# Why do latin American cities look more coloful than U.S cities??



## Motul (Nov 8, 2003)

Eklips, your fixation with South America is very interesting..


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## BringMe (May 7, 2011)

Edit.


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## andre_e (Sep 11, 2010)

Skyprince said:


> The climate is hotter in most of Latin America which translates into more vibrant street & outdoor activity, which makes streets more colourful :cheers:
> 
> Also, its highly influenced by the vibrant & expressive cultures of Southern Europe, unlike USA or Canada with high concentration of those with Northern European ancestry ( calm and more reserved )
> 
> And, some other reasons too


The climate in Chile or Argentina just to make an example is colder than any point in your country. Latin America is so much more than beaches, palm trees and vibrant people.


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## Sarcasticity (May 21, 2005)

Because its so depressing to live in the US and Canada.


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## WeimieLvr (May 26, 2008)

Sarcasticity said:


> Because its so depressing to live in the US and Canada.


Do I detect a note of sarcasm?


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## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

Another thread ruined by bigoted remarks of Eklips. He never gets tired. hno:

About the thread, I don't think Brazilian cities are specially colourful.


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

Nop. I posted a comment on architecture and two (three actually) forumers started to get on their high horses just because I posted, so I had to explain myself. 

You can go and check again Yuri.


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## isakres (May 13, 2009)

sebvill said:


> A colourful city in Latin America is Valparaiso


Lol, never imagined Valpo was that picturesque....looks very tropical.


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## Motorways (Jul 1, 2009)

sebvill said:


> What I agree with eklips is that Latin American cities are, in most cases, not specially colourful.
> 
> Ei.
> 
> ...


let me help you to colour up your life

Lima, Peru









Bogota









Buenos Aires









Santiago de Chile









México DF









Rio de Janeiro









Cuzco









Cartagena









Caracas









Medellin









Porto Alegre









Rosario










En mi humilde opinión negar que las ciudades latioamericanas suelen ser coloridas me parece ir demasiado lejos.

A mi personalmente es una característica que me encanta.


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## derechaconservadora (May 11, 2012)

eklips said:


> This is what a Peruvian anthropologist friend of mine told me, if I recall :dunno:
> 
> 
> Off topic:
> ...


ok, but some areas in spain have similar architecture with colonial zones in latam. mostly canary islands and seville city. thats because colonial arch. in latam was modeled by southern spain arch. specially andalusian one. spain is a very diverse country till today but 500 years ago that was bigger. so of course isnt the same. but then again, dont put all latam in the same bag. the last spanish colonies in the americas (puerto rico, cuba) have higher spaniard arch. in theire cities. thats because cuba and puerto rico been colony for more time (starts first and ended before) than the mainland latinamerica.


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## ArtZ (Feb 17, 2006)

thisisme said:


> colorful buildings, streets....


I think it comes from rich architectural traditions of Iberic Peninsula and Precolombian styles. From that Latinoamerican cities are plenty of historic sites that are have a lot of beautiful, colourful houses - unlike most of United States. I love it and my favourite historic towns are Barichara in Colombia, Coro in Venezuela and Antigua Guatemala. I have to say also abt historic cities in Brasil like Parati, Ilheus and Olinda with their lovely Portuguese-style buildings.:clap:kay:


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

derechaconservadora said:


> ok, but some areas in spain have similar architecture with colonial zones in latam. mostly canary islands and seville city. thats because colonial arch. in latam was modeled by southern spain arch. specially andalusian one. spain is a very diverse country till today but 500 years ago that was bigger. so of course isnt the same. but then again, dont put all latam in the same bag. the last spanish colonies in the americas (puerto rico, cuba) have higher spaniard arch. in theire cities. thats because cuba and puerto rico been colony for more time (starts first and ended before) than the mainland latinamerica.


Maipo, I never put all of latinamerica in the same bag, I specifically said it was only about the countries I knew, therefore excluding Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba etc.


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## George W. Bush (Mar 18, 2005)

...


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## Atomicus (Aug 23, 2011)

derechaconservadora said:


> *ok, but some areas in spain have similar architecture with colonial zones in latam. mostly canary islands and seville city.* thats because colonial arch. in latam was modeled by southern spain arch. specially andalusian one. *spain is a very diverse country till today *but 500 years ago that was bigger. so of course isnt the same. but then again, dont put all latam in the same bag. the last spanish colonies in the americas (puerto rico, cuba) have higher spaniard arch. in theire cities. thats because cuba and puerto rico been colony for more time (starts first and ended before) than the mainland latinamerica.


Finally, I wasn't expecting to read those things in bold here since some people here talk about "Spanish architecture" as if it was an homogeneous thing that can be compared as a whole, while actually you can only do it region by region.


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## Motul (Nov 8, 2003)

Atomicus said:


> Finally, I wasn't expecting to read those things in bold here since some people here talk about "Spanish architecture" as if it was an homogeneous thing that can be compared as a whole, *while actually you can only do it region by region*.



Like most countries.


