By: Bryan Herb – Zoomvacations
Photo: Sjankauskas | Dreamstime.com
When we talk about colonization, we often treat it as one brutal, uniform process. But the truth is far more complicated. The way Spain and Portugal colonized the Americas created societies that look, feel, and function very differently from those shaped by British, French, and Dutch empires. These differences still live in our languages, our religions, our family structures, our music, our racial identities—and even how queer communities exist within them.
Latin America did not simply become “another Europe overseas.” It became something new: mestizo, blended, layered, contradictory, and deeply spiritual. Meanwhile, British and Dutch colonies evolved into societies focused on separation, hierarchy, and rigid systems of race and power. Two colonial models. Two cultural outcomes. Two very different worlds.
Conquest vs. Settlement
Spanish and Portuguese colonization was driven largely by conquest. Their goal was to extract wealth—gold, silver, sugar—and convert Indigenous populations to Catholicism. They came as soldiers, priests, and administrators, not families looking to build new homelands.
British colonization, on the other hand, was largely about settlement. Entire families arrived with the intention of recreating England in the New World. Indigenous populations were pushed aside or eliminated rather than absorbed. Land was claimed, fenced, and privatized.
This single difference shaped everything. In Latin America, Indigenous people were incorporated—often violently—into colonial society. In North America and parts of the Caribbean, they were erased.
Mixing vs. Separating
Spain and Portugal allowed (and often encouraged) racial mixing. While this mixing happened within deeply unequal and violent systems, it produced new identities: mestizo (European and Indigenous), mulato (European and African), zambo (African and Indigenous). Over time, these blended populations became the majority.
British and Dutch colonies enforced strict racial separation. Laws defined who was white and who was not. Bloodlines mattered. Purity mattered. Race became rigid.
Latin America developed a culture of mixture—culturally, racially, and spiritually. Food, music, and religion blended. Catholic saints absorbed Indigenous gods. African rhythms merged with Spanish melodies. Family trees tangled across continents.
The Anglo colonies developed a culture of division. Race determined rights. Difference became danger.
Religion: Control vs. Moral Order
Spanish and Portuguese colonizers used Catholicism as a tool of control and unity. Churches were built in the center of every town. Conversion was mandatory, but Indigenous beliefs never disappeared—they went underground and merged with Catholic rituals.
That’s why Latin America has Day of the Dead, Santería, Candomblé, and Virgen de Guadalupe. Spirituality is emotional, colorful, and rooted in the body and the earth.
British colonies brought Protestantism, which emphasized discipline, moral policing, and individual guilt. Sexuality, especially queer sexuality, became sinful and dangerous. These attitudes hardened into law and social norms that still shape Anglo cultures today.
Many of today’s homophobic laws in Africa, Southeast Asia, India, and the Caribbean trace directly back to British colonial rule.
Language and Identity
Spanish and Portuguese colonization created a shared language across massive territories. This helped create a collective identity: Latino, Hispanic, Ibero-American. Culture crossed borders through music, telenovelas, literature, and food.
British and Dutch colonies fractured linguistically and culturally. Identity centered on nationality rather than shared heritage.
Latino identity today is rooted in this shared colonial past—complex, painful, but also creative. We come from survivors who learned to adapt, merge, and reinvent themselves.
Queer Lives in These Two Worlds
Colonial systems also shaped how queerness exists today.
Pre-colonial Indigenous societies across Latin America recognized third genders and fluid sexuality. Spanish rule violently suppressed these identities, but they never fully disappeared. Today, queer Latin culture often blends family loyalty, Catholic guilt, sensuality, and resistance.
In British-influenced cultures, queerness became criminalized, medicalized, and hidden. Laws punished it. Silence surrounded it.
This is why queer expression in Latin cultures can feel simultaneously more visible and more complicated—full of passion, secrecy, celebration, and contradiction.
Two Legacies, One Present
Neither colonial model was humane. Both were violent. Both erased lives and cultures. But they produced different societies:
Spanish and Portuguese colonies became blended, emotional, spiritual, and communal.
British and Dutch colonies became structured, segregated, and rule-driven.
Understanding this history helps explain why Latin America feels different from the United States or Canada. It explains why family means something different. Why race is talked about differently. Why religion feels alive instead of rigid. Why queer identity carries layers of shame and beauty at the same time.
We are not just descendants of colonization—we are descendants of survival, fusion, and reinvention.
And that is our power.
Bryan Herb
is co-owner of Zoom Vacations®,
a US company that creates stylish international private events and gay group vacations to the world’s hottest destinations. Learn more about them at www.zoomvacations.com or call 773.772.9666.
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