Latin America: A Geographic Preface

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Latin America: A Geographic Preface

Marie Price

The popular image of Latin America as a major world region has ex isted fo r wel l over a century. The boundari es of the region are relative ly unproblematic, beginning at the Ri o Grande (called the Rfo Bravo in Mexico) . usuall y inc ludin g the Caribbean, and ending at the southern tip of South America . It s shared hi story of Ibe rian colon ization. more tha n the current eco nom ic status of individua l states. provides the regio n 's social and hi storica l integrity. The imprint of over 300 yea rs of Ibe ri an rule is still ev ident. Rou ghly twothirds of the nearly 600 million people who live in the region s peak Span ish; mos t of the rest speak Portug uese. Catholic ism is the dominant reli gion, although as Hannah tewart-Gambino explai ns in Chapte r 12, Protestant fa iths have made inroads and African religious practices have long been present. Likewise. since much of Latin America lies within the tropics, it verdant fo rests, exotic wi ldlife. and balmy weather di sting ui sh Latin America from the te mperate and subarctic climates of North America. (See Ma p 2. 1.)

Historica ll y, the Spani sh and Portuguese who settled much of the reg ion neve r referred lo the area as Latin America . The term was used first by French po litic ians in the 1860s in an effort to suggest their own " Latin" links wit h the Wes te rn Hemisphe re. Other labels, such as Ibero-America, the fndies, and the

me ricas. have all been app lied. Ye t the te rm Latin America seems to be the mos t popular, perhaps because it is vague e nou gh to be inclusive of different co lonial hi stories, but specific e no ugh to di sting uish it from Anglo-America (Price and Cooper 2007). The icJea of Latin America gai ned suppo rt d uring the latter half of the nineteenth century among inte llectual s in the former Spani sh colonies who were grappling with a way to build political and ideological unity among the new republics . They, too, stres. eel a di stinct '' Latin" identity separate from the " Anglo" North (Ardao 1980).

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M ap 2.1 Latin America: Countries and Capitals

A Geograp hic Preface

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Like all wo rld reg ions, Latin America is diverse, and generali zations are inherentl y problematic. Considering the disparate level of economic development among Latin America countries, as well a the ir di verse ethnic compositions, it wo uld be easy to emphas ize divis ion over commonality. Consonant with the theme propounded by Richard S. Hillman in Chapter l , ho wever, the geographic perspective clearly illu trates unity in diversity. T here is little d ispute, fo r example, that the region' human geography was complete ly reworked with the arrival of Europeans. T he number of indi genous peoples declined by as much as 90 percent during the course of the conquest, but the ir presence remains strong in many parts of Latin America. Large numbers o f African slaves were also added to the cultu ral mix o f Europeans and indigenous peoples through the slave trade. Today, the African presence th roughout the Caribbean , Brazil , and coastal Venezuela and Colombia is quite notable. Other immigrant groups arri ved- from l.taly, Japan, Germany, and fndi a-from the late nineteenth century onwa rd, adding to the cultural complex ity o f the region.

fn terms of phys ical geography, much of the area is tropical, with a mi xture of grass lands and fo rest as well as mounta ins and shie lds (large upland areas of exposed crysta lline roc k). An impress ive array of natural resources includes the planet's largest rain fo rest, the greatest river by vo lume, and substa ntial re erves of natu ral gas. o il , tin, and copper. Si nce Chri stopher Columbus 's journey of ex ploration more than five centuries ago, Latin America has provided the world wi th many va luable commodities. T he earl y Spanish Empire concentrated on extracting precious metals, namely sil ve r and gold, from Mexico and the Andes. T he Portu guese became prominent producers of sugar prod ucts, go ld , and (later) coffee. By the late nineteenth and earl y twentieth centuries, natural resource exports to Euro pe and North America fueled the region ?s grow ing economies. Countries tended to spec ia lize in one or two commod ities: wool and wheat fro m Argentina, coffee and sugar from Brazil , coffee and bananas fro m Costa Rica, tin and silver fro m Bo livia, and oil from Mexico and Venezue la. Although the national economies of Latin America have dive rsified since the l.950s, they continue to b.e major producers of pri mary goods for North America, Europe, and East Asia.

