How about a little Spanish lesson, by way of describing the outcome and emergence of Latino cultures. Spanish is a very rigidly structured language, as are the Romance or Latin-sourced languages. Gender is important in Spanish. Muchacho, for example, is a word for boy. The feminine, muchacha, means girl. If you have a group of boys, then hay un grupo de muchachos. For a group of girls you would say, hay un grupo de muchachas. However, add one boy to the group of girls, and this simply doesn't often occur in the strict gender binary of social interactions between the genders, and you would say hay un grupo de muchachos, which is to say that the masculine form always takes dominance in Spanish. Even with ten girls and one boy you would either say un grupo de diez muchachas y un muchacho, or you would say once muchachos, or eleven boys, even though ten of those boys are actually girls.
In Spanish there are three forms of address, usted, tu and vos, but to keep it simple we'll leave out the vos. Usted is formal, tu is familiar. When you are speaking to strangers, older people, employers, teachers or people who have the power to hurt you, it is customary to address them as "usted." Friends, peers and family members are generally addressed in the familiar, "tu". In many countries this rule is becoming more flexible and it is increasingly common to address almost everyone in the familiar, except for very traditional abuelitas, or grandmothers, who would be likely to do you severe damage with their canes were you to call them anything but usted.
There are also traditional honorifics: senor, senora, or don or dona (pronounced donya). These still occur, especially the senor and senora. Don and dona are considered more quaint and are sometimes used playfully between friends. (My Peruvian friend and I often refer to each other as Don Jorge and Don Aaron, for example).
Spanish is a language of class, caste and hierarchy and the adoption of the language of Cervantes in Latin America has likely had considerable influence on the way the culture developed. Remember, as I have written elsewhere, traditional Latino culture, like its Spanish antecedent, has always been hierarchical, everyone knowing their place, everyone knowing whom to refer to as usted and tu and taking great care to not confuse one for the other, on pain of receiving a good beating for any misstep.
Now, the strict hierarchy has survived relatively intact in Latin American countries. But it is foundering and fading fast. The influence of American pop culture has been particularly strong, for example in Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia. The growing and emerging middle class has also influenced this relaxation of social boundaries, as well as a growing awareness and acceptance of the influence of the outside world. In my own experience, I often don't know what to call the person that I meet for the first time, whether to call them usted or tu, since I could be called either one, by anyone I meet there, regardless of age difference or perceived class difference. So, I always err on the side of caution and begin with usted, regardless of what they call me. If I am given tu a minimum of three times in a row by the same person, then I will switch to tu. I think that for this reason, I seem to always get along well with almost everyone I meet in Latin America.
This is turning out to be an interesting dance of cultural influences and I'm looking forward to seeing how this further develops as the traditional Hispanic cultures continue to merge and adapt to the influences of globalization.
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