Special report | Social trends
Latin American society is modernising, mostly for the better
Universal policies are more important than group rights
![TOPSHOT - A demonstrator waves a Chilean national flag during a march towards the former Chilean National Congress where the Constituent Assembly will be inaugurated in Santiago, on July 4, 2021. - The 155 elected Convention members, 77 women and 78 men elected in an unprecedented parity vote and which reserved 17 seats for indigenous peoples, will draft a new Constitution, that will replace the current one -initially written by a small commission during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990)- as an institutional response to the crisis that triggered the wave of protests of October 2019 in demand of greater equality of rights and social welfare. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP) (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/media-assets/image/20220618_SRP024.jpg)
It was a timeless scene. On Easter Thursday several hundred people were gathered in the cavernous Basilica of Guadalupe, built at the spot in the northern suburbs of Mexico City where a 16th century Amerindian shepherd reportedly had a vision of the Virgin Mary. Some sat on wooden benches, others knelt on the marble floor. They were mainly middle-class or poorer, and copper-skinned. Some came to fulfil vows to give thanks for the overcoming of illness or other troubles.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “Changing identities”