I understand Latin America has produced a number of intellectuals --granted, however the majority of their mestizo population during the time of united fruit etc, were not attending school past the 6th grade, if that. That's a lot of intellectual capital left on the table and contributed to weak economies. The stronger economies had some semblance of compulsory education beyond elementary school. Even today, in Mexico itself, you have indigenous people for whom Spanish is a second language and due to that suffer discrimination in their own country --and this repeats in many south American countries.

You forget most of their intellectuals come from their elite families, it's not like the average person there has much of a chance in the elite circles.

Pointing out the poor educational infrastructure as well as a culture which does not make it a priority is not being racist.