Cuba and that social change

I meant to post about this the other day:

Cubans have approved gay marriage and adoption in a referendum backed by the government that also boosted rights for women, the national election commission has said. 

More than 3.9 million voters voted to ratify the code (66.9 per cent), while 1.95 million opposed ratification (33 per cent), Alina Balseiro Gutierrez, president of the commission, said on state-run television on Monday.

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise - given that nearly all of Latin America has moved pretty rapidly towards recognition of gay relationships, and gay marriage:

Over the past decade, Latin America has stood out for its recognition of LGBTQ+ rights. Outside of the Caribbean, the majority of countries in the region have decriminalized same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults. In Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Mexico, LGBTQ+ individuals are constitutionally protected from discrimination based upon sexual orientation. Elsewhere, many of the region’s constitutions now include broad non-discrimination clauses that offer some protection to LGBTQ+ citizens. Since 2010, eight countries have approved laws prohibiting discrimination based upon sexual orientation.

Latin America has also made impressive progress on marriage equality. In 2010, Argentina became the first country in the region to approve same-sex marriage; 20,000 same-sex Argentine couples have since married. In 2013, neighboring Brazil and Uruguay followed suit, and later Colombia (2016), Ecuador (2019) and Costa Rica (2020). In 2019, the Mexican Supreme Court declared bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. In Chile, President Sebastián Piñera vowed earlier this month to advance a marriage equality bill stalled in congress since 2017.

But I still don't quite understand what it is about Latin America culture that has apparently made it so amenable to the change, especially given that there is a range of (sometimes odd) politics in the region.