| A | B |
|---|
| West Indies | other name for the Caribbean |
| Andes | longest mountain range in the world |
| Sierra Madre Occidental | run along west side of Mexico |
| Sierra Madre Oriental | run along east side of Mexico |
| Altiplano | "high plain" in Bolivia |
| Patagonia | area of hills and low tablelands in southern Argentina and Chile |
| Mexican Plateau | between the Sierra Madres |
| Amazon River | runs 4,000 miles and drains Brazil |
| Rio Grande | border between US (Texas) and Mexico |
| Lake Titicaca | highest lake in the world, located between Peru and Bolivia |
| Angel Falls | highest waterfall in world, located in Venezuela |
| Maya empire | located on Yucatan peninsula and in central America |
| Aztec empire | located at current day site of Mexico city |
| Incan empire | located in present day Peru, but empire stretched 2,500 miles |
| Tenochtitlan | capital city of the Aztec empire |
| Cuzco | capital city of the Incan empire |
| 1492 | when Columbus "sailed the ocean blue" |
| Treaty of Tordesillas | Pope Alexander VI divided the new world between Spain and Portugal |
| hacienda | Spanish plantation |
| Portugal | European country that colonized Brazil |
| mestizos | people of European and native ancestory |
| mulattoes | people of European and African ancestory |
| Brazil | country in Latin America that gained independence peacefully |
| caudillos | military dictator |
| coup | when one caudillos overthrows another |
| Puerto Rico | US territory in the Caribbean |
| Elizabeth I | who the Virgin Islands were named for |
| Spanish | the most widely spoken language in Latin America |
| Portuguese | language spoken in Brazil |
| Roman Catholic | religion of about 90% of Latin Americans |
| mosaics | pictures or designs made out of colored pieces of material set together |
| coffee | Brazil produces 1/4 of world's__ |
| bananas | major crop of Honduras & Central America |
| cattle | major export of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico |
| Cayenne | capital of French Guiana |
| Georgetown | capital of Guyana |
| Paramaribo | capital of Suriname |
| Caracas | capital of Venezuela |
| Bogota | capital of Colombia |
| Quito | capital of Ecuador |
| Lima | capital of Peru |
| La Paz | capital of Bolivia |
| Asuncion | capital of Paraguay |
| Montevideo | capital of Uruguay |
| Buenos Aires | capital of Argentina |
| Santiago | capital ofChile |
| Tegucigalpa | capital of Honduras |
| Havana | capital of Cuba |
| Kingston | capital of Jamaica |
| San Jose | capital of Costa Rica |
| Panama Canal | man-made waterway that connects the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean |
| twenty | base number of Mayan math |
| NAFTA | free trade agreement between Mexico, North America, and the United States |
| Simon Bolivar | The Libereator of Latin America |
| Pele | famous soccer player |
| Rio de Janero | site of South American Carnival and the Christ Redeemer Statue |
| Pampas | the grassy plain in Argentina |
| Quinceañera | important celebration when a girl turns 15 |
| Easter Island | remote island that belongs to Chile; is known for its giant statues, maois, |
| Gallapagos Islands | remote island that belongs to Ecuador that is known for its large tortoises; Charles Darwin studied species there |
| Isthmus | a narrow strip connecting two large land areas |
| Transpiration | a process by which plants and trees release water vapor into the air |
| Tributary | a small river that drains into a larger river |
| Rain shadow | a dry region on one side of a mountain range |
| Biodiversity | the variety of species in an ecosystem |
| Canopy | a roof over a rainforest created by treetops |
| Deforestation | the practice of cutting down forests for crops or urban use |
| Rain forest | - a forest with high temperatures, high humidity, and thick vegetation that receives more than 100 inches of rain per year |
| Atacama Desert | - a desert located on the western side of the Andes mountains |
| Llanos | grasslands in northern South America |
| Ecosystem- | a community of living organisms and their natural environment, or habitat |
| Angel Falls | the highest waterfall in the world, located in Venezuela |
