Latin America

This book is about the geography and people of Latin America. We briefly summarize the "short list" of information students should know about the countries of Latin America - about its geography, people, religion, culture, politics, economy, wildlife and its influence on the rest of the world. We intend this book for junior high or high school students but it is an interesting and useful resource for adults to use in filling in the gaps of their own knowledge, refresh their memories and catch up on changes to this region of the world. This book spans more than 500 years, starting with Spain's motive for coming to the New World (using the words of Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella). This book begins with the rise of Catholic Culture in New Spain, and continues through the new rise of paganism manifest in recent "laws" giving "civil rights" to orangutans, and to nature, water and soil. This is a unique book that is militantly Catholic. This book recounts the glories of true Catholic leaders such as the great president of Ecuador, García Moreno. This book treats of the Mexican Cristeros, their abandonment by their bishops and by Pope Pius XI, and their slaughter by the Masonic Mexican government. This book unabashedly celebrates the glories of Catholicism and the rich treasures bestowed on Latin America by the Catholic Church. Other text books, although intended for Catholics, often promote religious liberty and other modern errors. Such other books "sneak in" the secular creed of democracy and Masonic revolution. For example, the Standard pre-Vatican II Catholic textbook, Neighbors & Faith in Latin America, describes one Masonic revolutionary this way (in the words of a fictional character): Simón Bolívar was our great liberator. … To us no man is greater. For these reasons, Simón Bolívar is sometimes called the George Washington of South America. Neighbors & Faith in Latin America, Goebel, et al., 1956, Winston & Co., Philadelphia, pp. 145-146. Besides such grave deficiencies, such text books about Latin America are completely outdated: In politics, for example, the country of Suriname did not even exist before 1975. That area was a Dutch colony; In economics, there have been dramatic changes, such as the aerospace industry now constituting 25% of the entire economy of French Guiana; and In religion, there is a dramatic (and continuing) apostasy from the Catholic Church which began in the 1960s (in the aftermath of Vatican II). This book uses color topography maps, to more clearly show the land's elevation. This book also uses large, rich color photographs to better display exotic animals of Latin America. This book uses current data on population, economic activity and much more. We did not include citations for our book's data, in keeping with the book's goal as primarily a school book. However, e.g., we make ample use of Pew Research data regarding Catholicism in Latin America, because Pew data often includes population percentages from the years 1910, 1950 and then in various years after Vatican II. This book uses the data and demonstrates the patterns which most text books ignore because those pa