1. Latin America’s Geography

2. Latin America starts with Mexico and runs all the way south.
Includes 2 continents – part of North America & all of South America

3. Part in North America is known as Central America or Middle America which goes from the Rio Grande to the Isthmus of Panama
Rio Grande
Isthmus of Panama

4. Define: isthmus

5. The main languages of Spanish and Portuguese have Latin roots
Why “Latin America”?
The main languages of Spanish and Portuguese have Latin roots

6. Isolating Factors
The variety of geographic features, like mountains and rainforests, separate areas of Latin America form one another

7. Mountains
La Cordillera start in the Rocky Mountains of the US, continue through the Sierra Madre of Mexico and extend through the Andes of South America

8. Sierra Madre (sierra means mountain)

9. Andes Mountains

10. Andes Mountains

11. Machu Picchu (Incan ruins in Andes)

12. Ex. Yucatan Peninsula, Amazon Rainforest, & Pampas
Lowlands
Areas at or near sea level; usually near the coast and in some inland areas
Ex. Yucatan Peninsula, Amazon Rainforest, & Pampas

13. Yucatan Peninsula – eastern Mexico surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico

16. Amazon Rainforest - Amazon River starts in the Andes Mountains and flows east across all of Brazil.
It is the widest river in the world.

20. Around the river is the Amazon Rainforest, the largest in the world

22. Pampas - grasslands in Uruguay and Argentina

25. Regionalism
Strong local traditions that divide people within a country or region caused by the isolating factors

26. Based on what has been discussed, explain why Latin America experiences regionalism:

27. Based on what has been discussed, do all people in Latin America share the same culture? Why or why not?