Cultural Identity, Religion, and Globalization in Latin America: Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Martín de Porres as Clear Examples of Interculturalism and Instruments of Mediation Among Different Weltanschauungen

Abstract

Latin America is a part of that Global village where—according to Marc Augé—places, time, and space exist in abundance and where the presumed unique nature of the Western model clashes with the image of the “other”. (Augé (2009); Salgues (2016), p. 114) Thus, while the formation of a multiethnic and multicultural society—one based on the principle of tolerance, in which diversity and homologation should coexist without conflict—is hoped for, the spread of such categories as ethnicity and minority underscores the dissimilarities of our time. Starting from such basic concepts as, for example, religion, culture, otherness, and identity, and with the analysis of two case studies—Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Martín de Porres—the aim is to raise a problem: does a Latin American cultural identity exist? And how can it be identified?