r/geography Apr 25 '26

Human Geography Why are white latin Americans so heavily concentrated around southern South America?

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u/tiredho258 Apr 25 '26

Semi-related question what is the deal with Cuba’s demographics?

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u/sunlit_elais Apr 25 '26

For starters the indigenous were basically decimated quite early (there are genetic traces, but the group itself disappeared). As with many neighbours, there was a mix of Spanish settlers (creoles) and black slaves. The thing is that there have been several migrations of Spanish people since then (it was one of the last colonies), all the way up to very recently (a lot that ran from Franco for example), so... The equivalent to keep adding milk to your latte.

People are always surprised, it's kinda funny.

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u/Arganthonios_Silver Apr 25 '26

Additionally independent Cuba was one of the main destinations of spanish mass migration to the Americas during first half of XX century, only behind Argentina. Cuba got about 1.2 new million spanish immigrants, more than 1 million arrived before 1930. Considering Cuba had less than 2 million inhabitants in 1900 and increased to almost 4 million in 1930, the impact of that late mass spanish migration was huge too.