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## Atomicus (Aug 23, 2011)

Not really.. Anyway, that's not really the focus of my point nor I'm going to waste my time arguing about that. It's the un-bolded part you left the one that "bothers" me. Not that I care really, but if I quoted derechaconservadora is because It made me happy that someone aknowledged such facts. :yes: Think it's the first time I agree with him on something.


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## derechaconservadora (May 11, 2012)

thanks atomicus. well iv been in your country and definitely is not like any country in that matter. spain was some kind of union of kingdoms with different cultures, different languages and different history for sure. and thats obviously is reflected in the architecture. maybe franco or the bourbons wanted to create a more homogenic country, but i think they failed big time on that issue. and well, i dont want to talk about todays politic, but everyones know what happen in some regions of spain and the ideas of some of that people about the nation meaning.


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## BringMe (May 7, 2011)

I wonder how many of those who critize south america actually visit the region and stay a minimum of time (1 month) in every single one of them to make that type of comments 


Always the same thing people speak without knowing


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## cemoss (May 18, 2008)

SampedranoCapitalino said:


> I invite you to search for threads of boston-looking Bogota or European-looking Buenos Aires.
> 
> Tacky people = tacky tastes = tacky cities = tacky countries
> 
> ...


Is this serious? or a tacky joke?


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## italiano_pellicano (Feb 22, 2010)

yes 



koolio said:


> Because poor people need colour to cheer up their otherwise miserable lives.


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## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

Xusein said:


> Now show the winter temps.


Why should I? Northsider said colours were aimed to reflect heat, and heat will be a bigger problem in the hottest month, won't it? I showed North American cities usually get much more heat than Latin American ones, making hot weather much more of an issue in the US. So, the all relation colour-weather is very problematic (as all other relations made throughout this thread).




jefferson2 said:


> also, south american cities are closer to the equator so they are sunnier (even if not quite as hot in the summer months)


I highly doubt that. The warmest cities in Latin America are around the equator, but they're extremely raining. No way they are more sunny than North Americans cities in the summer.


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## jefferson2 (May 31, 2008)

Yuri S Andrade said:


> Why should I? Northsider said colours were aimed to reflect heat, and heat will be a bigger problem in the hottest month, won't it? I showed North American cities usually get much more heat than Latin American ones, making hot weather much more of an issue in the US. So, the all relation colour-weather is very problematic (as all other relations made throughout this thread).
> 
> 
> 
> ...



why only consider the summer... Minneapolis is fairly hot in the summer... but -20 in the winter. its also not so colorful and does not have as many year round purely outdoor public spaces as one would find in warmer climates (beautiful/ clean city though). It's hard to be colorful when everything is covered in snow lol.

my comment about the sun related to the strength of the sun closer to the equator. from my experience places closer to the equator seem brighter (when its not raining). I suppose elevation also plays a big role in climate, i dont know how that relates to sunnyness though. quito and bogota arent that hot


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## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

^^
I'm not discussing climate, but whereas climate (hot weather) determines the use of colourful painting to reflect heat (as Northsider considered). So far, there's no single evidence backing up this theory as North American cities have hotter summers than Latin American, therefore they were the ones needing colourful cities, and they're allegedly lacking of them.

About sunshine, Dallas gets 331.7 hours on the hottest month, as opposed to 156.0 hours in Manaus.


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## derechaconservadora (May 11, 2012)

santiago is very grey i doubt so much that there are some colourless cities in the world. its seen a new-rich or classless thing to have a shining colours house. but in some chilean provinces the people think very different, that why we call them provincianos (provincials) dont know about class.


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## DarkLite (Dec 31, 2004)

For the most part, Argentine and Uruguayan cities are not colorful at all. Although Santiago isn't really home to the most varied palate of colors, Chile has quite a few colorful cities like La Serena, Antofagasta, Valparaiso, Puerto Varas, Temuco, and Punta Arenas.

I think on the colorful cities departament, Mexico wins hands down, no contest.


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## Guaporense (Jul 9, 2008)

thisisme said:


> colorful buildings, streets....


They do?









From: http://dialogospoliticos.files.wordpress.com

I don't think so.


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## DarkLite (Dec 31, 2004)

Brazil doesn't really have that many colorful cities either. Even Rio de Janeiro looks quite bland from above like Sao Paulo.
Maybe the urbanism in Brazil prevents the cities from looking colorful, it would be hard to achieve that when a sea of high rise residential buildings are blocking the view of low density or central historic districts. Many of these buildings come in different shades of white and light cream colors.


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## Guaporense (Jul 9, 2008)

Skyprince said:


> Socio-economically, Latin America is best comparable to Southeast Asia IMO


Latin America is significantly more developed. Average market exchange rates per capita incomes there were only 2,500 dollars in 2009. In Latin America it's more on the 5,000 - 10,000 dollars range.


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## Guaporense (Jul 9, 2008)

eklips said:


> I admit this is only about the countries I know (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico), it's maybe like you describe in Brazil, I don't know.


These are among the least European latin-american countries. Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil probably have a greater architectural influence of Iberia.

