A kung fu fighter in a disco

I think "the Latin" is one of the more enduring 'others' for British culture - we never had an Empire in South America, we were never conquered by Spain or Portugal, there's never been a big wave of Hispanic immigrants to the UK. The image of sophistication mixed with a certain untrustworthiness has remained the same for 200-300 years. So I wonder if Latin is too rootedly exotic to assimilate in a way that other musics haven't been - a combination of "such sophistication is not for the likes of us" and "such sophistication is inherently to be suspected".