It stimulated a shift in the location of industrial activity and in the migration patterns of people in Mexico. The aspect of cheaper labor was a benefit understood to bolster corporate profits and reduce product costs.
Maquiladoras are foreign-owned factories that import most of the raw materials or components needed for the products they manufacture, assemble, or process with local cheap labor, and then they export the finished product for profit. US corporations own more than half the maquiladoras in Mexico, and about 80 percent of the finished goods are exported back to the United States.
Although most maquiladoras are located near the US-Mexican border, additional factories are located around Monterrey and other cities with easy access to the United States. Worth, which acts as a doorway to the US markets. Thousands of maquiladoras flourish along the US-Mexican border, although the Mexican government has also promoted maquiladoras in other parts of Mexico. Maquiladoras provide jobs for workers in Mexico and provide cheaper goods for US consumers.
However, this system has inherent problems. Labor unions in the United States complain that the high-paying industrial jobs that support the US middle class are being lost to cheap Mexican labor. Labor laws in Mexico are less rigorous than US laws, allowing for longer work hours and fewer benefits for maquiladora employees.
In addition, pollution standards in Mexico are not as restrictive as those in the United States, giving rise to environmental concerns. The central US-Mexican border region has dry or arid type B climates with fresh water in short supply, and water is in high demand in industrial processes. With the rapid increase in employment along the border, many of the people who work in the factories do not have adequate housing or utilities.
Extensive slum areas have grown around maquiladora zones, which have little law enforcement, high crime, and few services. The US-Mexican border region has become a strong pull factor, enticing poor people who seek greater opportunities and advantages to move from Mexico City and other southern regions of Mexico to the border region to look for work. When they do not find work, they are tempted to cross the US border illegally.
The United States is considered a land of opportunity and attracts immigrants—both legal and illegal—from Mexico. For political and economic reasons, the main US political parties have been hesitant to seriously address the problem of the millions of illegal immigrants.
Opportunities and advantages drive the push-pull of migrants searching for improved economic conditions. It is not only US corporations that have taken advantage of the explosion in the number of maquiladoras in Mexico.
European and Japanese companies have also muscled in on a share of the market. Capitalism thrives on cheap labor and accessible raw materials. US congressional differences, however, have prevented Chile from being accepted as a full member.
The United States, Mexico, and Canada all have full-fledged independent free-trade agreements with Chile. The same concerns that the European Union faced regarding currency, language, and law confront this proposal. A new currency called the Eagle was proposed as early as the s to replace the Canadian dollar, the US dollar, and the Mexican peso.
In later years, a currency called the Amero was proposed for the same purpose, but its implementation is unlikely. Any change in the US dollar would affect a great number of countries: Puerto Rico a territory of the United States and the countries of Ecuador, Panama, and El Salvador already use the US dollar as their standard currency.
A one-currency solution might become a more viable option if the US dollar were to crash or significantly lose its value in the world marketplace. A goal of NAFTA is to exploit cheap labor until the Mexican economy rises to a level similar to that of the United States and Canada, equalizing migration patterns and eventually bringing about a situation in which the border checkpoints between the countries could be eliminated, as they have been within the European Union.
Through the development of a larger middle class in Mexico, the three main countries of NAFTA would have similar standards of living. Mexico has a long way to go to arrive at this status but is making progress at the expense of the United States and Canada.
Corruption, organized crime, and drug wars have made progress in Mexico more difficult. NAFTA is also viewed as a component of globalization in the form of corporate colonialism, which only benefits those wealthy enough to hold investments at the corporate level.
The exploitation of cheap labor has caused undue immigration across the US-Mexican border, bringing millions of illegal workers into the United States. Slave labor was prominent during European colonial era, whereas cheap labor is the target in neocolonial activity—that is, corporate colonialism. The state of Chiapas in Mexico has an unequal distribution of wealth, a situation evident in most core-peripheral spatial relationships.
Located in the rural highlands of Mexico and inhabited by a minority group that holds to the Mayan language and traditions, Chiapas has few economic opportunities for its people. Wealthy landowners and the ruling elite who have long held power have routinely taken advantage of peasant farmers.
