Why is there such a family breakdown in Latin America? I thought their family values were better than ours?

Question

The illegitimacy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean today are staggering. I read that today in El Savador and Jamaica the illegitmacy rates are like 70% and Mexico's is 30% which is as bad as our country's. I was shocked. I thought third world values were better than ours. This wasn't always a problem was it? Because I know this wasn't a problem with the majority of North Americans and Africans until the sexual revolution (Asians and Middle Easterns haven't been affected as badly). Has the sexual revolution penetrated Latin America/Caribbean too? Because I thought they were religious and family-oriented and valued strong families. Or did they actually used to be but not anymore?

Answer 1

...Middle eastern haven't been affected as badly......of course, if any men in Latin America can have 4 wives, I'm sure the word cheating wouldn't even exist. Asians still wait until their marriage??? what are you talking about, didn't you know that Asian countries are well known for it's child prostitution and s*x-trade tourism? where are their values???.

Answer 2

Jamaica isnt part of latin america, just FYI.

Latin americans are family oriented, but that doesnt stop most of the men from going around cheating (gotta blame the women too though). It's not like anyone waits until they are married to have s*x or anything. Just like almost every other country, latin americans have normal relationshiops and sometimes they do stupid things like in the usa, and get pregnant.

Answer 3

The problem isn't the whole society and the values they're raised in. You have to understand that our countries have been suffering of terrible administrations from our goverments and lots of corruption, in difference of developed countries where the problems are not as big. As this happens, we have terrible bases in our health, security and education systems. You can see the huge difference between our private and public institutes; and we may not have the biggest rates of poverty, but we have the biggest rate of difference between the goods and wealth of the most rich and the most poor people. That's why poor people, who are more than the half of the population in most our countries, may have the same values or even better values, but they don't have the same education. Even as they can be educated about birth control solutions or marriage and divorces, they can't afford building a home, or raising an entire family properly. In the case of my country Venezuela, we have motherly-centered families, where the mother works all day and has no time to raise their children; and the figure of a father does not exist in the low layers of our society. I'm talking about the low classes of our societies, not the middle or high ones; there you can find the same relationship and family values as other countries in the world, and even better, but they are not the mayority. We also have huge  unemployement  rates and low support of our goverments. Even with all the issues we suffer, we have the same strong values as always, but we don't have the resources to keep them.

Answer 4

I think this has to do with the lack of Catholics following their morals as Catholics but hey I don't consider them to be Catholics. I am Mexican-American and I have cover ted to Islam and yes I am planing to wait until Marriage. My family also still waits until marriage even thou they don't go to church and they don't pray to idols not even Jesus. They only pray to God and Only One God(SUPREME BEAM "ALLAH HUARBAK") Yes  I can't wait until I have four wives.

Answer 5

Your message is full of wrong premises and stereotypes. In terms of behavior Latin America has always been like Europe and North America. Latin America is part of the Western world and irritates me the difficulty that people from the US have to understand it. Lump all third world countries, as if the degree of development decides your behavior, is... simply not right. Japan is a first world country but they are much less "sexually liberated" than Latin America. The same goes for the Mid-West of the United States.

Now, among the poorest Latin Americans, instable families have a lot to do with ignorance, not lack of values.