The objective of the paper is to identify the determinants of economic growth in Latin America for the period 1951-2000. For this, three fixed effects models with panel data are estimated, capable of controlling unobservable heterogeneity within the sample. The results show that the growth of the Latin American income level has a positive and significant relationship with the capital stock, population growth, final household consumption, gross capital formation and the volume of exports. While the number of inhabitants at any given time, the final consumption of the general government and the level of inflation have a negative relationship. The number of Latin American inhabitants grew, they had more wealth and income at the end of the XX century, their education levels increased and in general: their quality of life improved.