The The Hispanic Hispanic
CaribbeanCaribbeanChapter 8Chapter 8
Geography & Environment
North American & Caribbean Plates
Geology1. North American Plate• Limestone Plateau – Cuba, Yucatan, Florida– Karst landscape – sinkholes, caverns, karst towers,
subterranean rivers– Sierra de los Organos (Cuba)– Sierra de Escambray (Cuba)– Fertile soils – sugarcane
2. Caribbean Plate• Uplifted fault-block mountains (Granite)– Sierra Maestra (Cuba)• Pico Turquino – 1,975 m (6,476 ft.)
– Cordillera Central (Dominican Republic)• Pico Duarte – 3,083 m (10,164 ft.)
– Cordillera Central & Sierra de Luquillo (Puerto Rico)
Republic of CubaPopulation: 12 million
Population: 9 million
Commonwealth of Puerto RicoPopulation: 4 million
Historical Geography & Economic Development
• Pre-Columbian culture – Ciboney • Once in Cuba
– Arawak/Taíno• Once in Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico
– Caribs• Today in Dominica • Black Caribs in Central America – Zambos
– Vocabulary:• Bohío – hut• Hurricane, barbeque
• Spanish conquest – Santo Domingo (Hispaniola/Hispañola)• Founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1496• 1st European city and 1st Spanish capital in the Americas
– Havana (Cuba)• Principal gateway to the New World for Spanish trade• Mercantile trading system – stopover to and from
mainland ports of Veracruz, Cartagena, Colón (Acapulco, Lima)• Became more important than Santo Domingo and San Juan
• Independence from Spain & U.S. Hegemony– 1865 – Santo Domingo– 1898 – Cuba & Puerto Rico – Spanish American War
Economy• Sugarcane– Spain – importation of African slaves– United States investment after the Civil War
• Slavery abolished until 1878 (Puerto Rico) & 1886 (Cuba)– Cultivation and Processing on Plantations
• Small family plantations gave way to large landholdings • Sugar mills: trapiches, ingenios, and centrales • Sugar, molasses, and rum
• Other crops and livestock– Tobacco– Indigo – Coffee– Cattle ranching
U.S. Hegemony & the “Yankee Years”• Spanish American War – 1898 – Cuban revolution for independence
• José Martí, Antonio Maceo, and Máximo Gómez – U.S.S. Main explosion in Havana Harbor– T. Roosevelt and the “Rough Riders” – San Juan Hill
• Puerto Rico – U.S. territory in 1901• Cuban “independence” in 1902 – Platt Amendment– mediated “sovereignty”– Guantánamo Bay Naval Base
• Camp X-Ray – in order to avoid U.S. law toward prisoners– Dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista – 1933 - 1944, 1952 - 1959
• Dominican Rep. – U.S. intervention – – Dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo – 1930 – 1961 – Marines landed in 1965
Cuban Revolution• Fidel Castro • 26 of July Movement –
1953– Moncada Barracks
• Che Guevara – Return to Cuba on the
Granma• Revolution of 1959• U.S. Embargo – 1960 – Helms-Burton Act of 1996
• Bay of Pigs Invasion – 1961 • Cuban Missile Crisis – 1962
Contemporary & Social Geography• Cuba– “Revolution” continues • Education • Healthcare • Provision of food and consumer goods – bodegas • Housing • Committees for Defense of the Revolution (CDRs)
– Special Period of 1990s• Tourism • Self-sufficiency • Remittances from exiles
• Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico– Tourism
Tourism: A Mixed Blessing?
• Advantages– State and regional
economic options– A clean industry– Educational
• Disadvantages– Disjunctive development– Degrades fragile
environmental resources– Inauthentic
representations of native cultures
MEXICO
¡Ándale!
