 One of the most enduring challenges that the peoples of Latin America have encountered in their history concerns the definition of their identity as a people. When Iberians arrived at the Americas, Amerindians were scattered throughout an enormous territory, divided by substantially different cultures, including numerous languages. Iberians imposed a colonial unity on them, but the question of their identity became critical, particularly after Africans were brought in to make up a labor deficit in the Caribbean and the East coast of South America. How do all these peoples fit together as a people or a nation, and how are they to be conceived? The question of identity first surfaced in the discussions about the rights of Amerindians, and later of African slaves, but extended to Iberian born versus American born Europeans. 