section_path: Regional history/Latin America
section_name: Latin America
paragraph_text: Latin America
  
  The pre-Columbian Americans often dealt with severe food shortages and famines. The persistent drought around 850 AD coincided with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization, and the famine of One Rabbit (AD 1454) was a major catastrophe in Mexico.
  
  Brazil 's 1877–78 Grande Seca (Great Drought), the worst in Brazil's history, caused approximately half a million deaths. The one from 1915 was devastating too.