Most of the world's hispanohablantes live in América del Sur (South America), América Central (Central America), and América del Norte (North America). The Spanish-speaking areas of the Americas are known as Hispanoamérica or América Hispano. Click on the link in the first paragraph or look at the world map below to see a list of all the countries that have Spanish as an official or primary language. You'll notice that all of them, aside from España and Guinea Equitorial, are located in las Américas.
Latinoamérica refers to all the countries in the Americas that have an official language based in Latin, specifically español, portugués, y francés. People in the New World who speak those languages are latinoamericanos. Brazil (Brasil), for instance, is in Latinoamérica but not Hispanoamérica because its people speak Portuguese (portugués) instead of Spanish (español).
In the next section, your assignment is to complete some map exercises that will help you learn the names and locations of the countries in América del Sur y América Central. Mexico is not included in these exercises, but you should know that it is in América del Norte, between the United States (Estados Unidos) and Guatemala. Mexico is home to the world's largest population of hispanohablantes.
Assignment
These map exercises come to us from Enrique Alonso, at his site here: http://www.xtec.cat/~ealonso/flash/mapasflash.htm. I'd like you to practice with the maps of América Central y América del Norte until you feel comfortable. Saying the country names aloud while you do this will help. You will be quizzed on the locations and Spanish names of each country. Remember, spellings will often be different from English.
Discussion questions
- Did you find the maps useful for learning / studying geography?
- Which countries in Centroamérica y Sudamérica speak español, portugués, francés, o inglés? ¿Por qué (why)?
- What do you know about the relationships among these countries, and how does the U.S. relate to them?
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