| Term | Definition |
|---|
| plateau | large, raised area of mostly level land |
| Isthmus | a strip of land with water on both sides that joins two larger bodies of land |
| peninsula | Is a body of land surrounded by water on three sides |
| archipelago | group or chain of islands |
| Greater Antilles | 4 largest islands in the Caribbean |
| Lesser Antilles | All the smaller islands in the Caribbean |
| occidental | western |
| oriental | eastern |
| urban | city |
| rural | country |
| indigenous | descendents of first people to live in a region |
| maquiladora | Mexican factory that assembles parts for export |
| emigrate | leave one country to settle in another (exit) |
| immigrant | a person who comes into a new country to make a home (into) |
| mestizo | of European (Spanish) and indigenous heritage |
| Spanish | spoken in 6 out of 7 Central American countries (not in Belize) |
| Diego Rivera | famous Mexican artist (muralist) |
| Roman Catholic | main religion of Mexico and Central America brought by Spaniards |
| conversion | changing from one religion to another |
| rural and urban unemployment | many poor farmers leave a rural area to look for jobs in cities and don't find them |
| developed countries | countries with strong, industrialized economies and stable governments |
| developing countries | emerging countries whose economies are not as strong and governments are less stable |
| quota | number limit placed on incoming immigrants to a country |
| networking | communication process that encourages immigration |
| infrastructure | the facillities and things that support a certain standard of living in a country, such as police, hospitals, schools, roads, libraries, firement, etc. |
| migrant worker | laborerer who travels from one area to another to pick crops that are in season |
| plaza | public square at center of town or village |
| squatter | a person who sits down to go to the bathroom |
| squatter | person who setlles on land without permission |
| Colonia Zapata | ghetto area outside Mexico City |
| Aztecs | Native Americans who founded Tenochtilan |
| Tenochtilan | former Aztec capital underneath Mexico City |
| water supply | Mexico City used all of this and has to pump it from 100 miles away |
| Mexico City | largest city in the world with 21 million people! |
| Mexico City's geography | in a basin, or bowl shaped depression that keeps in pollution and smog |
| high unemployment | shifting from rural to suburban and urban has caused this to happen |
| NAFTA | North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, USA, and Mexico |
| Refugee | person who leaves his or her country to escape political or religious persecution |
| boat people | refugees who flee on water |
| Political asylum | place that houses crazy politicians |
| political asylum | safe place to live in another country given to refugees who are persecuted by the government for their political beliefs |
| Haiti historical superlative | only nation in Americas formed from a successful revolt of enslaved Africans |
| French | Haiti was colonized by this European country |
| Africans | brought to Haiti as slaves to work sugarcane plantations |
| slavery | Haiti banned this in the early 1800's |
| Western Hemisphere | Haiti is the poorest country in this part of the world |
| superlative | a comparison that shows to an extreme extent or level |
| dictators | leaders who use violence to keep power |
| Creole | of African and European heritage |
| farmers | two-thirds of Haiti's people |
Combine with other sets
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