In the fi rst part of this chapter, I prov ide a sketch of the physical environment of Latin America, drawing attention to its topographical features, li mates, natural resources, and env ironmental issues. In the second part, I discuss the basic demographic and cultu ral patterning o f the region, developing the concept of the Co lumb ian Exchange as a way to understand the ecological and cultural impact of the New World's encoun ter wi th the Old World . Iberian co lonization, the African slave trade, and later waves o f immigrants from Europe and

sia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries produced a multiethnic and multiracial soc iety. C urrent patterns of Latin American and Caribbean emi gration to North America. Europe, and Japan are creating complex transnational networks that are condui ts fo r the diffusion of Latino culture into other world regions.

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Marie Price

Each modem state of Latin America therefore has a diverse indigenou. and migrant profile that contributes to its distinct national cu lture. Yet in thi chapter, 1 reveal the common experiences shared by the nation in the region.

Physical Setting

The movement of tectonic plates explain much of Latin America'? basic topography. As the South and North American plat s slowly drifted westward, the Nazca, Cocos, and Pacific plates were ubducted below them. fn this contact zone, deep oceanic trenches exist along the Pacific coasts, such as the Humboldt trench along the coast of hile and Peru. producing surprisingly cool ocean temperatures for a tropical zone. The submerged plate have folded and uplifted the mainland's surface , creating the geo logically yo ung western mountains, ?uch as the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico, the highlands of Central America, and the Andes. The Andes, the most dramatic of these hi ghland areas, run the length of the South American continent for 5,000 miles, with some thirty peaks reaching over 20 ,000 feet. reated by the collision of

ceanic and continental plates, the Andes are a series of fo lded and faulted sedimentary rocks with intrusions of volcanic and crysta lline rock. onsequently, many rich veins of precious metals and minerals are found there. From

olombia to Chile, the initial economic wealth of these Andea n territories came from mining. Yet the movemen t of places also unlea he environmental hazards such as the earthquake in 20 I0 that devastated Haiti (measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale) and seriously debilitated Chi le (8.8 on the Richter scale) . (See Map 2.2.)

The Andes are typically divided into the northern, central, and southern components. fn Colombia, the northern Andes actually split into three distinct mountain ranges before mergi ng near the border with Ecuador. High-a ltitude platea us and snow-covered peaks di tingui sh the central Ande of Ecuador. Peru, and Bolivia. The Andes reach their greate. t width here. Between Peru and Bolivia is a treele. s high plateau called the alriplano . veraging l2,000 fee t in elevation , it has limited grazing potential , but important mineral resources. The outhem Andes are shared by hile and Argentina. Much of this high land region was an important zone of settlement for native peoples, who exploited the diverse ecological niche of the mountain and domesticated a tremendou variety of native crops such as potatoe , hot and sweet peppers, .ind quinoa (Gade 1999). In Peru, the magnificent mountaintop city of Machu Picchu is an example of the remains of a pre- ol umbi an ettlement. Today, most of the people of the Andean state sti ll live in or at the base of the mountains. Major cities, such as Bogota, Quito, and La Paz, are in the mountains. The Andean states of Ecuador. Peru. and Bolivia are home to the majority of native peoples in South America.

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Aconcagua, located in Argentina, is t he highest peak in the Americas.

The Mex ican plateau is a mass ive upland area ringed by the Sierra Madre Mountains and tilted so that the highest elevations are in the South-about ~ .000 feet near Mexico City and just 4,000 fee t at Ciudad Juarez. T he south~ rn end of the plateau, known as the Mesa Central, ?upports Mex ico's highest population density, incl udi ng the cities of Mexico C ity, Puebla, and Guadalajara. The Mesa Central was historicall y Mexico 's breadbasket, but water short.1ges due to urbanization and rapid population growth threaten the region 's prod uctiv ity (Ezcurra et al. 1999). Throughout the Mex ican plateau are also rich seams of silver, the focus of economic acti vity during the country's colonial era. Today, the Mexican economy is dri ven more by petroleum and gas production along the Gul f Coast and less by the metals of the plateau.

The Caribbean plate contains most of Central America, the is lands of the West fndies. and part of Colombia. As the Caribbean plate moves slowl y to the ~ as t, it triggers vo lcanic activi ty and earthquakes in both the Central American ighlands and the is lands of the Caribbean. The Central American highlands ire composed of a volcanic chain that stretc hes from Guatemala to Costa Rica, producing a handsome landscape of rolling green hills, elevated basins with lakes, and conical peaks. Huggi ng the Pacific Coast, the legacy of some forty vo lcanoes is ferti le soil that yields a variety of domesti c and export crops. Most :>f Central America's 43 mi llion people are concentrated in thi s zone, either in the capital cities or the surroundi ng rura l villages. Yet the hazards associated

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