Parker GEOG 4031

     Throughout Latin America, there are a diverse group of religions, some that originated long before European colonists arrived in the Americas, and some of the Old-World religions. Then, there are the religions that were created after colonization occurred, fusing together indigenous religions and Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, and Judaism. These folk religions are an important part of Latin American culture and daily life. Without religious syncretism, some of the most influential religious figures in Latin America would not exist, such as Our Lady of Guadeloupe, a dark-skinned version of the Virgin Mary. Many of the indigenous religions are still thriving alongside Christianity in Latin America as they have been brought together with Catholicism, praising their gods and heroes alongside venerated saints. Catholicism plays an extremely large part in this as it was the state religion of the Spanish colonists. Churches, monasteries, and convents were built all o...

      The History of Latin America cannot be described without taking a look at the long history of influence and involvement by the United States of America. While a lot of involvement by the United States was to further ties between the US government and other Latin American countries, a lot of military intervention by the US was performed throughout history. On the map below, you can see the different countries in which overt military intervention, by the United States government, occurred. Most of the countries labeled on the map show that the U.S. military intervened or invaded their country multiple times throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In the data shown on the map, there are the dates of overt U.S. military intervention, usually through the purpose of peacekeeping or invasion and overthrow of the current political regime. The map displays that none of these invasions occurred in South America, only in the Caribbean or the Central American sta...

     The Human Development Index is a measurement tool developed by the United Nations Development Programme utilized to rank all the countries in the world by three different factors: life expectancy, educational attainment, and adjusted real income. Using these three factors to measure development in different countries is a balanced way to measure not only some of the economic data in a country, but also to measure quality of life and how the economic factors actually affect the people in a country.     In the geo map shown below, Latin American countries are contrasted in ranges by their HDI values. The ranges of HDI begin with  0.79 - 0.855 (Very High), 0.752 - 0.788 (High), 0.709 - 0.751 (Medium), and 0.535 - 0.692 (Low). The data range with the largest data range is range of 0.79 - 0.855 (Very High) with 10 out of the 34 countries with available data. The country in Latin America with the highest HDI value is the Republic of Chile, wit...

    The precolonial architecture and street planning of the indigenous peoples in and around the cities of Tenochtitlan, Teotihuacan, and Cuzco were largely utilized in the construction of the colonial cities and Modern cities. For example, in the street plans of Cuzco, Peru, there is an area in the city where the streets create the image of a Puma. These streets are still incorporated into the city planning. Many instances of indigenous city planning, and architecture are still prevalent in the modern-day cities. In Teotihuacan, the city is mapped out in a largely gridded pattern. The precolonial city planning features prominently in the cityscape of Teotihuacan today and became a defining feature of Latin American city planning through the Laws of the Indies, established after Spanish voyages to Latin America. This led to a defining style of urban planning in the colonial cities of the Spanish Empire.      The architectural style of precolonial empires such as...

    The Colonial Cities of Latin America were an urban paradise at their initial establishment. Large city centers were constructed according to the Laws of the Indies which laid out specific organizational steps for city planning in colonies. This specific organizational approach allowed early colonial cities in Latin America to make great advances in urbanization and development. These cities were often constructed throughout existing indigenous settlements and cities in order to provide the population base for the rural areas along with workers for undesirable jobs throughout the city. These populations also served as a trophy for early explorers that established the cities as they had inherited a rulable class of people. The goal of conquering and ruling over subjects was what had initially driven the quick urbanization throughout Latin America as these explorers and conquerors traveled to the new world to bask in riches derived from their feats, such a...

    The 2010 Earthquakes in Haiti, specifically Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns were characterizable fatal and destructive. The reason the earthquakes in and around Port-au-Prince are so frequent and dangerous is because of the tectonic movements. While the Caribbean Plate lies just above Haiti and the Dominican Republic and results in a transform boundary, causing earthquakes. However, the  Gonâve Microplate is the cause of the Port-au-Prince earthquakes as there is a fault line running through the mountain range of Massif de la Selle, which is just south of Port-au-Prince. This fault line is known as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone as it runs from Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic to Plantain Garden River in Jamaica. This fault line is the cause of many earthquakes in the Port-au-Prince region, as well as the 2010 Earthquakes which caused the deaths of over 150,000 people according to a study performed by the University of Michigan in 2010.  ...