A year ago, amid the pandemic, we proposed that the RSC should compile a collection of Latin American contributions to chemistry. The central aim of this collection is to showcase the quality of the research work being carried out in this area. The project was quite well received, and several journals joined. This is not a unique project in this sense; there have been other recent collections with the purpose of highlighting the chemistry developed in Latin America.1–5 However, the current situation of chemistry in each region deserves an analysis of its respective historical context. So, we have taken advantage of this space first to provide a very general historical overview of chemistry in Latin America and then to analyze certain numbers that offer us a picture of where we stand as a consequence of our history. We apologize for focusing on only three countries in a region that includes 46 countries (Latin America and the Caribbean), but we are sure that the stories and problems are similar.