The aristocracy uses the best land and pays low wages to local workers. Medical care, education, and government assistance have been slow in coming to this region and its people. In the past few decades, various Amerindian groups have organized in the rural areas of Mexico in an attempt to counter the power of the political elite.
As each country claimed benefits from this agreement, the peripheral region of Chiapas sought to receive their share of those benefits. The Mexican military was quick to react to the ZNLA offensive and rapidly drove them out of the towns they had occupied. The publicity and the international press coverage assisted the ZNLA in getting their message out to the rest of the world.
The ZNLA want greater recognition of their rights and their heritage and more autonomy over their region and lands. This devolutionary process resembles that of various European regions desiring similar recognition of rights. Similar conflicts are ongoing in other rural states of Mexico with majority Amerindian populations. There is a direct relationship between social status and wealth and skin color in most regions of Mexico. On the one hand, Aztec and Mayan heritage is celebrated; on the other hand, their identity and darker skin relegates them to a lower socioeconomic status.
The illegal drug trade is a multibillion-dollar industry, and Mexico has traditionally been the transitional area or stop-off point between the South American drug producing areas and entrance into US markets.
Cocaine, marijuana, and more recently heroin were produced in the Andes Mountains of South America and shipped north to the United States. Colombian cartels were once the main controllers of illegal drugs in the Western Hemisphere, but in recent decades, organized crime units in Mexico have muscled in on the control of drugs coming through Mexico, making deals with their South American counterparts to become the main traffickers of drugs into the United States, and the influence and power of Mexican drug cartels has increased immensely since the demise of the Colombian cartels in the s.
Enormous profits fuel the competition for control. Just as the United States has declared a war on drugs and has used its Drug Enforcement Administration DEA as a main arm in combating the industry, Mexico has had to address its own issues in the illegal drug trade. Illegal drug income flowing into Mexico has become a major part of the economy in specific areas. Drug kingpins have used their economic power to buy off local police forces and silence opposition. They have also been known to provide poor neighborhoods with funding for services that would normally be designated as government obligations.
These actions have often provided a mixed reaction within the population in local areas. The drug cartels have become an integrated part of the fabric of Mexico. In an attempt to combat the situation, the Mexican government has been engaged in its own internal war against the illegal drug trade. The battles between the drug cartels and the Mexican government have created a serious internal conflict in the country, killing thousands of innocent bystanders in the cross fire.
Armed conflicts between rival cartels or local gangs have increased the violence that has been intensifying since Mexican cities near the US border have experienced increased incidences of major drug-related murders and gang violence.
Higher volumes of firearms trafficking from the United States and abroad into Mexico have been fueling the armed conflicts. Military and police casualties have increased, and the number of drug-related shootings are on the rise. Cartels have been known to use jet airliners, semitrucks, and even submarines in their attempts to ship illegal drugs into the United States. Large tunnels have been found beneath the US-Mexican border that were used to smuggle drugs. Intimidation and corruption have been standard practices used by drug traffickers to protect their interests.
Bribes, payoffs, and corruption have been difficult to battle in a country with a high percentage of the population living in poor conditions. Central America is a land bridge connecting the North and South American continents, with the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Caribbean Sea to its east. A central mountain chain dominates the interior from Mexico to Panama.
The coastal plains of Central America have tropical and humid type A climates. In the highland interior, the climate changes with elevation.
As one travels up the mountainsides, the temperature cools. Only Belize is located away from this interior mountain chain. Its rich soils and cooler climate have attracted more people to live in the mountainous regions than along the coast. Hurricanes, tropical storms, earthquakes, and volcanic activity produce recurring environmental problems for Central America. In , Hurricane Mitch swept through the region, devastating Nicaragua and El Salvador, which had already been devastated by civil wars in previous years.
The volcanic activity along the central mountain chain over time has provided rich volcanic soils in the mountain region, which has attracted people to work the land for agriculture. Central America has traditionally been a rural peripheral economic area in which most of the people have worked the land. Family size has been larger than average, and rural-to-urban shift dominates the migration patterns as the region urbanizes and industrializes.
Natural disasters, poverty, large families, and a lack of economic opportunities have made life difficult in much of Central America. High mountains ranges run the length of Central and South America. The Andes Mountains of South America are the longest mountain chain in the world, and a large section of this mountain range is in the tropics.
