Buenos Aires

/bway"neuhs uyeur"iz, boh"neuhs/; Sp. /bwe"naws uy"rddes/

a seaport in and the capital of Argentina, in the E part, on the Río de la Plata. 9,927,404.

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City (pop., 1999 est.: city, 2,904,192; metro area, 12,423,000), capital of Argentina.

Located on an estuary of the Río de la Plata in east-central Argentina, about 130 mi (210 km) from the Atlantic Ocean, it is nevertheless a major port. First colonized by the Spanish in 1536, it was not permanently settled until 1580. It became the seat of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776. In 1854 its residents drew up a constitution separate from those of the provinces and began fighting intermittently with the provinces over control of the Argentine government. After being made a federal district and Argentina's capital, it settled its wars with the provinces (1880) and by World War I (1914–18) had become a thriving port. The country's largest and most influential city, it is an important industrial and transportation centre.

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▪ Argentina

Introduction

  city and capital of Argentina. The city is coextensive with the Federal District (Distrito Federal) and is situated on the shore of the Río de la Plata (Plata, Río de la), 150 miles (240 km) from the Atlantic Ocean. Buenos Aires is one of Latin America (Latin America, history of)'s most important ports and most populous cities, as well as the national centre of commerce, industry, politics, culture, and technology. According to tradition, Spanish colonizer Pedro de Mendoza (Mendoza, Pedro de) established the first settlement there, which he named Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire (“Our Lady St. Mary of the Good Air”). Buenos Aires locals are referred to as porteños (“people of the port”) because so many of the city's inhabitants historically arrived by boat from Europe. Area city, 78 square miles (203 square km); Greater Buenos Aires, 1,500 square miles (3,885 square km). Pop. (2001) city, 2,776,138; Greater Buenos Aires, 12,046,799.

Character of the city

      The Argentine poet and philosopher Ezequiel Martínez Estrada (Martínez Estrada, Ezequiel) (1895–1964) called Buenos Aires “The Head of Goliath,” a metaphor that likened the imbalance of the city's relation with the rest of the country to that of a large-headed giant with a feeble body. The city's wealth and influence overshadow the life of the rest of the country, but Buenos Aires also presents Argentina with its severest economic and social problems. This dichotomy has made Buenos Aires a centre for political and social unrest.

 This grandiose city with wide avenues and a vibrant cosmopolitan flair is more generally European than Latin American in character. Having little colonial architecture and few landmark buildings, Buenos Aires is chiefly a city of distinctive neighbourhoods that have their own meeting places, generally coffeehouses or bars. This is a tradition rooted in the colonial period, when the centre of each neighbourhood was a general store and bar known as a pulpería. These neighbourhoods provide a sense of community for people who live in an urban sprawl that by the early 21st century was growing twice as fast as the country as a whole.

      The energy and bustle of modern Buenos Aires is most evident in the city centre—the locus of entertainment, shopping, and café-going. Porteños relish politics, football (soccer), and the city's cultural offerings. At night Buenos Aires's boites (nightclubs) swell with revellers dancing the tango, the emotional dance that originated in the lower-class areas of the city and that is said to reflect the essence of the soul of the porteño.

Landscape

City site

      The city of Buenos Aires is located at the northeastern edge of the flat plain known as the Pampas (Pampas, the), which occupies the agricultural heartland of Argentina. It is situated at the point where the Paraná River delta widens to become the Río de la Plata estuary. The eastern and northern limits of the metropolitan area are defined by the Río de la Plata, and the city's most prominent physical characteristics are the numerous small rivers that flow through its periphery. The centre of the city lies on a bluff overlooking the Río de la Plata, and to the south flows a small river, the Riachuelo, the banks of which mark the other higher ground in the city. The rest of the city is laid out on the floodplains of the rivers, virtually without significant elevations.

Climate

      The temperate climate of the city is characteristic of the Río de la Plata's coastal plain. The city is hot and humid during the summer months of December to March, with temperatures in the low to mid-80s (about 28 °C). The autumn and spring are characterized by fluctuating temperatures and quickly changing weather. The winter months of June to September are mild but humid, with mean temperatures in the low 50s F (about 11 °C). The average annual temperature is about 60 °F (16 °C). Frosts occur from May to September, but snowfall is extremely rare. Winds are generally of low velocity and are more frequent during the season of electrical storms, between September and March. Rainfall is heaviest in March. Average annual rainfall is about 45 inches (1,140 mm).

