Term | Definition |
Conquistador | Name for the Spanish explorers who claimed land in the Americas for Spain |
Cultural Convergence | The contact and Interaction of one culture with another |
Caudillo | A Latin American military dictator |
Pampas | A grasslands region in Argentina and Uruguay |
Cay | A small, low island or coral reef |
Coral | The rock like skeletons of tiny sea animals |
Tropical Storm | a storm with winds of at least 39 miles |
Hurricane | a destructive tropical storm that forms over the Atlantic Ocean, usually in late summer and early fall, with winds of at least 74 miles |
El Nino | a warm ocean current off South America's northwestern coast that influences global weather patterns |
Canopy | The uppermost layer of a forest where tree branches meet |
Mestizo | a person of mixed European and Native American heritage |
Mulatto | a person of mixed African and other ancestry |
Market Economy | an economic system in which decisions about production, price, and other economic factors are determined by the law of supply and demand |
GDP Per Capita | the total value of goods and services produced within a country in a year, divided by the country's total population |
Command Economy | AN economic system that is controlled by a single central government |
Transitional Economy | an economic system in which families produce goods and services for their own use, with little surplus and exchange of goods; also known as a subsistence economy |
Plateau | an area of high, flat land |
Peninsula | a strip of land that juts out into an ocean |
Irrigation | the watering of farmland with water drawn |
Sinkhole | a hole formed when limestone is dissolved, causing the land above to collapse |
Hacienda | a large Spanish-owned estate in the Americas, often run as a farm or a cattle ranch |
Land Redistribution | a policy by which land is taken from those who own large amounts and redistributed to those who have little or none |
Ejido | farmland owned collectively by members of a rural community |
Subsistence Farming | farming that provides only enough for the needs of a family or a village |
Latifundio | a large commercial farm owned by a private individual or a farming company |
Cash Crop | a farm crop grown for sale and profit |
Migrant Worker | a worker who travels from place to place, working where extra help is needed to cultivate or harvest crops |
NAFTA | North American Free Trade Agreement, which phased out trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico |
Maquiladora | a factory in Mexico, along the United States border, that assembles goods for export |