Tropical regions usually have humid type A climates. What is significant in Latin America is that while the climate at the base of the Andes may be type A, the different zones of climate and corresponding human activity vary as one moves up the mountain in elevation.
Mountains have different climates at the base than at the summit. Type H highland climates describe mountainous areas that exhibit different climate types at varying degrees of elevation. Human activity varies with elevation, and the activities can be categorized into zones according to altitudinal zonation Vertical environmental zones that change with altitude in mountainous regions.
Each zone has its own type of vegetation and agricultural activity suited to the climate found at that elevation. For every thousand-foot increase in elevation, temperature drops 3. In the tropical areas of Latin America, there are five established temperature-altitude zones.
From sea level to 2, feet are the humid tropical lowlands found on the coastal plains. The coastal plains on the west coast of Middle America are quite narrow, but they are wider along the Caribbean coast. Vegetation includes tropical rain forests and tropical commercial plantations. Food crops include bananas, manioc, sweet potatoes, yams, corn, beans, and rice. Livestock are raised at this level, and sugarcane is an important cash crop.
Tropical diseases are most common, and large human populations are not commonly attracted to this zone. From 2, to 6, feet is a zone with cooler temperatures than at sea level. This is the most populated zone of Latin America. Four of the seven capitals of the Central American republics are found in this zone. Just as temperate climates attract human activity, this zone provides a pleasant environment for habitation.
The best coffee is grown at these elevations, and most other food crops can be grown here, including wheat and small grains. From 6, to 12, feet is the highest zone found in Middle America. This zone is usually the limit of the tree line; few trees grow north of this zone. The shorter growing season and cooler temperatures found at these elevations are still adequate for growing agricultural crops of wheat, barley, potatoes, or corn.
Livestock can graze and be raised on the grasslands. At this elevation, there are no trees. The only human activity is the raising of livestock such as sheep or llama on any short grasses available in the highland meadows.
Snow and cold dominate the zone. Central America does not have a tierra helada zone, but it is found in the higher Andes Mountain Ranges of South America. There is little human activity above 15, feet. Permanent snow and ice is found here, and little vegetation is available.
Many classification systems combine this zone with the tierra helada zone. Amerindian groups dominated Central America before the European colonial powers arrived. The Maya are still prominent in the north and make up about half the population of Guatemala. Other Amerindian groups are encountered farther south, and many still speak their indigenous languages and hold to traditional cultural customs.
People of European stock or upper-class mestizos now control political and economic power in Central America. Indigenous Amerindian groups find themselves on the lower rung of the socioeconomic ladder. During colonial times, the Spanish conquistadors dominated Central America with the exception of the area of Belize, which was a British colony called British Honduras until Panama was a part of Colombia and was not independent until the United States prompted an independence movement in to develop the Panama Canal.
As is usually the case with colonialism, the main religion and the lingua franca of the Central American states are those of the European colonizers, in this case Roman Catholicism and Spanish. In some locations, the language and religion take on variant forms that mix the traditional with the European to create a unique local cultural environment.
About 50 percent of the people of Central America live in rural areas, and because the economy is agriculturally based, family size has traditionally been large. Until the s, family size averaged as high as six children. As the pressures of the postindustrial age have influenced Central America, average family size has been decreasing and is now about half that of the pres and is declining.
For example, the World Bank reports that in Nicaragua the average woman has 2. Rural-to-urban shift is common, and as the region experiences more urbanization and industrialization, family size will decrease even more. During the twentieth century, much of Central America experienced development similar to stage 2 of the index of economic development. An influx of light industry and manufacturing firms seeking cheap labor has pushed many areas into stage 3 development.
The primate cities and main urban centers are feeling the impact of this shift. Over the years, larger family sizes have created populations with a higher percentage of young people and a lower percentage of older people. Cities are often overwhelmed with young migrants from the countryside with few or no places to live. Rapid urbanization places a strain on urban areas because services, infrastructure, and housing cannot keep pace with population growth.
Slums with self-constructed housing districts emerge around the existing urban infrastructure. The United States has also become a destination for people looking for opportunities or advantages not found in these cities.