City layout

      The metropolitan area is divided into the Federal District, established in 1880, and the surrounding suburbs. The Federal District contains less than one-fourth of the population of the metropolitan area, a proportion that shrinks as the suburbs continue to attract industry and residential communities. The limits of the Federal District are marked by the Riachuelo River and Avenida General Paz, which was opened in 1941 after nearly a decade of construction. The city is divided into sections that coincide mostly with the traditional barrios (neighbourhoods).

City centre

      The city centre is built on the original colonial foundation. It has narrow streets laid out at right angles to form a grid pattern. This rectilinear pattern holds for more than 20 square blocks, an area that defined the limits of the city until the late 19th century. Since that time, expansion has been less planned, and the pattern of streets is less regular. The centre is the site of most major financial institutions and corporate headquarters.

  The modern city developed outward from the Plaza de Mayo, a historic square flanked by the Cabildo (Town Hall) on the western end of the square, which dates from the 18th century, and the Government House, commonly called the Casa Rosada (“Pink House”), on the eastern end. The Casa Rosada faces west, up the broad Avenida de Mayo, which leads directly to Plaza del Congreso and the National Congress building, constructed in the early 20th century. All distances on national highways are measured from the zero-kilometre point in the small square across from the building. Plaza de Mayo is also the site of the Metropolitan Cathedral, another monumental building from the colonial period, and the Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina, which formally housed the Colón Theatre. The Pyramid of May (1811) marks the centre of the square; it was constructed to commemorate the first anniversary of the May 1810 revolution, when Buenos Aires severed ties with Spain. Plaza de Mayo is also where Argentinians have protested and celebrated many of the city's most important events and where, from the balcony of the Casa Rosada, Argentina's leaders have addressed the country.

 The rest of what remains of colonial Buenos Aires lies mostly south of the square. Intersecting Avenida de Mayo is Avenida 9 de Julio (July 9, Argentina's national day of independence), called the “widest avenue in the world.'An obelisk, inaugurated in 1936, marks the intersection of Avenida 9 de Julio and Avenida Corrientes (four blocks from Plaza de Mayo). Four significant events in the city's history are represented on the obelisk (one engraved on each of its sides): the city's founding in 1536; its permanent settlement in 1580; the first hoisting of the Argentine flag, on Aug. 23, 1812, in the tower of the San Nicolás de Bari Church, on the site of the obelisk; and the establishment of the Federal District, proclaimed on the same site in 1880.

 Most of the cinemas and live theatres in the city centre are clustered within a four- or five-block stretch on Avenida Corrientes and Calle Lavalle, streets which run perpendicular to Avenida 9 de Julio near the obelisk, and form the centre of a vibrant, crowded entertainment district. Calle Lavalle, a pedestrian walkway, intersects with Calle Florida, a pedestrian mall lined with pricey boutiques (mainly stocking world-class leather goods and woolen clothing), discount shops, and supply stores. There are also numerous steak houses—for which Buenos Aires is renowned—whose dinners cost considerably less than they would in the United States or in Europe. Just north of Avenida 9 de Julio on Calle Lavalle is Plaza Lavalle. The National Palace of Justice is at one end of the square, and the famous Colón Opera House is at the other.

City neighbourhoods

 Broad avenues define the limits of the city's unofficial but familiar neighbourhoods and are lined by seemingly endless rows of apartment buildings. During rush hours these avenues are clogged with traffic. Each city neighbourhood has its own identity, and residents maintain loyalty to their local sports teams, political candidates, and traditions.

 La Boca, a picturesque area at the mouth of the Riachuelo River, where the city's first settlers landed, is filled with Italian restaurants, and some streets, such as the Caminito, are lined with wooden houses painted in bright colours. La Boca, now an artists' colony, was the site of the city's first meat-salting plants, which brought great wealth to Buenos Aires in the 19th century.