Anyway, Latin America is a huge region of 600 million people and try to claim any sort of "model" for it (it's cities are X with Y,Z characteristics) is plain wrong. It is much more heterogeneous than Anglo-Saxon America, which is also a quite heterogeneous region.



> The only thing that is somehow similar in what you said is about the roofs, where sometimes Roman tiles are used. But in Peru for example, roman tiles are mostly used in the mountain region where the rest of the houses, the village structures etc. tend to follow pre-colombian models.


They do? Seriously? That's a very strong claim, you would need to develop it further. Try citing some research papers that argue that.

Roman tiles are standard in Brazilian cities.



> Another similarity could come from the "plaza mayor" which is in almost every city (in the countries I've been too), appart from that I don't see many similarities.


How about church design. That didn't come from the Aztec temples, I assure you.



> Especially when you consider that the urban history in these latin American countries has been very different to that of Spain. (massive rural to urban migrations with little industrialisation in little time where the new urbanites auto-constructed their own homes following rural paterns. Whereas in Spain the central government responded to these kind of phenomenons by building blocks everywhere).


First: massive rural urban migrations happen when you have massive industrialization. Otherwise, there isn't massive rural to urban migrations. So you are making contradictory claims.


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## derechaconservadora (May 11, 2012)

DarkLite said:


> For the most part, Argentine and Uruguayan cities are not colorful at all. Although Santiago isn't really home to the most varied palate of colors, Chile has quite a few colorful cities like La Serena, Antofagasta, Valparaiso, Puerto Varas, Temuco, and Punta Arenas.
> 
> I think on the colorful cities departament, Mexico wins hands down, no contest.


believe me that santiago is the colourless big city all over the world. i have been in buenos aires and montevideo, and santiago is far colourless than both. as you pointed, there are many provincial cities in chile wich are full of colours (not la serena but valparaiso, punta arenas, and most of chilean south, wich is colourfull probably because it would be depressed have grey towns with 90% gray sky in one year). chilean north is also colourfull like iquique or antofagasta because they have a different mentality. they are "tropical" to us. if a building in santiago had the same colours as in iquique it will devaluate 50% :lol:

well chile is very diverse, not ethnically but in mentality. that isnt strange cause there are thousands of kms between some cities mentioned above.


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## Luxor12 (Nov 9, 2009)

derechaconservadora said:


> *believe me that santiago is the colourless big city all over the world*. i have been in buenos aires and montevideo, and santiago is far colourless than both. as you pointed, there are many provincial cities in chile wich are full of colours (not la serena but valparaiso, punta arenas, and most of chilean south, wich is colourfull probably because it would be depressed have grey towns with 90% gray sky in one year). chilean north is also colourfull like iquique or antofagasta because they have a different mentality. they are "tropical" to us. if a building in santiago had the same colours as in iquique it will devaluate 50% :lol:
> 
> well chile is very diverse, not ethnically but in mentality. that isnt strange cause there are thousands of kms between some cities mentioned above.


I don´t think so...


Santiago, Chile por Douce♥[ La fille rouge ], en Flickr


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## derechaconservadora (May 11, 2012)

take off the building with pink and you would have so much as 2 colours. 

plus, this is an exception, there are few buildings with pink colour. of course one picture isnt a good example of a 6,5 million city.


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## Motul (Nov 8, 2003)

6,5 million? Really? Almost as much as Bogota's 7 million


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## BringMe (May 7, 2011)

^^ Bogotá today have almost 9 million


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## blue_man100 (Apr 17, 2004)

para que postean en ingles si aqui hay puros latinomericanos posteando y participando :lol:


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## fuckencio (Feb 20, 2012)

Luxor12 said:


> I don´t think so...
> 
> [


 estas hablando con gente que vive en santiago, para que te esfuerzas en mostrar lo contrario. santiago NO es colorido, lo que no quiere decir que no hayan excepciones a la regla como lo son el barrio bellavista, y algunos edificios mas. 


u r talking with people who live in santiago, why do you effort to prove the opossite. Santiago is NOT! a colorful city.


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## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

blue_man100 said:


> para que postean en ingles si aqui hay puros latinomericanos posteando y participando :lol:





fuckencio said:


> estas hablando con gente que vive en santiago, para que te esfuerzas en mostrar lo contrario. santiago NO es colorido, lo que no quiere decir que no hayan excepciones a la regla como lo son el barrio bellavista, y algunos edificios mas.


ENGLISH, please.

P.S. Almost 200 million "Latin Americans" don't speak Spanish.


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## speed_demon (Jun 2, 2007)

Yuri S Andrade said:


> ENGLISH, please.
> 
> P.S. Almost 200 million "Latin Americans" don't speak Spanish.


They do so because they betrayed their nationalities....traitors! :colgate: just kidding.


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## sebvill (Apr 13, 2005)

I was thinking like for 2 minutes who were those latin americans that dont speak Spanish (or Castellano as we say in Latin America) :lol:


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## Motul (Nov 8, 2003)

If a city is almost completely red. Can it be considered "colorful"?


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