CAFTA is supported by the same forces that advocated neocolonialism in other regions of the world. Countries gain national wealth in the three main ways: by growing it, extracting it, or manufacturing it. Instead, the profits are carted off to the foreign corporation that controls the industrial factory. Multinational corporations see Central American countries as profitable sites for industrial; they can exploit cheap labor sources and at the same time provide jobs for local people.
These advantages should result in lower product costs for consumers. Costa Rica, one of the most stable countries in the region, had problems passing the agreement because of voter opposition. One of the primary arguments opponents to CAFTA make is that the wealth generated by the exploitation of the available cheap labor will not stay in Central America; instead, it will be removed by the wealthy core nations, just as European colonialism removed the wealth generated by the conquistadors and shipped it back to Europe.
In return, cheap consumer goods are available to the people. Central American countries might share similar climate patterns, but they do not share similar political or economic dynamics. The political geography of the region is diverse and ranges from a history of total civil war to peace and stability. The growing pains of each country as it competes and engages in the global economy often cause turmoil and conflict. Each state has found a different path, but each has dealt with similar issues with varying degrees of success.
Barriers to progress range from political corruption to gang violence. Stability has come to the communities that have found new avenues of gaining wealth and creating a higher standard of living.
In the late s, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua experienced devastating civil wars that divided their people and destroyed their economies.
In the Mayan state of Guatemala, the —96 civil war was fought between the right-wing Ladinos urbanized mestizos and Maya and the left-wing rural Amerindian Mayan majority. Right-wing and left-wing death squads terrorized the country until the latter s, when the Catholic Church brokered a peace accord. The poor and devastated country is now moving forward on its path to recovery.
In the coffee republic Political state whose economy is dominated by a single crop, which happens to be coffee. A few powerful families owned almost the entire country. Coffee is a major export crop for El Salvador, a country with a mild climate at its higher elevations. Arabica coffee grows well at these elevations. To protect their economic interests, US coffee companies backed the wealthy elite in El Salvador and lobbied the support of the US government.
At the same time, the peasants of El Salvador were soliciting support from Nicaragua and Cuba, which were backed by the Soviet Union. After the civil war devastated the country and killed an estimated seventy-five thousand people, a peace agreement that included land reform was finally reached in El Salvador is a small country about the size of the US state of New Jersey with a population of more than six million people.
The war devastated this rural mountainous country and forced more than three hundred thousand people to become refugees in other countries. Many migrated north to the United States. Recovery from the war has been difficult and has been hampered by natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. At the same time that civil wars were going on in Guatemala and El Salvador, there was conflict in Nicaragua.
After US marines occupied the country from to , the US-backed Somoza family took power and remained there for decades. By , violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption engulfed the country. An estimated fifty thousand people died in a bitter civil war that ousted the Somoza regime and brought the Marxist Sandinista government to power in Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the United States to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra short for counterrevolutionary guerrillas through much of the s and to bring about a second Nicaraguan civil war.
In spite of a US embargo against Iran and animosity between Israel and Iran, the deals went through with hopes of negotiating the release of US hostages in Lebanon. The profits from these illegal covert arms sales were funneled into support for the contra forces in Nicaragua, and the scandal, known as the Iran-Contra Affair, has become a standard reference for US intervention in Central America.
In , at the end of the Sandinista-Contra War, democratic elections were carried out. The civil war between the Sandinistas and the contras cost an estimated thirty thousand lives. Despite this history, the people of Nicaragua have worked hard to move forward. Honduras has not experienced civil war, even though it is located in the midst of three troubled neighbors. It is considered a banana republic Political state whose economy is dominated by a single crop, which happens to be bananas.
American fruit companies have dominated the economy of this poor country and have supported the buildup of arms to ensure its stability. The term banana republic applies here only in the manner in which the region was dominated by foreign companies that grew bananas for export. Often the fruit companies would buy up large tracts of land and employ for low wages those displaced from the land to help grow the bananas.
There have been incidences in history when US fruit companies involved themselves in the political affairs of Central American countries to gain an economic advantage. Foreign fruit companies have monopolized the market in Central America to extract higher profits and control economic regulations.