      San Telmo, or Barrio Sur, south of the Plaza de Mayo, began to be restored and gentrified in the early 1990s after nearly a century of neglect and decay. By the later part of the decade the area had become trendy and bohemian. Its numerous jazz clubs and theatres attract a varied group of patrons, from journalists and artists to labourers. Most of the area's buildings were constructed before the 20th century, and some of them are conventillos, abandoned mansions that were subdivided into smaller living spaces and that are now mainly inhabited by poorer Argentinians and recent immigrants. On the other hand, Barrio Norte, north of Plaza de Mayo, is an upscale area built during Argentina's Gilded Age (the late 19th century). It is sometimes referred to as a miniature Paris. The area, which also encompasses the neighbourhoods of Palermo, Recoleta, and Retiro, was constructed around the ornate Recoleta Cemetery, where elite Argentinians such as Eva Perón (Perón, Eva) are buried. A racetrack and polo field are located in Palmero, which also has numerous parks.

      Other distinctive neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires include Monserrat and Puerto Madero. Monserrat, wedged between San Telmo and the Plaza de Mayo, is home to many of the city's oldest churches, modern government buildings, and distinctive Beaux Arts buildings. Puerto Madero, once an area of dilapidated buildings and abandoned warehouses, has been transformed into a chic neighbourhood of luxury hotels, upscale restaurants, expensive apartment buildings, and offices. The neighbourhood's streets are named after prominent women; Puente de la Mujer (“Bridge of the Woman”), a 335-foot- (102-metre-) long pedestrian suspension bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava (Calatrava, Santiago), crosses through the centre of the neighbourhood.

      Abasto and Once are quintessential working-class neighbourhoods; both are located west of Avenida 9 de Julio. Carlos Gardel (Gardel, Carlos), one of Argentina's renowned tango singers, lived in Abasto. Once is famous for its Art Deco buildings. To the north of Once lies Belgrano, home to a relatively small Chinese community. Belgrano is dominated by high-rise apartment buildings and private homes squeezed between a series of small hills.

Outlying areas

      Buenos Aires's suburbs lack the vibrancy and infrastructure of the city centre and are more typically Latin American in character. Suburban residents are generally not as well-off as urban dwellers, and the farther away the suburb lies from the metropolitan area, the more likely it is to lack basic services and access to economic opportunities. Most of the city's shanty dwellings are located in the outlying suburbs.

      Important areas beyond the official city limits include the industrial partidos (counties) of Avellaneda, Lanús, and Quilmes, which lie south of the Riachuelo River. There, petrochemical and oil-refining operations extend along the Río de la Plata. Tigre, a county to the north of the city that encompasses part of the Paraná delta and its many islands, is another important area. Tourism is Tigre's major industry, and many porteños visit the delta region on weekends and holidays. A number of the city's rowing clubs are also located there.

      Most of the urban area's industrial expansion since the 1970s has taken place in the northern and western counties of Greater Buenos Aires. Many textile, printing, and food-processing factories are located there. In the early 1990s a major industrial park in Merlo became a centre for foreign-owned automotive and food-processing plants. On the outskirts of the counties, near highways and other public transportation routes, new offices, gated communities, country clubs, and sprawling shopping centres have proliferated.

Housing

      Architecturally, the city can be divided into four residential styles. The most common is a structure that began as a single-family dwelling along the street, with an interior patio or garden and rows of small rooms down either side that lead to a kitchen. These houses are attached one to another to form an unbroken facade at the sidewalk. As population density increased in the early 20th century, this basic house was broken up into smaller units and gave rise to a second style, a two- and three-story version known as petit hotel (“little hotel”), which was neither as wide nor as deep as its predecessor. The lots on which these houses were constructed defined the size of the first generation of high-rise apartment buildings that now dominate Palermo, Recoleta, and Retiro. These high-rises, representing a third style, were built one next to the other, stretching for block after block in the northern sector of the city. In Belgrano, just north of Barrio Norte, these apartment houses are freestanding; many are as large as city blocks, with their own gardens, because they were built on the lots of single-family detached houses that were common in outer areas of the capital and in the suburbs.

