If Latin isn’t spoken why is it called Latin America

By Katie Winter

In recent weeks I have been enjoying some of the sights and sounds of summer in spite of winter’s relentless grip on the weather conditions. In particular I am having a ball watching Minnesota Twins baseball games on television. The team is off to a bit of slow start, but I always have faith the players will pick it up and finish the season respectably.

A popular topic of discussion among the broadcasters has also been the cold and wet weather and what impact it has had on the players from Latin America. The reasoning behind this discussion is that since many of these players are unaccustomed to the cold weather their performance has suffered. I did some research and found that at the start of the 2008 baseball season 147 of the 750 major league baseball players are Latin American. This information got me wondering which countries these players are actually from. This developed into a second question: Why is Latin America called Latin America when the people there do not speak Latin. I know it sounds like a bad joke or a trick question, but the naming histories of places and objects can be quite interesting. And in all honesty, I would not be surprised to learn than more than a few of us have probably wondered the same at some point in our lives. Well wonder no more.

Latin America consists of Mexico, the Caribbean and most of Central and South America. In these countries, residents speak mostly Spanish and Portuguese. These two languages are classified as Romance languages, which are derived from Latin. So hence the name Latin America.

The phrase started out in French as “Amerique Latine,” and was coined by French Emperor Napoleon III during his conquest of the region in the 19th century. Today many native residents of Latin America speak dialects and languages that differ substantially from their Latin origins or ones that did not derive from Latin at all. Many languages and cultures have developed in Latin America through immigration and continuation of native customs.

I can remember a few years ago being exposed to some of the traditions in Latin America. At my church back home in Wisconsin a missionary couple visited and shared some of their experiences in Latin America. They taught the congregation a hymn in Portuguese. The hymn was lovely and fairly simple, but the couple’s mastery of the language was interesting to me. I have always had a fascination with people who are able to fluently speak two or more languages. I spent three years learning French with very little to show for it now. The amount of time and discipline and dedication required to learn a foreign language far exceeds that of any other subject I studied.

Also as a side note there is also a Latin Europe. It is composed of the countries around the northwestern Mediterranean basin: primarily the countries of Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. These countries too speak languages derived from Latin.

I have always had a desire to travel around a foreign country, preferably one in Europe and more specifically the United Kingdom. As of yet I have not come across the right opportunity to travel overseas. Until that time comes I will enjoy living vicariously through others whether in be baseball players, a missionary’s endeavors, a foreign film or writing this column.