If there is a bright spot in Central America, it is the democratic and peaceful Costa Rica, which does not have an army. The stable, democratically elected government and growing economy has earned the country the nickname the Switzerland of Central America.
Multinational companies have been moving here to take advantage of the stable economic conditions, low labor costs, and supportive environment for its employees. The tropical climate and stable economy of Costa Rica also attract US tourists and people looking for a place to live after retirement. Costa Rica has borrowed heavily to finance social programs, education, and infrastructure and relies on tourism, outside forces, and economic development to help pay the bills.
Geographer Dr. David Meyer examines a sugarcane stalk in Belize. Belize portrays traits of a rimland state, complete with plantation agriculture and African influence. At the northern end of Central America is the former British colony of Belize, which in gained independence in Belize borders the Caribbean Sea and has a hot, tropical type A climate.
It is small in size—about the size of El Salvador—and in population, with only about three hundred thousand people. It has the longest coral reef in the Western Hemisphere and has been promoting ecotourism as a means of economic development to capitalize on this aspect. After hurricanes ravaged the coastal Belize City, the country shifted its capital forty-five miles inland to Belmopan as a protective measure.
Belmopan is a small, centrally located city with only about ten thousand people. It is called a forward capital Capital city that has been moved to advance development or to protect the interest of the country moving it. During the s, the region of Panama was part of South America and was controlled by colonial Colombia, which was formerly colonized by Spain. To travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, ships had to sail around the southern tip of South America, which was time consuming and difficult to negotiate in some places due to ocean currents.
France made an agreement with Colombia to purchase a strip of land in Panama ten miles wide and about fifty miles long to build a canal. The tropical climate and swampy terrain, however, quickly defeated the French workers with malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical diseases.
In the United States, there was an increasing need to shorten the shipping distance between California and New York. Before the United States took over the canal project after the French abandoned it, Panama was separated from Colombia in a brief civil war and declared independent in Understanding the problems that the French had encountered, the United States first sent civil engineers and medical professionals to Panama to drain the swamps and apply tons of chemicals such as the insecticide DDT to eradicate the mosquito population.
These chemicals were later found to be toxic to humans but worked well in eliminating the mosquito problem. The Panama Canal was finally completed by the United States and opened for business in after tremendous difficulties had been overcome. About 14 percent of the population of Panama has West Indian ancestry, and many of the laborers were of African descent. The difference in ethnicity caused an early layering of society, with those from the Caribbean finding themselves at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale.
The Panama Canal is a marvel of engineering. This large inland lake provides a freshwater channel extending most of the way across the Isthmus of Panama. Locks raise and lower ships from sea level to the eighty-five-foot water level of the canal and the lake.
As ships travel through the locks, the fresh water is eventually emptied into the sea. The canal channel has to be dredged periodically to keep it from silting in. In recent years, deforestation has reduced the number of trees around the lake, resulting in more silt entering the lake bed.
A program to replant trees has been implemented to secure the lake and restore the natural conditions. Recently, the politics of the Panama Canal have become more of an issue than the operation of the canal itself. Under this agreement, both the Panama Canal Zone and the actual canal were to be returned to Panama by the end of Many Americans opposed the return of the canal to Panama. President Ronald Reagan campaigned on this position. The United States had military installations in the Canal Zone and had used this area as a training ground for the Vietnam War and other military missions.
He was an important figure, helping with the US war against Nicaragua and generally serving US interests in the region in spite of the fact he was a known drug dealer.
In May , Noriega was elected president of Panama and became less supportive of US interests in the region.
He was sentenced to forty years in a US prison for drug trafficking and held as a political prisoner. The Panama Canal Zone was an excellent geographical location for US military operations because it provided an excellent base to monitor military activity in South America.
US military planes could fly from US bases to Panama without refueling, and the planes could then fly out of Panama to monitor activity in South America. International law ruled that the Canal Zone was still sovereign Panamanian territory. The US military claimed the reason for remaining in the Canal Zone was to provide security for the canal.
The question arises, does the small country of Panama, with only about three million people, have the resources to manage and maintain the canal operations? To assist in economic development, Panama has established a free-trade zone A geographic area that does not usually impose a tax or fee on doing business within its border; a tax-free zone of economic activity.
