Rampant ignorance is right. At least in my subjective experience as an American, public education about South America pretty much stopped after the beginning of

Rampant ignorance is right. At least in my subjective experience as an American, public education about South America pretty much stopped after the beginning of Europe’s colonial expansion. Unless you studied it in college or on your own time, the only people who know much of anything about South American countries are people who’s social circles contain people from South America.