Chapter 8, Section 1

1. Geographers often divide Latin America into three sub-regions: Middle America, the Caribbean, and South America.

2. Latin America is an economically important region because they are among the leading producers of energy resources like oil and natural gas. They also have large amounts of gold and silver, the world's finest emeralds and several other precious and nonprecious resources.

Creative Writing: The people of Latin America have many uses for the water systems in their countries. For the larger rivers, the people can use the waterways as commercial routes. Rivers can also be used to generate hydroelectric power for that region. Human-made waterways, such as the Panama Canal can be used to cut time out of travels from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.