Originally established in , the free-trade zone has become one of the largest of its kind in the world. Panama City has also become a hub of international banking with the dubious claim of being a main money-laundering center for Colombian drug money. Panama is striving to be a main economic center for the region, which would advance economic globalization and trade for Panama.
The regions of Middle America and South America, including the Caribbean, follow similar colonial patterns of invasion, dominance, and development by outside European powers. The Caribbean Basin is often divided into the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles the bigger islands and the smaller islands, respectively.
The Lesser Antilles are in the eastern and southern region. The Bahamas are technically in the Atlantic Ocean, not in the Caribbean Sea, but they are usually associated with the Caribbean region and are often affiliated with the Lesser Antilles. Middle America can be divided into two geographic areas according to occupational activities and colonial dynamics. The rimland includes the Caribbean islands and the Caribbean coastal areas of Central America.
The mainland includes the interior of Mexico and Central America. Many of the Caribbean islands experience the rain shadow effect.
Jamaica has as much as a twenty-inch difference in rainfall between the north side and south side of the island because most of the rain falls on the north side, where the prevailing winds hit the island.
The Blue Mountains in the eastern part of the island provide a rain shadow effect. Puerto Rico has a tropical rain forest on the northeastern part of the island, which receives a large amount of rainfall. The rain shadow effect creates semidesert conditions on the southwestern side of Puerto Rico because the southwestern side receives little rainfall.
Low elevation islands such as the Bahamas do not receive as much rain because they are not high enough to affect the precipitation patterns of rain clouds. The Spanish were not the only Europeans to take advantage of colonial expansion in the Caribbean: the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans followed.
Most of the European colonial countries were located on the west coast of Europe, which had a seafaring heritage. This included smaller countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Belgium. The Caribbean Basin became an active region for European ships to enter and vie for possession of each island. Many of the Caribbean islands changed hands several times before finally being secured as established colonies see Table 5.
The cultural traits of each of the European colonizers were injected into the fabric of the islands they colonized; thus, the languages, religions, and economic activities of the colonized islands reflected those of the European colonizers rather than those of the native people who had inhabited the islands originally.
Other countries that held possession of various islands at different times were Portugal, Sweden, and Denmark. Sweden controlled the island of St. Barthelemy from to before trading it back to the French, who had been the original colonizer. Portugal originally colonized Barbados before abandoning it to the British. Colonialism drastically altered the ethnic makeup of the Caribbean; Amerindians were virtually eliminated after the arrival of Africans, Europeans, and Asians.
The current social hierarchy of the Caribbean can be illustrated by the pyramid-shaped graphic that was used to illustrate social hierarchy in Mexico Figure 5. In the Caribbean, the middle class includes mulattos A person with both European and African ancestry. In some countries, such as Haiti, the minority mulatto segment of the population makes up the power base and holds political and economic advantage over the rest of the country while the working poor at the bottom of the pyramid make up most of the population.
In the Caribbean, the lower economic class contains the highest percentage of people of African heritage. Not only was colonialism the vehicle that brought many Africans to the Caribbean through the slave trade, but it brought many people from Asia to the Caribbean as well. Once slavery became illegal, the colonial powers brought indentured laborers to the Caribbean from their Asian colonies. Cuba was the destination for over one hundred thousand Chinese workers, so Havana can claim the first Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere.
Laborers from the British colonies of India and other parts of South Asia arrived by ship in various British colonies in the Caribbean. At the present time, about 40 percent of the population of Trinidad can claim South Asian heritage and a large number follow the Hindu faith. The largest island in the Greater Antilles is Cuba, which was transformed by the power of colonialism, the transition to plantation agriculture, and a socialist revolution.
The island country of Cuba is slightly larger than the US state of Kentucky, but it has more than eleven million people, while Kentucky has just over 4. Low hills and fertile valleys cover more than half the island. The pristine waters of the Caribbean that surround the island make for some of the most attractive tourism locations in the Caribbean region. It has been estimated that as many as one hundred thousand Amerindians inhabited Cuba when Christopher Columbus first landed on the island in Except for brief control by the British, the island was a Spanish colony until Plantation agriculture was established, and slaves provided the labor.