Chapter 9Chapter 9
Historical Landscapes of Mexico• Pre-Columbian– Teotihuacán– Tula (Toltecs)– Tenochtitlán (Aztecs)
• Tlaxcala• Purepecha (Tarascans)
• Spanish Colonial– Hernán Cortez vs. Moctezuma– Haciendas – Silver and gold mining in the Bajío region
• Independence and Republican Period– “Grito de Dolores” – Dolores (near Guadalajara)
Historical Landscapes of Mexico– 1821 – independence from Spain for Mexico and Central
America– Mexican-American War – 1846
• Gen. Zachary Scott Taylor – Monterrey (1846)• Gen. Winfield Scott – Mexico City (1847)• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) – present border between
Mexico & U.S.l– French Intervention – Emporer Maximiliam I (1861 – 1867)– Modernization of Mexico and the Railroads – President
Benito Juárez– “Pax Porfiriato” (1876 – 1911) – President Porfirio Díaz
• Mexican Revolution– Pancho Villa (North) & Emiliano Zapata (South)
• Constitution of 1917– Expropriation and the Ejido
Regions of Mexico1. Independent North• Borderlands• Arid Northwest• Humid Gulf Lowlands
2. Central Mexico • Central Metropolitan Axis• El Bajío
3. Southern Poverty Belt• Southern Mountains• Chiapas• Yucatán• Tourist Fringe “Club Mex”
• Mayan Riviera • Pacific Resorts• Baja California
Regions in MexicoMexican Plateau1.Mesa Central - Valle de Mexico– Neovolcanic Range• Pico de Orizaba – 18,490 ft.• Popocatepetl Volcano – 17,887 ft. • Paricutin & Colima
– Mexico City – Guadalajara (Mexico’s 2nd largest city), Puebla,
Morelia– El Bajío (Guanajuato, Querétaro, San Miguel de
Allende)• Spanish colonial mining centers
Regions in Mexico2. Mesa del Norte
– Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora Deserts – mesquite, cacti, agave, creosote – Northern Borderlands (Mexamerica) – Monterrey (Mexico’s Pittsburgh):
3rd largest city in Mex.– Mining and manufacturing – Saltillo, Monclova, Chihuahua, Torreon,
Durango, Hermosillo, San Luis Potosi – “Silver Belt” – Zacatecas, Durango, Parral, Chihuahua – Haciendas– Ranching – Mexican Border towns – Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad
Juarez, Nogales, Mexicali, Tijuana– Maquiladoras – Mormons and Mennonites
• Sierra Madre Oriental – sedimentary (mostly karst – i.e. limestone)• Sierra Madre Occidental – volcanic origin (mostly crystalline – i.e.
granite) – Copper Canyon – Chihuahua
Central America
Chapter 10Chapter 10
Physical Environment• Caribbean & Cocos Plates• Sierra de los Cuchumatanes• Central American volcanic axis
– Guatemala: Agua Vol., Fuego Vol., Lake Atitlán – El Salvador– Nicaragua: Concepción, Momotombo, Masaya – Costa Rica: Arenal, Poás, Irazú
• Lake Nicaragua– Freshwater sharks– San Juan River
• 49 Gold Rush • Caribbean Lowlands – humid tropical• Pacific Lowlands – tropical wet-and-dry • Highlands in Guat. and C.R. – tierra fría and páramo
– Mt. Chirripó• Wildlife: resplendent quetzal, toucans, parrots, tree sloths,
capuchin & howler monkeys, and many others
Historical and Contemporary Geography• United Provinces of Central America (1823 – 1840) • Highlands: Coffee farms – fincas (Costa Rica vs. El Salvador) • Caribbean Lowlands: Bananas – Standard/United Fruit Company • Guatemala and Costa Rica: Tourism• Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua: Expatriots from N. America & Europe
United States as regional hegemony (Gringos) – “Yankee Years”• Monroe Doctrine• President Theodore Roosevelt “The Bully” – Panama Canal
– "Carry a Big Stick and use it..."– Rough Riders and San Juan Hill (Cuba)
• Good Neighbor Policy – President Franklin D. Roosevelt• Alliance for Progress – President John F. Kennedy Guatemala• Jacobo Arbenz – democratic leader of Guatemala • United Fruit Co. of Boston – “The Octopus” – Bananas• CIA and Operation Success – deposed Arbenz• John Foster Dulles (Advisor to President Dwight Eisenhower)• URNG – Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity
Historical and Contemporary GeographyNicaragua•Río San Juan and Lake Nicaragua
– Trans-isthmian route for 49ers in California Gold Rush– Potential canal prior to Panama Canal
•William Walker – filibuster from Nashville, Tennessee & established Nicaragua as a slave empire
– President of Nicaragua 1856 – 1857 – Captured by British and executed by Hondurans
•U.S. Marines – 1912 – 1933•Augusto César Sandino – rebel leader•Anastasio “Tacho” Somoza García – Nicaraguan National Guard•Anastasio “Tachito” Somoza Debayle•Pedro Joaquín Chamorro – journalist assassinated by Somoza Debayle•Revolution in Nicaragua – 1979 •Violeta Chamorro (FSLN Junta member, President in 1990)•Daniel Ortega (FSLN Junta member, President in 1980s, current President since 2006)•FSLN “Sandinistas” – Sandinista National Liberation Front •“Contras” – Contra-Sandinistas (illegal funding and support by President Ronald Reagan)
Historical and Contemporary GeographyEl Salvador•Civil War•Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980•FMLN – Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front•U.S. military advisorsCosta Rica•Juan Santamaria – pushed W. Walker out of C.R. in 1856 •Civil War – Figueres vs. Calderón (1948)
– Abolished military – Public healthcare
•Oscar Arias – Nobel Peace Prize (1987)– Ending conflicts in Central America
Panama – independence in 1903•Canal – completed in 1914
– Canal Zone reverted to Panamanian sovereignty in 2000 •Gen. Manuel Noriega
– U.S. Invasion in 1989Caribbean Lowlands •Mosquito (Miskito) Coast/Mosquitia – British loggers (mahogany) •Black Caribs/Garifuna of Honduras
Physical Environment
Guatemala
Costa Rica
¡Pura vida!