On the polished flagstones of a Santiago cultural centre\u2019s forecourt, four Chilean girls dance in energetic union, counting their steps aloud in Korean.<\/p>\n
In front of them, a YouTube video with 1.3bn views plays atop a speaker throbbing to the beat of How You Like That, by the K-pop<\/a> megastars Blackpink.<\/p>\n What might have drawn bemused looks a decade ago now puts them at the forefront of a phenomenon that is ever more present across Latin America.<\/p>\n From food to television, skincare to clothing, Korean culture is flooding the region \u2013 and spreading far beyond what was once a niche interest.<\/p>\n In Mexico<\/a>, Sujin Kim, known by her pseudonym Chingu Amiga, has become one of the country\u2019s most popular online personalities, with videos exploring K-dramas and recommending skincare products to more than 12 million followers.<\/p>\n In Colombia, where the K-pop World Festival was held in 2025, the Korean YouTuber Zion Hwang has set up a string of karaoke restaurants to profit from the boom.<\/p>\n And in Brazil, where South Korea\u2019s former ambassador is fondly remembered for his viral renditions of Brazilian songs<\/a>, Korean and Korean Brazilian influencers such as Arthur Paek<\/a>, who has 6.3 million Instagram followers, are also making waves promoting Korean culture and cuisine.<\/p>\n The \u201cKorean wave\u201d \u2013 or hallyu<\/a> \u2013 that brought the country\u2019s culture to the world has now well and truly engulfed Latin America. Mexico is K-pop\u2019s fifth global market, and such was the demand for tickets for the comeback tour by K-pop behemoth BTS, that the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, wrote to her Korean counterpart to help plan extra dates<\/a>. The tour will also land in Bogot\u00e1, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires and S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n \u201cIt all began during the pandemic for us,\u201d says Daniela Im, who lives and works in Patronato, the small Santiago neighbourhood that received a tiny influx of economic migrants from Korea in the 1970s.<\/p>\n K-dramas and hit films such as Parasite soared in popularity during lockdown, and when restrictions eased, Im\u2019s family converted their textiles workshop into a traditional Korean restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople never cared much about our culture or where we were from, but now when a character drinks soju or eats samgyeopsal [Korean barbecue] in a Korean TV show, the next day there are kids in here trying to order it,\u201d she says. \u201cI just have to try and keep up!\u201d<\/p>\n A few colourful shop fronts down, a minimarket stocks canned kimchi and mild ssamjang sauces with labels in Spanish and hangul, the Korean alphabet. In this tiny knot of low-rise streets there are now more than 40 Korean restaurants \u2013 almost all of which appeared in the past five years.<\/p>\n Across Latin America, Korean culture has expanded rapidly, pushed by a soft power campaign to introduce the world to its music, film, television, fashion and food.<\/p>\n Brazil\u2019s health minister, Alexandre Padilha, said Latin America\u2019s interest in Asian culture contrasted with \u2013 and was possibly connected to \u2013 the US\u2019s flagging international appeal under Donald Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps the US is no longer, in people\u2019s imagination, the place they want to go \u2026 Whenever my [10-year-old] daughter talks about going somewhere, she never cites the US \u2026 she cites things that she\u2019s seeing more and more from the East and which are influencing our culture,\u201d Padilha said last year, after Trump officials stripped his child and wife of their visas<\/a> in an attempt to pressure Brazil\u2019s government.<\/p>\n The first group of 1,014 Korean migrants to Latin America arrived at the Mexican port of Progreso in 1905, aboard the British ship S.S. Ilford. Tricked by misleading promises of stable work, they were instead forced to work the agave plantations on the Yucut\u00e1n peninsula, harvesting thorny fibres in extreme heat.<\/p>\n A second wave began in the 1960s when Korea, plagued by high unemployment and political and economic instability, promoted emigration to Latin America; a third followed in the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n Today, only about 100,000 Koreans and their descendants live across Latin America, but most major cities pay some form of tribute to Korean culture and fandom.<\/p>\n In Mexico City, that presence has spread far beyond a neighbourhood long known as Little Seoul for its Korean restaurants, karaoke bars and beauty shops.<\/p>\n