Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Latin America

In the Mainland, the British settled in Belize and the Spanish settled all over the Isthmus. But in the Rimland, the Spanish settled in the present-day Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic. In the Mainland, Mestizo is a mix of Spanish and Native American heritage and an Amerindian is Native Americans. In the Rimland, the British settled in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands; the French settled in Haiti; Dutch settled in St. Martin and Netherlands Antilles; but the Africans were brought as slaves to do the labor.
In the Rimlands, the coastal locations allowed for maximum cultural mixture and trading. They also had 2 kinds of plantations: sugar plantation, which the British, French, Spanish, and Dutch are interested in the trade, and the banana plantation, which the US is interested in for the trade. In the Mainland, a Hacienda is a largo plot of land owned by the Spanish/Mestizo. Native American farmers became inferior because they now worked on the Hacienda and they are still present within the countryside, they produce products for exports, use of slave labor to increase profits and labor efficient like a "factory in the field".
European settlers brought over their ideal government. The Native Americans adapted to it. And Anglo America has 1 president that they vote on while Cuba is a dictatorship.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Latin Amercan Excersises

Zumba is the newest type of excersise in Latin America. All you do is dance and "swing" to Latin music. You burn calories, lose weight and you have fun all at the same time and you start to notice the changes in only a couple of weeks. There are different types of Zumba dances such as Salsa, Flamenco, Merengue and the newest is Hip Hop. You work your lower and upper body, abs, arms, everything! You can dance slow or fast. You even forget you're working out because you're having so much fun and you don't even have to have rythm to do it.  "Beto" Perez founded the dance in his native country of Colombia in the 1990s.  There is a DVD set out that you can buy.
My opinion about Zumba is that it actually works. I watched a show about it and it really looks like it works. It looks like alot of fun. It's better than going to a gym because you don't have to do it in front of people you don't know and be embarrased and it's alot cheaper and you can do it anytime. Anybody can do it and you don't even have to have rhythm. People all around the world do it and it works. I don't think its like all the other weight loss programs that make promises they can't keep. When they do before and after pictures, they don't look like different people or look like the pictures have been photoshopped. I'd be happy to try Zumba anytime and I know that I would get really good results.