Well for Latin America, I would recommend you start with 1491 and Born in Blood and Fire. Both are good, readable, and affordable introductory texts. But really, you can't go wrong at the beginning of learning about a place as big and diverse as Latin America by going to your local library and seeing what they have and what catches your eye. Probably early on in learning about a place, you won't want to read heavy monographs. There are lots of interesting popular history books on Latin America available at your local book store or as ebooks. If you get bored and feel like you've gotten the gist of the book, put it down and find another; many history books aren't written to be read cover-to-cover. Maybe as you read, you'll find a geographic area, time period, or theme that you want to read more about. Then just follow down that worm hole like I did!