Bringing Latin America's ‘Interculturalidad’ into the Conversation

Abstract

In recent years, scholarly conversations and debates have emerged on the distinctions among various approaches to address diversity in modern pluralistic societies. Yet, most of the literature written in English on diversity paradigms in the Americas comes from an Anglo-American perspective. In this article, I address this gap in the scholarship by examining the historical and sociocultural context of North American multiculturalism and interculturalism, alongside that of Latin America's interculturalidad. In so doing, I expand the conversation to include the voices of underrepresented Latin American scholars. Although researchers often pit the three diversity paradigms against each other, I argue that instead, each paradigm should be looked at as serving a purpose within the particular contexts and needs from which they emerged and in which they have evolved.

Keywords:

• Interculturalidad
• Interculturalism
• Latin America
• Multiculturalism
• Diversity