1. Mexico

2. The Caribbean

3. Central America  

• South America

1. Brazil

2. The North

3. The West

4. The Southern Cone

PHYSIOGRAPHY

Latin America is a rather large realm. We will address the physical features as they apply to Middle America, then South America. These physical maps should help you find the important features.

Middle America

The Mainland region of Mexico and Central America includes everything but the Caribbean. It consists of A-type climates, B-type climates, and H-type climates. The Highland climate is easy to identify since that is where Mexico City is located - at well over a mile above sea level. The Tropical Humid climates are very wet and conducive to the growing of tropical fruits like, bananas, coconuts, and pineapples, along with sugarcane. The Dry climates are found in the north along the Mexican/US border. The physical features are:

• Sierra Madre Oriental (east)
• Sierra Madre Occidental (west)
• Yucatan Peninsula
• Isthmus of Tehuantepec (An isthmus is a comparatively narrow land bridge connecting two larger land masses.)
• Plateau of Mexico (where Mexico City lies)
• Baja California  
• Rio Grande
• Gulf of California (This body of water is known to Mexicans as the Sea of Cortés.)
• Panama Canal
• Volcanic Axis

The Caribbean region is totally A-type climates, excluding the Netherlands Antilles B-type climates. Sugarcane and other tropical fruits are a mainstay of the Caribbean economy. Hurricanes occur frequently in this region from July to November. Hurricane is a Mayan word for "big wind". They develop off the coast of Western Africa's Bulge and strengthen as they move across the Atlantic Ocean, drawing on the power of water's latent heat energy.

• Greater Antilles (An archipelago is a chain or group of islands.)
• Lesser Antilles
• Gulf of Mexico
• Caribbean Sea

South America

South America has a wide range of climates from north to south. It has the largest tropical rainforest in the world - the Amazon. Sitting astraddle the Equator, the Amazon has been called the "lungs of the world" for its incredible oxygen output. There are several groups of highlands on the continent, but none as impressive as the Andes Mountain system. The best agricultural area is the Cfa climate of southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northern Argentina. It's no coincidence that this is the most economically prosperous part of South America. The physical features of the continent are:

• Andes Mountains
• Amazon River, Paraguay and Paraná River system, Orinoco River
• Mato Grosso
• Llanos
• Guiana Highlands
• Brazilian Highlands
• Pampas
• Patagonia - (Take this National Geographic tour of Patagonia.)
• Atacama Desert
• Lake Titicaca

I must include here some mention of the incredible power of the Amazon River. Some people think the length of the river equates to power. This is untrue. The largeness of a river's discharge is the determining factor. The Nile is the longest river in the world, but it looks like a mere creek when compared to the amount of water that moves though the Amazon every day. Look at the chart below. Notice the length of the rivers. The Amazon ranks second longest in the world, behind the Nile. Now look at the drainage basin. The area the Amazon River drains is larger than the Congo and Chang Jiang combined. This is the key to the Amazon's power. Finally, (and this is the biggie), find the discharge in cubic feet per second (cf/s). All of the other rivers combined probably would not match the flow of water coming from the Amazon. It has been said that one could go out 200 miles from where the Amazon drains into the salty Atlantic Ocean and still get a fresh drink of water. Now that's an impressive river.

Culture

Although Spanish and Portuguese are the dominant languages spoken in this realm, the cultural landscape is very diverse. For example the island of Hispaniola has French speakers (in Haiti) and Spanish speakers (in the Dominican Republic). French Guiana is actually an overseas départment of France. Portuguese is the most widely spoken language of South America and is due to the large population in Brazil, where the language predominates. Spanish is obviously spoken in Mexico, Central America, and other South American countries. But not everyone speaks these dominant languages. The Caribbean is particularly diverse in linguistics. Dutch is spoken on the islands of Sint Maarten, St. Eustatius, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, and in Suriname. English is spoken in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Antigua Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and many other places.  The Hindi language is an oddity on the "Latin" landscape.  Brought to the new world as indentured servants, the South Asian Indians live in large numbers all over the Caribbean.  Hindi is an official language of Trinidad and Tobago.

African languages survive in the form of creole languages, where a new language results from the mixing of the colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated (i.e. African slaves on sugar plantations in the Caribbean, in this case.).

Lastly, the indigenous tongues of native peoples still survive in Middle America's mainland (e.g. Mexico and Guatemala) and South America (e.g. the Amazon Basin and the Andes). In some places, for instance Paraguay, the Spanish language is changing rapidly as indigenous people infuse new words and fundamentally change the language. The island of Dominica is the only island in the Caribbean where a native people still exist. The people are called Caribs, or Black Caribs. Millions of other natives remain all over the realm, especially the Inca of Andean South America. Where Africans and Natives mix one finds a mixed race of people called Criollos, especially in the Caribbean zone.

