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Latin America and Well-Being

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Well-Being in Latin America

Part of the book series: Human Well-Being Research and Policy Making ((HWBRPM))

Abstract

The well-being situation of Latin Americans can be considered as favorable, and it contrasts to the many problems in the region as portrayed by socio-political and economic indicators. Latin America is commonly characterized as a region with weak political institutions, high corruption, high violence and crime rates, very unequal distribution of income, and high poverty rates. The high life satisfaction reported by Latin Americans indicates that there are other drivers of well-being which have not received the deserved attention. The Latin American case shows that the abundance of person-based interpersonal relationships is an important driver of well-being; policy-makers and governments from other regions of the world should incorporate this driver into their policy framework.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bushnell et al. (2017) mention the following factors promoting the mixing of Europeans and Indians in Latin America: The relatively scarcity of Spanish women in the new territory induced male Spaniards to quickly mix with indigenous women. Inter-ethnic mixing was no alien to Spanish conquerors and colonizers as a result of the recent history of coexistence of Moors and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula. The idea of accumulating wealth before marrying was common among Spanish men, and the custom of having illegitimate children was already widely spread in Spain at the time of conquest and colony. In addition, the indigenous civilizations had social hierarchies, with many male and female Indians enjoying high social status.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Logroño, Spain

    Mariano Rojas

  2. Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), Puebla, Mexico

    Mariano Rojas

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  1. Mariano Rojas
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Correspondence to Mariano Rojas .

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Rojas, M. (2020). Latin America and Well-Being. In: Well-Being in Latin America. Human Well-Being Research and Policy Making. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33498-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33498-7_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33498-7

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