Latin America (Spanish: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2010, its population was estimated at more than 590 million and its combined GDP at 5.16 trillion United States dollars (6.27 trillion at PPP). The Latin American expected economic growth rate is at about 5.7% for 2010 and 4% in 2011. According to Phelan (1968, p. 296), the term "Latin America" was baptized in 1861 in La revue des races Latines, a magazine 'dedicated to the cause of Pan-Latinism'.

Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and culture. The basic geographical subregions are North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America; the latter contains further politico-geographical subdivisions such as the Southern Cone and the Andean states. It may be subdivided on linguistic grounds into Hispanic America and Portuguese America.

Martha Roseli Heredia Rivas (born February 1, 1991 in Santiago de los Caballeros) is a Dominican singer and the winner of the fourth season of the television program Latin American Idol. She is also sometimes known artistically as La baby (The Baby).

Martha Roseli Heredia Rivas was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, the second largest city in the Dominican Republic, on February 4, 1991. Heredia is the daughter of Felipe Heredia and Maritza Rivas. At the age of 13 Heredia discovered she had potential for singing and songwriting. At the age of 15, with her brother Luis Felipe, they created a group called Una Vía singing hip hop, reggaeton and other genres of urban music. Heredia later had the opportunity of working in the United States of America where she created and wrote her own songs. Since her rise to fame after Latin American Idol, Heredia has become a successful artist working in the USA and in the Dominican Republic.

At 18, Heredia traveled San José, Costa Rica to audition for the fourth season of Latin American Idol. She did well on her audition and later traveled to Argentina, where she was amongst the top performers of a Latin American Idol workshop. Her next test was to earn the most votes out of the 12 performers on the show. For two months, Heredia was very successful all the way up to the final between Heredia and Eduardo Aguirre of Costa Rica, where she performed with Franco de Vita. On December 10, 2009, after receiving more than 50% of the total number of votes, Martha Heredia became the new Latin American Idol.