4.3 Contemporary Life

4 min read•january 27, 2023

Isabela Padilha Vilela

AP Spanish Language 🇪🇸

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Contemporary Life

Contemporary life is shaped by our lifestyles, our history and the social values that we cherish. In this topics, we will explore the innovations that mark our daily life and understand how science and technology shaped the daily life of people in spanish speaking countries. 🇪🇸

Social Values / Volunteer work

In Latin America, there is a predominance of collectivist values and appreciations for one's community and place in society. For this reason, helping others, whether it is your vecinos or the barrio as a whole is a noble and appreciated action.

The areas/issues that are mainly addressed through volunteer work in the region, include:

Economic Empowerment - Usually aims to help families and individuals gain access to resources that will help them ascend socially and economically.
Education - Consists in increasing access to educational opportunities that aim to reduce inequality.
Health - Includes increasing access to health services and improving the overall wellbeing of people.

Needless to say that community-building is extremely important for Latin Americans. Creating stronger connections with their communities can improve one's quality of life and reinforce communal values.

Technology can more easily help to close these gaps and help with the improvement of the quality of life of Latin Americans. In the next section you will read about the challenges posed by the pandemic and the role of access and technology to mitigate its impact.

Vaccine Development

The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in the history books. Experiencing a global pandemic, switching to remote working and learning, and choosing between public trust or apprehension towards the CDC and WHO were all new concepts to nearly every generation in every country. Yet after only about one year of a pandemic, those experiences became normalized. In the meantime, scientists around the world were working around the clock to create multiple vaccines to combat the deadly spread of COVID-19.

Creating a vaccine in under 12 months is quite an accomplishment. In comparison, the mumps vaccine took 4 years to develop. So while the pandemic made new habits, such as mask-wearing and enforcing social distancing in public situations, it also created a global alliance for vaccine research and distribution.

However, the vaccine’s effectiveness means nothing if the majority of people choose not to receive it. On one hand, it’s amazing that the vaccine was developed in under a year so “normal life” can resume, yet on the other hand, many fear the vaccine was rushed or have other hesitations regarding its use, thereby making its availability meaningless.

Image and data from Michelle McGhee/Axios

Below is data from what COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy looks like in Spanish-speaking countries, as of May 3, 2021. As a comparison, in the United States, 52.9% of Americans would agree to be vaccinated.

Mexico: 75% would agree to be vaccinated
Guatemala: 71.3%
Costa Rica: 74%
Honduras: 70.3%
Salvador: 75%
Nicaragua: 86.8%
Dominican Republic: 64.8%
Venezuela: 66.1%
Colombia: 69.8%
Ecuador: 72.1%
Peru: 73.3%
Bolivia: 64.9%
Chile: 60.4%
Argentina: 63.1%
Paraguay: 52.7%
Uruguay: 61.2%
Spain: 51.3%

Image from Unsplash

Latin American Inventions

While you may not think of South America as a powerhouse continent for technological or scientific advances, it most certainly can be considered one. Latin America has given birth to some of the greatest inventors and innovators of all time. Moreover, Latin America has had a hand in some of the massive changes in the tech industry, such as liquid-fueled rocket engines and color television, innovations that shook the world when they were first introduced. Historically, Latin America has always been on the map.

Image from Contxto

Let’s zoom in on a few of the innovations below, but before we do, remember, Brazil is NOT a Spanish speaking country, so you should NEVER refer to it during the AP test (for example, during your comparación cultural).

Dactyloscopy System (Argentina)

1981
Created by Juan Cucetich
Created special system for identifying people’s fingerprints
Concept still used today for criminal investigations

Liquid fuel propulsion (Peru)

1895
Pedro Paulet
One of the first scientists to draw up the concept of using liquid fuel for rockets, yet his ideas were not taken seriously at the time
Still considered many as a founding father of astronautics

Colored TV (Mexico)

1941
Guillermo González Camarena
Patented the first system that transformed television signals into color

Image from Unsplash

Contraceptive Pill (Mexico)

1951
Luis Miramontes
Developed synthetic progesterone, the only Mexican scientist currently in the U.S. Inventors Hall of Fame

Traffic Lights for the Blind (Argentina)

1983
Mario Dávila
Created a device that used sounds to indicate when it was safe to cross the street

CAPTCHA Codes (Guatemala)

2000
Luis Von Ahn
CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,” AKA the code you have to type often on websites to prove you’re not a robot!

Image from Unsplash

Strive for Five Vocab 🔑

Covid Related Vocabulary

La inyección - injection
La cirugía - surgery
El antibiótico - antibiotic
Los primeros auxilios - first aid
La receta - prescription
El diagnóstico - diagnosis
El tratamiento - treatment
Brote - outbreak
Cuarentena - quarantine
Desinfectante - disinfectant
Mascarilla - mask
Pandemia - pandemic
Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) - Spanish name for World Health Organization (WHO)
Teletrabajo - remote working
El virus - virus