Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Huerta, Adolfo de la ädôlˈfō ᵺā lä wārˈtä [key], c.1882–1955, Mexican revolutionist and president (May–Dec., 1920). As governor of Sonora, he broke with President Carranza and declared ...

(Encyclopedia) bean beetle, common name for a destructive beetle, Epilachna varivestis, of the ladybird beetle family. Although nearly all other members of this family are beneficial carnivores, the bean beetle atta...

(Encyclopedia) Guadalupe Victoria gwäᵺälo͞oˈpā vēktōrˈyä [key], 1786?–1843, Mexican general, first president of Mexico (1824–29), whose original name was Manuel Félix Fernández. He joined (1811) the...

(Encyclopedia) Jackson, Stonewall (Thomas Jonathan Jackson), 1824–63, Confederate general, b. Clarksburg, Va. (now W.Va.), grad. West Point, 1846. With the diversion in the Shenandoah Valley a complete success...

(Encyclopedia) Parsons, Lucy, 1851–1942, American anarchist and labor activist. Although she claimed publicly to have been born of Mexican and Native American descent as Lucia Gonzalez, she was likely born in slav...

(Encyclopedia) Motley, Archibald John, Jr., 1891–1981, African American artist, b. New Orleans, grad. Art Institute of Chicago (1918). He was an important figure in the early Harlem Renaissance, though he spent mo...

(Encyclopedia) characin –sĭd [key], common name for members of the Characidae, a large and diverse family comprising 700 species of freshwater fishes. The characins are related to the carp and the catfish. They a...

(Encyclopedia) turkey, common name for a large game and poultry bird related to the grouse and the pheasant. Its name derives from its “turk-turk” call. Turkeys are indigenous to the New World; American fossils ...

(Encyclopedia) Scott, Winfield, 1786–1866, American general, b. near Petersburg, Va. Although vain and pompous (he was called “Old Fuss and Feathers”), Scott was also generous, fair-minded, considerate of h...

(Encyclopedia) migrant labor, term applied in the United States to laborers who travel from place to place harvesting crops that must be picked as soon as they ripen. Although migrant labor patterns exist in other p...