History indicates that more than eight hundred thousand African slaves were brought to Cuba between and The African influence can still be witnessed today in the main religion of the island, Santeria, which is an overlay of African-based spirits on top of Catholic saints. At the present time, an estimated 70 percent of Cubans practice some aspect of Santeria.
With the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War, the United States gained possession of the Spanish possessions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and various other islands and thus became a colonial power.
Cuba technically became independent in but remained under US influence for decades. Sugar plantations and the sugar industry came to be owned and operated by US interests, and wealthy Americans bought up large haciendas large estates , farmland, and family estates, as well as industrial and business operations. Organized crime syndicates operated many of the nightclubs and casinos in Havana.
As long as government leaders supported US interests, things went well with business as usual. The building is a tourist area and no longer used for the government. The old US cars in the photo were made before the Cuban Revolution but are still used and make up about half the motor vehicles in Havana. In January of , with the encouragement of the US government, Fulgencio Batista led a coup that took control of the Cuban government. Fidel Castro, once a prisoner under Batista and having fled to Mexico in exile for a number of years, returned to Cuba to start a revolution.
Starting in the remote and rugged Sierra Maestras in the east, Castro rallied the support of the Cuban people. Castro gained power and had the support of most of the Cuban population. Photo on the right by R. Castro worked to recover Cuba for Cubans.
The government cleared rampant gambling from the island, forcing organized crime operations to shut down or move back to the United States. Castro nationalized all foreign landholdings and the sugar plantations, as well as all the utilities, port facilities, and other industries. Foreign ownership of land and businesses in Cuba was forbidden. Large estates, once owned by rich US families, were taken over and recovered for Cuban purposes.
As in many parts of the world, poor rural farmers migrated to the cities where industrial development was clustered in search of work. In general, the cities of Middle and South America follow a similar model of urban development see Figure 5.
The central business district, or CBD, is located in the center of the city often alongside a central market. While some colonial buildings were demolished following independence, cities in this region still typically have a large plaza area in the CBD. As industrialization occurred, additional industrial and commercial development extended along the spine, which might be a major boulevard. The spine is often connected to major retail area or mall.
Surrounding the commercial area of the spine is the elite residential sector consisting of housing for the wealthiest residents of the city often in high-rise condominiums. Around the CBD is the zone of maturity, an area of middle class housing. The outermost ring in a typical Latin American city is the zone of peripheral squatter settlements. Residents often build housing out of whatever materials they can find such as cardboard or tin. Globally, around one-third of people in developing countries live in slums, characterized by locations with substandard housing and infrastructure.
Estimates vary regarding the total number of people who live in slums but it is likely just below 1 billion people and continues to climb. In Brazil, these sprawling slums are known as favelas and over 11 million people in this country alone live in favelas. It has transitioned from a squatter area with temporary housing to more permanent structures with basic sanitation, electricity, and plumbing.
In some cases, those who live in the slums of Middle and South America are not unemployed but simply cannot find affordable housing in the cities. Rural to urban migration here, as in other parts of the world, has outpaced housing construction.
Even some lower and middle managers are unable to find housing and thus end up living in the slums. Although income inequality in Middle and South America has fallen in recent years, this region remains by some measures the most unequal region in the world. If current trends continue, the top 1 percent will have amassed more wealth than the bottom 99 percent. In Mexico, around half of the population lives in poverty and while the rich in Mexico have seen their wealth climb dramatically in recent years, poverty rates remain relatively unchanged.
This inequality has been a product of geography but has also impacted the landscape, as well. Farmers in Middle and South America have struggled with land ownership after their alienation from the land during colonization. This either worsens rural poverty or contributes to rural to urban migration as farmers leave to find work elsewhere. Government responses to income inequality vary. Some countries of Latin America and the Caribbean turned to socialism in the hope that government-controlled development would be able to more fairly distribute wealth.
Often these socialist endeavors were financed with the exports of natural resources, such as oil or coffee, but this created a vulnerable dependency on foreign trade. In Venezuela, for example, where Hugo Chavez ushered in a socialist revolution at the turn of the 21st century, falling oil prices in threw the economy into steep decline leading to massive inflation and a shortage of domestic products see Figure 5.
