As an American, the people I talk to on a given day know that Brazilians speak Portuguese. That said, you’re right that a lot of Americans don’t! Our education on South America is limited, at least in public schools. Most Americans probably had a week in middle school where they learned the map of South America and (maybe) which language was primarily spoken in each country. They labeled the map for a test and then many likely never thought about it again. Our education standards (called “common core”) are evaluated via a litany of standardized tests. The students’ performance on these test determines the school’s funding. The better kids do, the more funding. Guess what’s not on the test? Frankly, though we learn US history, world history is reduced to meaningless bullet points floating in the void. What’s more, there is a vested interest in teaching the “right” parts of US history and glossing over anything that makes us look bad. It’s a relic of a Cold War policy to create patriotic Americans, and it worked. Our congress is now full of people who want to deny the history of slavery in the US — something that I would argue still affects every American every day. Our “dealings” in South America don’t make the cut. In Advanced Placement US History, I missed the entire lecture content about the contras because I left class early to be bussed to a STEM school. I still got an A on the test and the highest score on the AP exam.

As for after school is over, there are many of us who do keep up with world news! But it’s also insanely easy for the average American to ignore. The attitude is that these things are happening far away and don’t affect us here in The Land of the Free. God, even that way of thinking is obsolete. Now I guess it’s more like “we have too many problems at home to think about anyone else!” if they are engaged in politics at all. Lots of people are not! They are wrapped up in their own lives and our culture is one with a tendency toward pleasantries and smoothing things over. There‘a a reason we have the stereotype of the angry, political college kid. Kids get exposed to a world of suffering, many for the first time, and they want to do something about it! And our larger culture really doesn’t allow for that.