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cigar and cigarette

(Encyclopedia)cigar and cigarette, tubular rolls of tobacco designed for smoking. Cigars consist of filler leaves held together by binder leaves and covered with a wrapper leaf, which is rolled spirally around the ...

Chichicastenango

(Encyclopedia)Chichicastenango chēˌchēkästānängˈgō [key], town, SW Guatemala. In the heart of the highlands, Chichicastenango was a trading town in ancient times. It became the spiritual center of the Quich...

British North America Act

(Encyclopedia)British North America Act, law passed by the British Parliament in 1867 that provided for the unification of the Canadian provinces into the dominion of Canada. Until 1982 the act also functioned as t...

Carrera, Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Carrera, Rafael räfäĕlˈ [key], 1814–65, president of Guatemala, a caudillo. He led the revolution against the anticlerical liberal government of Guatemala, and his ultimate success in 1840 helpe...

Tapachula

(Encyclopedia)Tapachula täpächo͞oˈlä [key], city (1990 pop. 138,858) Chiapas state, SE Mexico, at the foot of the Chiapas highlands and near the Guatemala border. It is the commercial center of a coffee-growin...

Arawak

(Encyclopedia)Arawak äˈräwäk [key], linguistic stock of indigenous people who came from South America and, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, occupied the islands of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, Trinida...

Itzá

(Encyclopedia)Itzá ētsäˈ [key], Maya of Yucatán (Mexico) and Petén (Guatemala). Probable founders of Chichén Itzá, which they occupied at various times from c.514 to 1194, they moved (1450?) S from Campeche...

Zapata, Emiliano

(Encyclopedia)Zapata, Emiliano āmēlyäˈnō säpäˈtä [key], c.1879–1919, Mexican revolutionary, b. Morelos. Zapata was of almost pure native descent. A tenant farmer, he occupied a social position between th...

Tikal

(Encyclopedia)Tikal tēkälˈ [key], ruined city of the Classic Period of the Maya, N central Petén, Guatemala. The largest and possibly the oldest of the Maya cities, Tikal consists of nine groups of courts and p...

Chibcha

(Encyclopedia)Chibcha chĭbˈchə [key], indigenous people of the eastern cordillera of the Andes of Colombia. Although trade with neighboring tribes was common, the Chibcha seem to have evolved their culture in co...