Latin America Vocab

Question 1

Plateau

Answer 1

An area of high, flat land

Question 2

Peninsula

Answer 2

Strip of land that juts out into an ocean

Question 3

Irrigation

Answer 3

Artificial watering of farmland by storing and distributing water drawn from reservoirs or rivers

Question 4

Sinkhole

Answer 4

When the roof of a cavern collapses

When limestone dissolves

Question 5

Hacienda

Answer 5

Large, Spanish-owned estates of land
Farms
Cattle ranches

Question 6

Land redistribution

Answer 6

Large hacienda estates were divided among landless peasants

Question 7

Ejido

Answer 7

Farmland owned collectively by members of a rural community

Question 8

Subsistence farming

Answer 8

Grow only enough crops to meet needs

Question 9

Latifundio

Answer 9

Huge commercial farms owned by individuals or farming companies

Question 10

Cash crop

Answer 10

Farm crops grown for sale and profit by latifundios

Corn, sugar cane, coffee, fruits

Question 11

NAFTA

Answer 11

North America Free Trade Agreement
Phased out trade barriers among
North America

Question 12

Maquiladora

Answer 12

A factory that produces clothes and other goods by the border
Employs many people

Question 13

Migrant worker

Answer 13

Landless, jobless, peasants

Travel from place to place where extra workers are needed to cultivate or harvest crops

Question 14

Isthmus

Answer 14

A narrow strip of land with water on both sides

Question 15

Guerrilla

Answer 15

Armed forces outside of the regular army

Often fight in small bands

Question 16

Archipelago

Answer 16

Group of islands

Question 17

Coral island

Answer 17

Islands with flatter terrain, created by coral polyps’ skeletons

Question 18

Windward

Answer 18

Facing the wind

Green

Question 19

Leeward

Answer 19

Facing away from the wind

Desert

Question 20

Escarpment

Answer 20

A steep cliff between 2 level areas of land at different heights

Question 21

Sertão

Answer 21

Interior plateau

Question 22

Favela

Answer 22

Slum communities

Question 23

Plantation

Answer 23

Large commercial farms

An estate farmed by many workers

Question 24

Gasohol

Answer 24

Fuel
A mixture of gasoline and ethanol
Made from Brazil’s sugar cane

Question 25

Deforestation

Answer 25

Permanent removal of woodland

Question 26

Ecotourism

Answer 26

Tourism that encourages environmental awareness and has little effect on the ecosystem

Question 27

Mulatto

Answer 27

People of mixed African and other ancestry

Question 28

Bauxite

Answer 28

A mineral used in making aluminum

Guyana and suriname

Question 29

Llano

Answer 29

Grassland, savanna, “plains”

Question 30

Cordillera

Answer 30

Mountain ranges

Question 31

Campesino

Answer 31

Tenant farmers

Grow cash crop coffee

Question 32

Altiplano

Answer 32

High plain, Peru, Bolivia

Question 33

Páramo

Answer 33

A plateau in the Andes of ecuadir

Question 34

Timber line

Answer 34

The boundary above which continuous forest vegetation cannot grow

Question 35

Selva

Answer 35

A forested region in Ecuador, Peru, and bolivia

Question 36

Estuary

Answer 36

A broad iver mouth formed where a flooded river valley meets the sea

Question 37

Piedmont

Answer 37

Foothills

Question 38

Pampas

Answer 38

Temperate grasslands

Argentina, uruguay

Question 39

Gaucho

Answer 39

Cowboys who herded cattle in the pampas