The paper explores some interlinkages between income growth, income distribution and poverty historically observed in Latin American countries, with particular reference to the recent experiences in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. It follows the classical political economy and the Latin American structuralist approach to bring out the complex interaction between functional and personal income distributions and their role in shaping the national income distributions during different phases and economic regimes from a historical perspective. It also outlines some recent trends in this connection and ends by critically analysing some myths on Latin America income distribution that are very ingrained in the common sense..

October 29, 2006.