Topics: Physical Geography - 1.3 Latin America

1.3 Latin America

Latin America (Spanish: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2008, its population was estimated at more than 569 million.



Subdivisions

Darcy Ribeiro has proposed a classification between “witness peoples (yellow)” (Mexico, Central America, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador), “New peoples (Red)” (Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Caribbean nations, Chile and Paraguay) and “transplanted peoples(Blue)” (Uruguay and Argentina).



Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and culture; some subregions are North America, Central America, the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, and Andean states. In terms of culture, society and national identity Mario Sambarino classified Latin American states into Mestizo-American Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico etc.), Indigenous-America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru) and European-American (Argentina and Uruguay).



In Darcy Ribeiro's classification system Latin American countries are classified as "New Peoples" (Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil etc.), that merged from the mix of several cultures while Peru, Bolivia and Mexico are "Testimony Peoples", remnants of ancient civilizations and Argentina and Uruguay, former "New Peoples" that became "Transplantated Peoples", essentially European, after massive immigration.

Latin America and the Caribbean Countries:

Caribbean:

Anguilla

Antigua and Barbuda

Aruba

Bahamas

Barbados

British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Cuba

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Grenada

Guadeloupe

Haiti

Jamaica

Martinique

Montserrat

Netherlands Antilles

Puerto Rico

Saint-Barthélemy

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Martin (French part)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Turks and Caicos Islands

United States Virgin Islands

Central America:

Belize

Costa Rica

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

Nicaragua

Panama



South America:

Argentina

Bolivia (Plurinational State of)

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Ecuador

Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

French Guiana

Guyana

Paraguay

Peru

Suriname

Uruguay

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

Sources: Wikipedia & United Nations