Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) San Martín, José de hōsāˈ ᵺā sän märtēnˈ [key], 1778–1850, South American revolutionist, b. Yapeyú, in present-day Argentina. After service with the Spanish army in Europe, he returned ...

(Encyclopedia) Caribbean Sea kârˌĭbēˈən, kərĭbˈēən [key], tropical sea, c.970,000 sq mi (2,512,950 sq km), arm of the Atlantic Ocean, Central America. It is bordered on the N and E by the West Indies arch...

(Encyclopedia) Cruz, Celia, 1929–2003, Cuban-American singer, b. Havana. The “Queen of Salsa” began singing as a teenager, and in 1950 joined Sonora Matancera, Cuba's most popular band. She left Cuba a year af...

(Encyclopedia) Ostend Manifesto, document drawn up in Oct., 1854, at Ostend, Belgium, by James Buchanan, American minister to Great Britain, John Y. Mason, minister to France, and Pierre Soulé, minister to Spain. W...

(Encyclopedia) avocado äˈvəkäˈdo, ăvˈ– [key], tropical American broad-leaved evergreen tree of the genus Persea of the family Lauraceae (laurel family). The fruit, called avocado, alligator pear, or, in Spa...

(Encyclopedia) bur marigold or sticktight, common name for any species of Bidens, a genus of chiefly weedy North American plants of the family Asteraceae (aster family) with two-pronged burlike fruits (achenes) that...

(Encyclopedia) Gage, Thomas, d. 1656, English traveler. He went (1612) to Spain to study and became a Dominican. He lived and traveled among the Native populations of Central America from 1625 to 1637, when he retur...

(Encyclopedia) Pachacamac päˌchäkämäkˈ [key], ruins of a walled Native American settlement, Peru, about 25 mi (40 km) SE of Lima in the Lurin Valley. This site, which contains a number of pyramids, was conside...

(Encyclopedia) Maya mīˈə, Span. mäˈyä [key], indigenous people of S Mexico and Central America, occupying an area comprising the Yucatán peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala...

(Encyclopedia) Buenos Aires bwāˈnəs īˈrēz, ârˈēz, Span. bwāˈnōs īˈrās ...