34°40S 58°30W, pop (2000e) 3 333 000. Federal capital of Argentina in Gran Buenos Aires federal district, E Argentina; on S bank of R Plate; founded in 1536 as the city of the Puerto de Santa Maria del Buen Aire; destroyed by Indians, and refounded 1580; formerly capital of the Spanish viceroyalty of La Plata; suburbs include Avellaneda (industrial), Olivos (residential), San Isidro (sporting and leisure resort), Quilmes (industrial), Tigre, and the old port district of La Boca; nine universities; international (Ezeiza) and domestic airports; two airfields; railway; metro; trade in beef and wool; brewing, textiles, ironware, glass; national gallery, Teatro Colón; Plaza de Mayo, town hall (Cabildo), presidential palace (Casa Rosada), cathedral; horse-racing course.
text-align: center;">| Flag | Seal |
| Coordinates: 34°36′36.00″S, 58°22′11.99″W | |
|---|---|
| Found | 1536, 1580 |
| Mayor | Jorge Telerman |
| Area | |
| - City | 203 km² (78.5 sq mi) |
| - Land | 203 km² (78.5 sq mi) |
| - Metro | 4,758 km² |
| Population | |
| - City (2001 est.) | 2,776,138 |
| - Density | 13,679.6/km² |
| - Metro | 12,400,000 |
| Website: http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/ | |
Buenos Aires (English: Fair Winds;
Strongly influenced by European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the "Paris of the South" or "Paris of South America".
After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province;
Argentines sometimes refer to the city as Capital Federal to differentiate the city from the province of the same name.
History
Spanish seaman Juan Díaz de Solís was the first European to reach the Río de la Plata, in 1516, but his expedition was cut short by an attack in which he was killed by the native Charrúa or Guaraní tribe.
The city was first founded as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre (literally "City of Our Lady of the Good Air") on February 2, 1536 by a Spanish gold-seeking expedition under Pedro de Mendoza.
More attacks by the indigenous peoples forced the settlers away and in 1541 the site was abandoned.
From its earliest days, the success of Buenos Aires depended on trade.
Sensing this instability, Charles III of Spain progressively eased the trade restrictions and finally declared Buenos Aires an open port in the late 1700s.
During the British invasions of the Río de la Plata British forces invaded Buenos Aires twice in 1806–1807 but were repulsed by local militias.
Historically, Buenos Aires has been Argentina's main centre for liberal and free-trade ideas, while many of the provinces, especially to the Northwest, advocated a more conservative-Catholic approach to political and social issues.
In the 19th century the city suffered naval blockades on two occasions: first by the French, from 1838 to 1840, and then a joint Anglo-French blockade from 1845 to 1848.
During most of the 19th century, the political status of the city remained a sensitive subject. Meant by many to be the nation's capital, it was already capital of Buenos Aires Province, and for seven years from 1853 to 1860, it was the capital of the seceded State of Buenos Aires.
Railroad construction near the end of the 19th century increased the economic power of Buenos Aires as raw materials flowed into its factories, and the town became a metropolitan and multicultural city that ranked itself with the major European capitals.
By the 1920s Buenos Aires was a favoured destination for immigrants from Europe, as well as from the poorer provinces and neighbouring countries, and large shanty towns (villas miseria) started growing around the city's industrial areas, leading to extensive social problems.
Buenos Aires was the cradle of Peronism: the now-mythical demonstration of October 17, 1945 took place in Plaza de Mayo.
On June 16, 1955, the military uprising that would depose President Perón three months later (see Revolución Libertadora) had the Plaza de Mayo area bombed, killing 364 civilians (see Bombing of Plaza de Mayo).
In the 1970s, the city suffered from the fighting between left-wing revolutionary movements (Montoneros, E.R.P.
The military coup of 1976, led by Jorge Rafael Videla, only escalated this conflict;
The city was visited by Pope John Paul II on two occasions: in 1982, due to the outbreak of the Falklands-Malvinas War, and a second visit in 1987, which gathered crowds never seen before in the city.
On March 17, 1992 a bomb exploded in the Israeli Embassy killing 29 and injuring 242.
