Do Latin Americans Love Chaos?

Not too long ago, I remember I was talking with a friend of mine named Blayde about life here in Latin America.

Sitting down in a bar near Condesa, he mentions something to me that I have heard other gringos say.

An observation about Latin America and its people that plenty of gringos make over time down here.

And that is the idea that Latin Americans "love chaos."

They don't want stable countries.

They want shit governments that are corrupt as fuck.

Economic instability.

And, in more personal relations, perhaps they want chaos there too!

Like when you think of stereotypical telenovelas or some shit with drama between families or whatever the fuck else.

That, above all, they prefer chaos in their broader societies and personal lives amongst themselves.

And, to be fair, sometimes Latin Americans will say something similar that isn't exactly the same thing but has a similar ring to it.

Where they might say something like "the only problem with Mexico is that it is full of Mexicans."

Somehow implying that its the people who fuck this country up and make it as crazy as it is with all the chaos that comes with living here.

Is it true?

Well, to the gringo, it makes sense how other gringos can reach this conclusion.

There are times living there where you scratch your head and go "what are people here thinking? Do they prefer nothing to work right?"

Well, I don't care too much about this topic so let's just jump to some of my thoughts on the matter and leave it at that. 

Final Thoughts

There's a bunch of things that come to mind.

First, not every Latin American prefers the chaos. As I wrote here, you have plenty who jokingly (or not?) ask to be "taken away" from Latin America.

Plenty who do though actually want to leave for a better life elsewhere.

Second, I don't think it's always the case that someone doing something stupid is a sign that they prefer chaos. Some folks here -- like anywhere in the world -- are just low IQ motherfuckers who do stupid shit in the moment just because.

And it creates chaos but whatever.

Third, obviously the lack of enforcement on the rules contributes to the chaos in the region. People bribing others, cops and judges never doing their jobs, etc.

Shit just happens.

Fourth, sometimes gringos will say "they prefer the chaos" in response to some country electing a left leaning president.

However, said gringos don't always take into the context of the situation and just think the locals are crazy for wanting a left leaning one without understanding the details.

Like in Peru where they elected Cowboy Socialist recently but the other main candidate was the daughter of a former leader who is in jail and killed lots of people as you can read here.

On top of that, let's not pretend that the right wing leaders are always perfect either. A lot of the time they ignore socioeconomic conditions on the ground that lead people to desperation and who have plenty of their own corruption.

So sometimes the gringo is just talking out of his ass when he says something like "the people prefer chaos" after electing some left leaning president.

Similar to when they say that said country will become Venezuela 2.0 as I wrote about here when objectively that isn't going to happen.

That isn't to say that said Cowboy Socialist is a good president for Peru or any left leaning president.

Just that these folks using that as an example of people "preferring chaos" are talking out of their ass and nothing more than ideological bullshit.

Fifth, some Latin Americans would probably critique this whole "we prefer the chaos" when electing certain presidents because they'll blame their country's problems on outside influences like the US or Spain.

I don't entirely disagree with them but I do sometimes see them not accepting responsibility for the local fuckery of their country as I wrote here.

Sixth, when it comes to the culture though, there are some countries down here that feel like they do have something to the culture that screams for excitement, chaos, sin, sex, drugs, etc.

Especially when we think of countries like Colombia or the Dominican Republic.

Perhaps less so for Chile or Uruguay.

I do think there is something cultural there that, to us gringos, makes it look like they prefer "chaos" in their personal relationships with others.

And "chaos" in this sense is not necessarily a bad thing.

Obviously not the same thing as electing a bad president who fucks up the economy.

In fact, I think a lot of gringos prefer "the little bit of chaos" they see in day to day life here.

Adds some excitement to the daily life for us!

Though there are other reasons for why gringos find life exciting here but we'll leave it at that.

Finally, you do have some countries that really get seen as having a preference for "chaotic" governments.

Like you can see in this video here, countries like Argentina and Brazil are often seen as such.

Is Colombia a Socialist Country Now?

That they prefer to have their occasional dictatorships, economic crisis, periods of growth and then chaos, etc.

To us gringos, it can look like then that they prefer it if they keep electing shit governments.

Though, to be fair to Latin America, I'd say we gringos have had a wild roller coaster with presidents over the last few decades also and certain privileges we carry momentarily (like the world reserve currency and military) keep us afloat for now.

Anyway, it all reminds me anyhow of some video I see on Youtube occasionally of some random British dude saying that "Latin Americans and Paraguayans in particular" want a "firm hand" or some shit like that.

Meaning dictatorship to bring their countries forward.

Perhaps with less chaos.

I won't go there but I'll link to the video below here if I ever find it.

Above all though, I can see where some gringos come from when they say that it seems like Latin Americans prefer chaos.

In some sense, I think it's a play on stereotypes though but I do think there is some fire to the smoke.

Both in terms of their governments and also personal relationships.

Obviously, it's a generalization though but you get that.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that.

Don't really care too much for the topic but felt like bringing it up as it is an occasional thing you hear some gringos say.

Regardless of if you agree with it or not, it's a belief that is out there.

If you got anything to add -- agree or disagree -- throw a comment below.

And follow my Twitter here.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt