South American Style

Arianna Langston

From music and fashion, to food and traditions, the Hispanic culture is an array of color and spice. There are 20 some odd Spanish speaking countries in the world. Some being: Spain, Venezuela, Honduras, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and the many others. All of these countries, though have their own special traditions and cultures that make them so wonderfully different.

Photo collage of Colombian fashion designer Amelia Toro’s 2012 spring collection. Photos from Fashion Radical’s website.

The fashion world for example, is present in countries like Colombia and Spain. Colombian designer Amelia Toro brought her fashions to the table at Fashion Week in Colombia’s 22nd fashion week. She brought color and modern style, to the show, giving the Colombian fashion world a popular name. During the 10th Portland Fashion Week, in 2010, Toro designed a special line of new clothes dedicated to her Colombian culture.

This February, in the fashion capital, Madrid, Spain had it’s fashion week, presenting a  plethora of unique innovative designs. According to China News Television Online, Francis Montesinos, a proud Spanish designer showed off his new Autumn/Winter collection at the show this year. An abundance of sweaters, scarves, and new shades of pastel were in his collection.

Along with fashion growing in beauty, Hispanic culture still holds true to its musical culture of Salsa, Cumbia, Merengue, Bachata, and a few others. The Salsa is of Cuban origin, where African drums and the Spanish guitar styles come together and form the famous music we know as Salsa. Cuba is also the origin of the Mambo and even the Tango. Music, was and still is a very important piece of Hispanic culture.

Photo collage of Colombian fashion designer Amelia Toro’s 2012 spring collection. Photos from Fashion Radical’s website.

Today, we still see Hispanic cultures throughout America because of the increase of Latin Americans in our country. Increasing America’s culture as well. We see fashion, arts ,and music flourishing out of Spanish countries themselves and America adding a bit of salsa and spice to our world.