Cultural Simularities and Differences of Bolivia and Puerto Rico

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Running Head: Bolivia and Puerto Rico Cultural Simularities and Differences of Bolivia and Puerto Rico At first glance the nations of Puerto Rico and Bolivia appear to have nothing in common. While Bolivia is a landlocked nation in South America, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated archipelago territory of the United States. Both nations, however, are resting on multicultural platforms. Although both list Spanish as their predominant language, Puerto Rico lists English as a co-official language and Bolivia has 37 official languages including Spanish, Quechua, Aymara, and an array of native languages. Both countries, after centuries of immigration and emigration, have populations where only about 50% (52.6% in Puerto Rico and 55% in Bolivia) of people are of Amerindian heritage. Both have histories of Spanish colonization. In 1493, Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of Puerto Rico and claimed it as a Spanish colony, 30 years later, Francisco Pizarro, did the same to the Incan Empire which dominated Eastern South America; at the time, Bolivia was part of Peru. Today, both nations have a rich variety of culture and tradition. Puerto Rico and Bolivia are cultures rich in fine art of all forms. Puerto Rico, due to the United States conquering and seizing the land in 1898, has a strong American influence present in its contemporary fine arts. According to an article in Art Journal by Marimar Benitez (1998), the combination of the United States and Puerto Rico, “Has had a deep impact on the collective subconscious of our people and manifests itself in the visual arts,” (Benitez, 1998, p. 74). Bolivia, in comparison, has not had such a strong American influence and Bolivian contemporary arts have therefore evolved differently, staying truer to the original culture. Upon viewing the paintings

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