Latin America Vocab
Geography:
World Studies
Latin America
World Studies
Latin America
Terms
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- Creole
- a haitian of mixed African and European descent; a Haitian language based on French and African languages
- immigrant
- a person who comes into a foreign country to make a new home
- communism
- an economic system in which the government owns all large businesses and most of the country's land
- glacier
- a large, slow-moving mass of ice and snow
- circumnavigate
- to sail or fly all the way around something, such as Earth
- isthmus
- a strip of land with water on both sides that joins two large bodies of land
- ecotourism
- to travel to unspoiled areas in order to learn about the environment
- tributary
- a river or stream that flows into a larger river
- economy
- the ways that goods and services are produced and made available to people
- Panama Canal
- a shipping canal across the isthmus of Panama, linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean
- Brasília
- Brazil's new capital city
- emigrate
- to leave one country to settle in another
- Rio de Janeiro
- a large city in Brazil
- pampas
- flat grassland regions
- export
- to send products from one country to be sold in another
- indigenous people
- descendants of the people who first lived in a region
- political movement
- a large group of people who work together for political change
- regime
- a particular administration or government
- refugee
- someone who leaves his or her homeland to protect personal safety and escape persecution
- strike
- a refusal to work until certain demands of workers are met
- commonwealth
- a self-governing political unit that has strong ties to a particular country
- ethnic group
- a group of people who share the same ancestry, language, religion, or cultural traditions
- En Niño
- a warming of the ocean water along the western coast of South America
- rain forest
- a dense evergreen forest that has abundant rainfall uear-round
- elevation
- the height of land above sea level
- Canal Zone
- a 10-mile strip of land along the Panama Canal, once governed by the United States
- Amazon River
- a long river in northern South America
- diversify
- to add variety
- import
- to bring products into one country from another
- Middle America
- Mexico and Central America
- Carnival
- a lively annual celebration just before Lent in Latin America
- plateau
- a large raised area of mostly level land
- plaza
- a public square at the center of a village, a town, or a city
- squatter
- a person who settles on someone else's land without permission
- citizen
- a person with certain rights and responsibilities under a particular government
- migrant worker
- a laborer who travels from one area to another, picking crops that are in season
- West Indies
- the Caribbean islands
- lock
- a section of waterway in which ships are raised or lowered by adjusting the water level
- Amazon rain forest
- a large tropical rain forest occupying the Amazon Basin in northern South America
- dictator
- a ruler with complete power
- Ferdinand Magellan
- Portuguese explorer sailing for Spain, whose expedition first circumnaviagated the globe
- natural resources
- things found in nature that people can use to meet their needs
- ally
- a country joined to another country for a special purpose
- Augusto Pinochet Ugarte
- military dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1988
- canapy
- the dense mass of leaves and brances that form the top layer of a rain forest
- savanna
- a flat, grassy region, or plain
- exile
- a person who leaves his or her homeland for another country, often for political reasons
- foreign debt
- money owed by one country to other countries
- gauchos
- cowboys of the pampas of Argentina
- subsistence farming
- growing only enough food to meet the needs of the farmer's family
- hydroelectricity
- electricity power produced by rushing water
- maquiladora
- a Mexican factory that assembles parts to make products for export
- illiterate
- unable to read and write
- constitution
- a statement of a country's basic laws and values
- land reform
- the effort to distribute land more equally and fairly
- ladino
- a mestizo, or person of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry in Guatemala
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide
- president of Haiti, first elected to office in 1990
- cash crop
- a crop grown mostly for sale rather than for the farmer's own use
- Fidel Castro
- the leader of Cuba's government