It is a salad. Not even a Cesar Salad at it. It is a mix of local (all differerents, depending on the region and on the group), and of a spanish background (in this, not even equaly distributed, for some of the "Conquistadores" were actually from Castilla - hence Castellanos - but the guys who helped liberate the locals fom the Spaniards were more basques from the three Euzkadi provinces in between France and Spain. Their names atest to this).
To even make it more difficult, in modern times the region close to the Caribean sea developed a 'black culture' that has nothing to do with the culture in the lower half of the region.
The "LATIN AMERICAN culture" you quote here, is more an american/canadian understanding of the diversity down there.
