“We need a single story line, because rapid panoramas of twenty national histories would merely produce dizziness.”

John Charles Chasteen recognizes the difficulties entailed in trying to ascertain the key points of correlation between the many and diverse nations that comprise Latin America. However, he argues for the necessity in doing so because otherwise the amount of information to do the topic justice regarding depth of topic would require many large volumes. An in-depth analysis of Latin American history and culture is not the goal of this book. The idea is to provide an overview of the history of the region while comparing (and contrasting where necessary), those areas of culture and history that the nations and cultures of Latin America share with one another. After the above quote, Chasteen goes on to provide many of the most notable examples of differences between countries and cultures, but he then points out the many commonalities: colonialism, liberalism and nationalism re politics, transculturation, etc.

“Encomiendas of conquered Moors had been awarded aplenty during the Christian reconquest of Iberia, so it was a familiar system to the Spaniards.”

Spanish and Portuguese social and political culture of the 15th century was fundamentally influenced by the countries' long struggles against the Islamic Moors. Islam and Christianity developed along lines that would make them diametrically opposed to one another. These aspects of Spain and Portugal cannot be pushed aside when one studies the repercussions of the Encounter.