Copland's final work for orchestra was the remarkably youthful Three Latin American Sketches. Its second and third movements, "Paisaje Mexicano" and "Danza de Jalisco" were composed in Acapulco in 1959 on a commission by Gian Carlo Menotti for the Spoleto Festival, but only the latter was performed for that occasion. At the request of Andre Kostelanetz, Copland composed an additional movement, "Estribillo," based on a melodic fragment he heard in Venezuela, in 1971. Kostelanetz led the New York Philharmonic in the completed work, newly titled Three Latin American Sketches, on June 7, 1972.

Copland calls for an orchestra of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, two pianos, percussion, and strings. An extended percussion battery adds a requisite Latin tinge with claves, wood block, xylophone, ratchet, slap-stick, triangle, suspended cymbal, and conga drum.

All three movements employ traditional Latin melodies. "Estribillo" features an ardently syncopated phrase that moves through the different sections of the orchestra, much like the refrain-like sections associated with salsa and calypso music. The vaguely melancholic "Paisaje Mexicano" ("Mexican Landscape") recalls the composer's rural American landscapes, while the vigorous finale, "Danza de Jalisco" ("Dance from Jalisco," a province in northern Mexico) features the alternating 3/4 and 6/8 meters characteristic of Mexican dance, along with some optional hand-clapping for the pianists. While the Sketches take a place among Copland's lighter works, the composer advised that they are "not so light as to be pop-concert material." Indeed, biting dissonances and complex polyrhythms abound throughout.

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