Intro to L. A. PP

Where is
Latin
America?

Latin America
spans across
the Tropic of
Cancer in the
north and the
Tropic of
Capricorn in
the south.

It is in the Western Hemisphere (west of the Prime
Meridian). It straddles the Equator, putting it in both
the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

Latin America
begins at The
United State’s
southern border
and extends
southward to
the southern tip
of South
America.
Latin America is
situated
between the
Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans

Most of Latin
America is
located under
the prevailing
easterly winds
known as the
Trade Winds.

Physical Geography of
Latin America

Topical Rain
Forest
the largest
tropical
rainforest on
the planet

Lake Titicaca – the
lake at the highest
altitude on Earth.

The Amazon River –
largest river on
Earth, in terms of
discharge.

The Andes – longest mountain
range in the world

Deserts – driest desert in the world

The Atacama Desert

Angel Falls –
tallest
waterfall in
the world

Culture

Religion –
88.6% Roman
Catholic.

Language – predominantly Spanish,

Portuguese is also widely used in Brazil
Also spoken – English, French, German, Native
Amerindian languages.

Who Has the money? –Not Drug
dealers. Actually the wealth still
remains in the hands of families
that received large land grants
from the Viceroy in the colonial
days. Today in Mexico, for
example, approximately 90%of the
country’s wealth sits in the hands
of only about 10 different families.

Major Cities

Mexico City is growing
quickly and is
predicted to be the
largest city in the world
in the near future.
What would the
population pyramid for
Mexico City look
like???

Sao Paulo, Brazil –
largest city in Brazil
and among the
largest in the world.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
and Buenos Aires,
Argentina, are also
very large metro areas
with about 6 million
people in each.

Major Issues

Deforestation – The cutting
down of trees to make way
for development, especially
as it affects tropical
rainforests.

Urbanization – the large shift in population from
rural to urban locations.

Poverty – the lack of basic
human needs such as food,
shelter, clean water and
medical care.

Large economic gap in population – the tendency for
the rich to be extravagantly rich and the poor to be
impoverished.

Water shortages – an insufficient supply of clean drinking
water for the people to drink and use to water crops.