Just as Latin languages remain the predominant tongue of millions of people, the Roman Catholic religion is the most prevalent religion. From Mexico in the north to Chile in the south, Catholicism reigns supreme. However, other religions still survive. Santeria, Voodoo, and other African religions are still practiced in the Caribbean and on the South American coast. Maya and Inca religions are very popular with the progeny of the once dominant indigenous groups of the Central American lowlands and Andean highlands, respectively.

History

Christopher Columbus "discovered" the "New World" for Spain in 1492. Spain was broke after years of trying, and finally succeeding, to expel the Islamic Moors from their land. When they decided to head west to find an easier route to the Indies (India, China, the Spice Islands, and Japan) and their riches, they found two new continents blocking the way – North and South America. They tried to find a short way through to get to the spice-rich East and were finally forced to go over the landmasses (at Mosquito Gulf) or around them (at Cape Horn in South America). Concerning the inhabitants of the New World, what the Spaniards found was no less than true civilization.

When the Spaniards went overland in Middle America, they encountered two great civilizations - one thriving and one dead:

• Aztec (centered on modern-day Mexico City and thriving)
• Maya (mainly in Guatemala and on the Yucatan Peninsula, but deceased)

In 1519, when the conquistador Hernán Cortés came upon the Aztec capital at Mexico City, called Tenochtitlán and literally meaning "the place of the prickly pear cactus", he described it as a city that would rival any city in all of Europe.

It is at this point the student should ask, "What does it take to be civilized?"  The following are some of the attributes:

• Large urban populations with delegated responsibilities
• Domesticated agriculture (e.g. corn, beans & squash)
• Government infrastructure (i.e. decision makers)
• Religion (i.e. strong belief system)
• Knowledge of science, mathematics & astronomy
• Artisans, metallurgists, engineers, and writers
• A working calendar for planting and harvesting crops and religious purposes
• A system of roads to facilitate the movement of goods across the empire
• A written or spoken language

Great civilizations arose all over the world and it takes the greater portion of these things to accomplish lasting civilizations that function well. The breakdown of one of these aspects could, and did, spell the end to civilizations around the world through time. [These things would have been a mirror image of the Inca Empire of the Andes in South America.]

As civilization evolves it takes planning to keep things in order. The segmented society is dependent on each group doing their job (e.g. farmers raising enough food for everyone to have enough to eat). Only one crop is taken in every year at harvest time. It must last the whole year, so it must be dried and stored for a later date. The crop depends on the calendar that the people developed. The calendar must be accurate enough to properly time plantings and harvests. Thus, without a good grasp of mathematics and astronomy the future of society is in peril because of an imprecise calendar and diminished harvests.

The Maya and Aztec calendar was built on the vigesimal system (20-day periods) and no day had the same name.  All 365¼ days were unique. When the Spaniards came in contact with these civilizations they found that the indigenous calendars were more accurate than the Julian calendar used in Europe. [Note: It wasn't until October, 15, 1582 that the more accurate Gregorian calendar of Pope Gregory VIII and Christopher Calvius came into being, replacing the Julian (Caesar) calendar. It continues to be used to this day by many parts of the world.]

Calendars were also used in the precise administration of religious services. But religion was tied to existence. The Aztecs tried to appease the sun god to assure the sun would come back day after day. Spanish chroniclers reported that the Aztec sacrificed 20,000 to 50,000 people every year for ceremonial purposes to appease their gods. For example, children were drowned or walled up in caves during months when rains were needed to water crops. The more they cried and wept, the better the omen for rain. Others were eviscerated to help crops grow and burned to death during harvest time, all to insure well being for the masses.

The threat of a poor harvest was always a concern for these people. They lived in a harsh environment and soils were historically infertile (except where volcanic soils are predominant). Yet they devised a system of field crops that worked in a symbiotic relationship. They planted beans, corn, and squash.

Beans are legumes, meaning they are adept at fixing nitrogen directly from the surrounding air. The plant can take nitrogen straight from the atmosphere and incorporate it into its plant structure and the soil in which it is rooted. Other plants like corn have to take it from the soil. The beans need structure to grow, so they use the corn’s stalk for assistance. The squash was used to cover the soil, keeping it cool and moist. This way the soil is less susceptible to erosion, making it more fertile for future plantings.

This incredible agricultural process supplied enough food to feed millions of people. Beans provide protein, which are the building blocks for muscle. Corn provides carbohydrates, sugars, starches, and cellulose. Squash provides vitamins that are vital for metabolic processes. Of course, it didn't hurt matters that thousands of people were sacrificed every year. It is easy to feed the masses if you're willing to kill off a bunch of them.

