Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) majolica məyŏlˈĭkə [key] [from Majorca], type of faience usually associated with wares produced in Spain, Italy, and Mexico. The process of making majolica consists of first firing a piece of ear...

(Encyclopedia) Mistral, Gabriela mēsträlˈ [key], 1889–1957, Chilean poet whose original name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga. She was a teacher in and director of rural schools in Chile before she attained wider acc...

(Encyclopedia) Chihuahua chəwäˈwə [key], a breed of small toy dog probably of Asian origin and introduced into Mexico by Spanish settlers. It stands about 5 in. (12.7 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 1 t...

(Encyclopedia) alabaster, fine-grained, massive, translucent variety of gypsum, a hydrous calcium sulfate. It is pure white or streaked with reddish brown. Alabaster, like all other forms of gypsum, forms by the eva...

(Encyclopedia) Colima kōlēˈmä [key], state, 2,010 sq mi (5,206 sq km), SW Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. ...

(Encyclopedia) Huerta, Victoriano vēktōryäˈnō [key], 1854–1916, Mexican general and president (1913–14). He served under Porfirio Díaz. After the revolution of Francisco I. Madero (1911) he aided the new p...

(Encyclopedia) Guston, Philip, 1913–80, American painter, b. Montreal. Guston immigrated to the United States in 1916. His earliest role models as an artist were such Mexican muralists as José Orozco and David Si...

(Encyclopedia) Buchanan, James, 1791–1868, 15th President of the United States (1857–61), b. near Mercersburg, Pa., grad. Dickinson College, 1809. Buchanan was nominated as a Democratic candidate for the pres...

(Encyclopedia) Butler, Benjamin Franklin, 1818–93, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Deerfield, N.H. He moved to Lowell, Mass., as a youth and later practiced law there and in Boston. He w...

(Encyclopedia) Bolaño, Roberto bōlänˈyō [key], 1953–2003, Chilean novelist widely regarded as the most influential Spanish-language writer of his generation. He led a peripatetic life, and his fictional prota...