In 1996, under the 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, the city gained autonomous status, and held its first mayoral elections (its formal title changed to "Chief of Government").
On December 30, 2004, a fire at República Cromagnon concert hall killed almost 200 people, the greatest non-natural tragedy in Argentine history.
Government and politics
In 1996, under the 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, the city gained autonomous status, and held its first mayoral elections (its formal title changed to "Chief of Government").
De la Rúa's successor, Aníbal Ibarra, won two elections, but was impeached (and ultimately deposed on 6 March 2006) as a result of the fire at República Cromagnon concert hall, which killed almost 200 people.
National representation
Buenos Aires is represented in the Argentine Senate by three senators (as of August 2006, Rodolfo Terragno, María Leguizamón and Vilma Ibarra).
Barrios
The city is divided into 48 barrios (neighbourhoods) for administrative purposes.
Population
The people of Buenos Aires are known as porteños (people of the port), acknowledging the major historical importance of the port in the development of the city and the nation.
Census data
According to the census, the city proper has a population of 2,776,138, while the Greater Buenos Aires conurbation has more than 12.4 million inhabitants (2001 census [INDEC]).
Origin
Most porteños have European origins, with Spanish and Italian descent being the most common, mainly from the Galician, Asturian, and Basque regions of Spain, and the Calabrian, Ligurian, Piedmont and Neapolitan regions of Italy.
Other European origins include German, Portuguese, Polish, Irish, French, Croatian and English.
In the 1990s, there was a small wave of immigration from Romania and Ukraine.
There is a small minority of old criollo stock, dating back to the Spanish colonial days.
Important Arab (mostly Syrian-Lebanese) and Armenian communities have been significant in commerce and civic life since the beginning of the 20th century.
Buenos Aires's Jewish community, numbering around 250,000, is the largest Jewish community in Latin America.
The first major East Asian community in Buenos Aires was the Japanese, including a significant number from Okinawa;
Religion
Most inhabitants are Roman Catholic.
Sizable Jewish and Muslim communities have existed in the city for over 100 years.
Economy
Buenos Aires is the financial, industrial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina.
To the west of Buenos Aires is the Pampa Húmeda, the most productive agricultural region of Argentina (as opposed to the dry southern Pampa, mostly used for cattle farms).
Culture
Deeply influenced and self-consciously modeled after its European heritage, Buenos Aires is the site of the Teatro Colón, one of the world's greatest opera houses.
Language
Argentines refer to their dialect of Spanish as castellano (Castilian), which in Buenos Aires (and also in other cities like Rosario and Montevideo, Uruguay) is characterised by voseo, yeísmo and aspiration or loss of syllable-final -s.
The lunfardo argot originated within the prison population, and in time it spread to all porteños.
In the early 20th century, Argentina absorbed millions of immigrants, many of them Italians, who spoke mostly in their local dialects (mainly Neapolitan, Sicilian and Genoan).
As many Spanish immigrants were from Galicia, to the extent that Spaniards are still generically called gallegos (Galicians), Galician language, cuisine and culture had a major presence in the city for most of the 20th century.
Yiddish was commonly heard in Buenos Aires, especially in the Balvanera garment neighborhood and in Villa Crespo, until the 1960s.
Tango
Tango music was born in the suburbs, notably in the brothels of the Junín y Lavalle district and in the arrabales (poorer suburbs).
Starting in the 1920s, the Buenos Aires style of tango music evolved into an elaborated genre.
Buenos Aires holds an annual "Tango Day" each December 11.
In San Telmo, Sundays are devoted to tango shows on the streets and antiques trade in the bazaars around Dorrego Square.
Miscellaneous
Buenos Aires was home to Argentine writers Leopoldo Lugones, Jorge Luis Borges, Paul Groussac, Manuel Mujica Laínez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Ernesto Sábato, Leopoldo Marechal, Victoria Ocampo, and Julio Cortázar (who lived in Paris for most of his career).
During the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, Buenos Aires provided refuge for many, including philosopher José Ortega y Gasset and composer Manuel de Falla, who later moved to Córdoba.
Luca Prodan arrived from England in the 1980s and became an icon of Argentine rock.
