturation even within the same country. For example, in Nicaragua, where I am from the Caribbean region has a different culture and different language. These region was conquered by the British who at the same time brought a lot of slaves from African countries, which is the reason why most of the population in that region is dark skinned. An example of transculturaltion in these region would be the official language of “Miskito” which is basically a mixture between the misumalpan language, a pre-colonial language and English.

It is important also to recognize how transculturation was as well pre-colonial with the migration of indigenous tribes such as the Tainos, and post colonial, we could even argue we still see it now a days with the influence from the United States in Latin america. The concept of a latin american is constantly changing and evolving, is just that we are not anymore in a context in which a language or religion is being forced for us, but transculturation is still happening with the contribution of globalization and economic trades between countries, as well as the exchange of political ideals.