Governments like Venezuela often relied too heavily on income from exports and invested little in developing their own infrastructure, instead simply relying on importing the goods they needed. In general, spending on social services remains relatively low across the region.
The wealthiest people in many of these countries hold their money offshore in order to avoid taxation, but this also prevents governments from being able to use this tax revenue. Many governments have also given tax breaks to large, multinational corporations who seek to do business in the region providing a short-term economic increase at the expense of long-term development planning. Inequality is not just an issue of poverty, however. It can also relate to unequal access to education and political power.
Among the indigenous population of Bolivia, most work in agriculture and around 42 percent of indigenous students do not finish school compared to just 17 percent of non-indigenous students. There is a distinct cycle between education and poverty with educational advancement directly linked to economic advancement. In some areas, access to adequate education, particularly among indigenous populations, remains low, limiting the opportunity to narrow the income gap.
For some, liberation theology has provided a sense of hope. Liberation theology is a form of Christianity that is blended with political activism. There is a strong emphasis on social justice, poverty, and human rights. Others in the region have decided to look elsewhere for economic advancement. Most countries in Middle and South America have net out-migration, meaning more people are leaving than coming into the country.
Around 15 percent of all international migrants are from Latin America and the United States continues to be top destination.
Some from Central America, however, are choosing to stay in Mexico rather than continue the journey north to the United States. The ongoing migration from Middle and South America points to a larger issue of global economic connectivity.
When workers leave the region in search of work elsewhere, they often send home remittances, or transfers of money back to their home country. As countries in this region have sought to increase development, they have faced several challenges. Exports continue to flow from Latin America and the Caribbean to the rest of the world, though often coming at the cost of economic diversification.
The island nations of the Caribbean have had particular challenges to sustainable development due to their small size and populations and limited natural resource base.
Some countries, particularly those in the Caribbean, have advanced their economies through offshore banking. When the wealthy utilize offshore banks, they can thus avoid paying taxes on income that would be otherwise taxable in their home country. Belize, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, and many other countries in the region have become popular locations for offshore banks. Some countries have tried to strengthen their tax laws to prevent tax evasion through offshore banking.
Others in the region have turned to the production and trade of illicit drugs as a way to generate income, particularly cocaine and marijuana. Coca, the plant used to make cocaine, is grown and harvested in the Andes Mountain region, particularly in Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru. In , Peru overtook Columbia as the global leader in cocaine production. The drug trade in Middle and South America has led to the rise of cartels, criminal drug trafficking organizations, and widespread violence in the region.
Cartels often fight each other for territory, with civilians in the crossfire, and in many areas, drug organizations have infiltrated police, military, and government institutions. In Mexico alone, the ongoing Mexican Drug War between the government and drug traffickers shipping cocaine from Central America to global buyers has killed more than , people.
The United States continues to be the largest market for illegal drugs. As countries throughout Middle and South America have increased their development, there have been some significant environmental concerns, particularly deforestation.
When urban areas expand, forests are often cleared to make room for new housing and industry. Similarly, as agricultural lands expand and commercialize to feed growing populations and produce crops for export, it often leads to deforestation. Furthermore, nutrients in soil decline over time without careful land management, and thus after lands are intensively farmed for some time, soil fertility declines and new agricultural lands are cleared.
Despite slowing rates of deforestation and strides to address income inequality, this region remains largely in the global periphery. Some argue that it is to the advantage of countries like the United States to keep this region in the periphery, as it allows them to import cheap products. This idea is known as dependency theory, and it essentially states that resources flow from the periphery to the core, and thus globalization and inequality are linked in the current world system.
Asian-Americans are a group of persuadable swing voters, growing faster than any other group in America today. She looked so sweet when she said it, standing and smiling there in the middle of the floor, the door-way making a frame for her. Suddenly, however, he became aware of a small black spot far ahead in the very middle of the unencumbered track. As there are still many varieties of the plant grown in America, so there doubtless was when cultivated by the Indians. Most of my observations are in keeping with Skutch's detailed report of the species in Central America.
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