Political instability in the Aztec Empire and the arrival of the “White Gods” brought down the Aztec in Middle America. The Aztec believed the white god Quetzalcóatl would return from the east across the ocean the very year Hernán Cortés got off his boat. The lightly complexioned, blue-eyed conquistadors numbered 509 soldiers. They fomented rebellion in the conquered peoples of the Aztec realm, not all of which were Aztecs. Together with guns, horses, and fighting dogs, (and Spanish reinforcements) the conquerors overpowered the mighty Aztec Empire. Later, it was diseases like smallpox, mumps, typhoid fever, measles, chicken pox, and influenza that took its toll on the Native American population.

The Spanish imprint on the landscape included a rapid decline in population (extrapolated numbers of 15 to 25 million prior to contact, down to 2.5 million in just one hundred years). Much of the lake that surrounded the Aztec capital was drained off by the Spanish to create farmland. Today, Lake Texcoco is a shell of its former self. Deforestation occurred as wood was used for construction instead of stone that the natives used. Many trees and other native crops were lost due to introduced grazing animals (i.e. cattle and sheep) and wheat instead of corn as a staple food. Catholicism became the dominant form of religion in the New World.

One other change the Spanish brought was the Law of the Indies (1573). It was used as a blueprint for the formation of communities in Spanish lands. The plaza was at the center, with the church as the focal point and government buildings flanking the sides. The grid format was intended to quell any Amerindian insurrections. Missions and presidios (forts) were also a mainstay of settlement by the Spaniards.

For South America, the history is strikingly similar. Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire and brought a king's ransom of gold and silver back to Spain. Competition on the continent was heated between Spain and their Iberian neighbor Portugal. Growing tensions led to the two countries signing a truce at Tordesillas, Spain, in 1494. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. Pope Alexander VI set the demarcation line along what is today 50 degrees west longitude (370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands). Spain received colonization rights to all lands west of the line. Portugal received colonization rights to all lands east of the line. This was agreeable to both because both countries were Catholic and no one, including the Pope, knew what lay across the Atlantic in the New world. [Note: It should be obvious that England, the Netherlands, and France would not be bound to this treaty since the British were predominantly Protestant, and the French and Dutch were in economic competition with the other European powers. That is why you see so much of their imprint in certain parts of the world, especially the US. For instance, the thirteen British colonies of North America, New Orleans and St. Louis are French toponyms, and Harlem is a city in Holland and New York City was first named New Amsterdam by the Dutch.]

Regions of the Latin American Realm

-Middle America-

Starting in Middle America, we should divide the area into two somewhat homogenous parts - the Mainland and the Rimland.

Geofactors such as food, language, economics, and culture make these areas distinct from one another.

Plantations are typically found in the tropics and grow just one crop (termed monoculture) – mainly sugar in the Caribbean, but also bananas, cotton, indigo, tea, coffee, and rubber in other tropical locales around the world. Plantations are typically foreign owned with an absentee landlord, require lots of up-front capital, and are labor intensive (hence the need for slaves). The harvest is almost always exported and all profits above costs go to the owner.

• The Caribbean

For the Caribbean region, disease and plague wiped out nearly 100% of the indigenous population. African slaves replaced these native "workers". More than 10 times as many slaves went to the Caribbean when compared to the US South.

The islands are densely settled with lots of poverty for the inhabitants. Puerto Rico and Cuba are the comparative exceptions (both being part of the Greater Antilles). Puerto Rico benefits from Commonwealth status of the United States (US citizenship, no taxes, and annual subsidies in excess of $9 billion). Puerto Rico has exportable pharmaceuticals, electronic equipment and textiles, not just sugar and bananas.

Puerto Rico's evolution includes independence in 1897, but ceded to the US by Spain in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Its people were granted citizenship in 1919 and a non-voting representative within the US government. For all the US pays Puerto Rico, we get to use Vieques as a "live fire" range for our military troops. This is constantly protested by the Puerto Ricans.  Read newspapers for the current situation.

Cuba benefited from large Soviet subsidies during the Cold War. Fidel Castro has been in power since 1959 and had to change policies when the Soviet Union collapsed. Market reforms included European-backed tourist resorts, international banks, Japanese auto dealerships, biotechnology industries, and Israeli textile plants have been added to the economy. This is remarkable for Cuba since the US has had a trade embargo for years. The death of Castro may change our view of this country.

Poverty in many places in the Caribbean is linked to the parceling up of lands among the sons of the family. Land inheritance customs are continually fragmenting plots of land down to a size where profits become non-existent to the farmer. Tourism is the only option for many of the island states, but at a price. Million dollar resort hotels and luxury ocean liners exist in an area of poverty and malnutrition. This is a depressing situation for the indigenous people involved (even Cuba’s citizens can’t visit the beach for it is reserved for the tourists).