Latin And Central America Flashcards
Peninsula
A strip of land that juts out into an ocean
Plateau
An area of high flat land
Irrigation
The watering of farmland with water drawn from reservoirs or rivers
Sinkhole
A hole formed when limestone is dissolved, causing the land above to collapse
Hacienda
A large Spanish owned estate in America’s, often run as a farm or 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
Ejidos
Farmland owned collectively by member of a rural community
Subsistence farming
Farming that provides only enough for the needs of a family or village
Latifundio
A large commercial farm owned by a private individual or a farming company
Cash crops
A farm crop grown for sale and profit
Migrant workers
A worker who travels from place to place, working where extra help is needed to cultivate or harvest crops
Isthmus
A narrow strip of land having water on each side and joining two larger bodies of land
Guerrilla
A member or an armed force that is not part of a regular army; relating to form or warfare carried on by such an independent armed force
Archipelago
A group of islands
Coral island
An island formed by skeletal remains of tiny sea animals and the sand and sediment piling on top of them
Windward
Facing the wind
Leeward
Facing away from the wind
Escarpment
A steep cliff between two level areas at different heights
Sartão
Interior plateau
Favela
Slum communities
Plantations
Large commercial farms
Gasohol
A mixture of gasoline and ethanol
Deforestation
The permanent removal of woodland
Ecotourism
Tourism that encourages environmental awareness and has little effect on the ecosystem
Mulatto
People of mixed African and other ancestry
Bauxite
A mineral used in making aluminum
Llano
Means plaons in Spanish
Cordillera
Parallel mountain ranges of the Andes
Campesino
Often barely able to grow enough food for their families because they focus their efforts on producing cash crop
Altiplano
A plateau region located in the Andes of Bolivia and Peru
Paramo
A plateau in the Andes of Ecuador
Timber line
The boundary in high elevations above continuous forest vegetation cannot grow
Selva
A forested region in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