The University of Buenos Aires, one of the top learning institutions in South America, has produced five Nobel Prize winners and provides free education for students from all around the globe.
For much of the 20th century, Buenos Aires was the cultural capital of the Spanish-speaking world, and many porteños flaunted their riches abroad.
Buenos Aires is a major center for psychoanalysis, particularly the Lacanian school.
Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, born in Buenos Aires as Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, on May 17 1971, is the wife of Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, heir apparent to the Dutch throne.
Tourism
The city has many museums, historical buildings, shopping centres, hotels and a floating casino.
Transportation
Public transport
A majority of residents in Buenos Aires and its suburbs use public transportation.
The Buenos Aires Metro (locally known as el subte, from "subterráneo" meaning "underground") is an extensive system providing access to various parts of the city.
Roadways
Buenos Aires used to be relatively congestion-free for a city of its size.
Following the economic mini-boom of the 1990s, more people started commuting by car, and congestion increased.
Black-and-yellow taxis roam the streets at all hours.
Rail transport
All of Argentina's extensive railway network converges on Buenos Aires.
There is a project to build a Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba high-speed railway, which would join the three most populated cities in Argentina.
Airports
The Buenos Aires international airport, Ministro Pistarini International Airport, is located in the suburb of Ezeiza and is often called simply "Ezeiza".
Sports
Football is a passion for Argentines. Buenos Aires has the highest concentration of football teams of any city in the world, with many of its teams playing in the major league.
Diego Armando Maradona, who was born in a poor suburb of Buenos Aires and is widely hailed as one of the greatest football players ever, started his career with Argentinos Juniors and later played for Boca Juniors (he also played for other clubs, notably Italian side SSC Napoli).
Buenos Aires has been a candidate city for the Summer Olympic Games on three occasions: for the 1956 Games, lost by a single vote to Melbourne;
However, Buenos Aires hosted the 1951 Pan American Games - the first, and was also host city to several World Championship events: the 1950 and 1990 Basketball World Championships, the 1982 and 2002 Men's Volleyball World Championships and, most remembered, the 1978 FIFA World Cup, won by Argentina on June 25, 1978 when it defeated the Netherlands by 3–1.
The Buenos Aires Oscar Gálvez car-racing track hosted 20 editions of the Formula One Argentine Grand Prix between 1953 and 1998;
Argentines' love for horses can be experienced in several ways: horse racing at the Hipódromo Argentino de Palermo racetrack, polo in the Campo Argentino de Polo (located just across Libertador Avenue from the Hipódromo), and pato, a kind of basketball played on horseback that was declared the national game in 1953.
Buenos Aires native Guillermo Vilas (who was raised in Mar del Plata) was one of the great tennis players of the 1970s and 1980s, and popularized tennis in all of Argentina.
Other popular sports in Buenos Aires are golf, basketball, rugby, and field hockey.
Internet
Buenos Aires ISPs provide dial-up, cable, satellite-based and ADSL connections to the Internet.
The Internet boom in the early 2000s gave birth to cibercafés.
Newspapers
(English) Buenos Aires Herald (Spanish) Clarín (Spanish) La Nación (Spanish) Página 12 (English) Perfil (Spanish) Infobae (Spanish) Edición Nacional (Spanish) La Prensa Barrios of Buenos AiresAgronomía | Villa Urquiza
v • d • e Provinces of Argentina Capital Federal • Buenos Aires • Catamarca • Chaco • Chubut • Córdoba • Corrientes • Entre Ríos • Formosa • Jujuy • La Pampa • La Rioja • Mendoza • Misiones • Neuquén • Río Negro • Salta • San Juan • San Luis • Santa Cruz • Santa Fe • Santiago del Estero • Tierra del Fuego • Tucumán| Pan American Games host cities |
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1951: Buenos Aires •
1955: Mexico City • 1959: Chicago • 1963: São Paulo • 1967: Winnipeg • 1971: Cali • 1975: Mexico City • 1979: San Juan • 1983: Caracas • 1987: Indianapolis • 1991: Havana • 1995: Mar del Plata • 1999: Winnipeg • 2003: Santo Domingo • 2007: Rio de Janeiro • 2011: Guadalajara • |
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