      The fourth residential style, which has become a significant aspect of the urban landscape since the 1960s, is the corrugated metal shack, typical of the shantytowns that have come to constitute a significant amount of the housing in the metropolitan area and are home to a sizeable minority of the population. These shantytowns are referred to as villas miserias (“neighbourhoods of misery”) and are characterized by their precarious tenure and the absence of basic public services. Many of them are abandoned buildings overrun by squatters or located on unused industrial land next to rivers and streams at the margins of the metropolitan region. They are largely inhabited by rural migrants who have little choice but to reside on unoccupied land that is otherwise undesirable. In contrast to these overcrowded shantytowns are the upper-class enclaves of suburban estates, which are often gated communities occupying large areas of land, also located at the boundaries of the metropolitan area. Suburban estates began to appear in the late 1980s, when the expansion of urban highways and the wider availability of automobiles made commuting easier.

People

      Buenos Aires is often described as Latin America's most European city. The population is made up largely of the descendants of immigrants from Spain and Italy who came to Argentina in the late 19th or early 20th century. Porteños, and Argentinians in general, tend to consider themselves European in character rather than Latin American. Moreover, porteños see themselves as having an identity that is quite distinct from those of other Argentinians and Latin Americans as a whole. Porteños are generally extroverted, sophisticated, animated, and on the forefront of the latest trends and fashions, yet their attitudes are tinged with pessimism or fatalism about the direction of their country or the latest economic problems. Some Latin Americans have come to view porteños as slightly arrogant or snobbish. There are also significant minorities of Germans, Britons, Ukrainians, Czechs, Poles, Slovenes, Lithuanians, Middle Easterners, Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese. Since the 1930s, most newcomers to the city have come from northern Argentina, where the population is predominantly mestizo (people of mixed Indian and European ancestry), and from neighbouring Bolivia and Paraguay. Mestizos make up between one-fourth and one-third of the population in the metropolitan area. It is mostly mestizos who live in the poorer sections of the city, in the shantytowns, and in the suburbs.

      Virtually no descendants of Africans or of mixed European and African ancestry remain in the city. In the early 19th century about one-third of the population was black, mainly living in San Telmo. By the end of the century, black residents accounted for only a tiny percentage of Buenos Aires's population. Researchers suggest that many blacks were killed fighting in the War of the Triple Alliance (Triple Alliance, War of the) in the 1860s or perished in the yellow fever epidemic of 1871 that devastated much of the population in San Telmo. Others believe that the population intermixed with the already mixed-ethnic porteños and was no longer distinguishable. More recently, Afro-Argentine culture was further marginalized as part of the wider repression that occurred during the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. African ancestry figures have not been represented in census counts since the 1890s.

      While there are no ethnic neighbourhoods, strictly speaking, many of the smaller minorities have tended to settle close to one another in tightly knit communities. Villa Crespo and Once, for example, are known as Jewish neighbourhoods; Avenida de Mayo is a centre for Spaniards; Flores is the home of many people who emigrated from the Middle East (especially Armenians, Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians); and Once has become a concentration point for Korean immigrants. The assimilation of these groups has been less than complete, but the Argentine identity has been flexible enough to allow ethnically based mutual-aid societies and social clubs to emerge. Even the dominant Spanish language has been affected by other European cultures and has undergone changes; in the shantytowns and waterfront districts an Italianized dialect has emerged, and Italian cuisine is popular in the city. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion of porteños, though Evangelical Protestantism has made significant inroads since the 1980s. Eastern Orthodox and Anglican communities have been present in Buenos Aires since the late 1900s. About four-fifths of the country's 250,000 adherents of Judaism live in the city. Eastern religions are also growing in importance locally.

Economy

      The importance of Buenos Aires, the country's chief port and the largest in South America, to the national economy is related to Argentina's overwhelming dependence on the production and export of agricultural commodities. Buenos Aires is the country's chief point of consumption, processing, and shipping. Unlike much of the rest of the country, the city has a varied economy, which helps it maintain a degree of stability despite the rampant inflation that has often burdened the entire country.

      The port of Buenos Aires receives ships from all over the world that deliver machine-made goods and consumer durables and leave with grains or agricultural by-products, such as food oils. And yet, as with so much of the city, the port facilities are old and inefficient. The port facilities were privatized in 1994, and new investments in infrastructure were begun; however, it is still common at harvest time to see long lines of trucks at the port entrance, waiting to transfer their loads to one of the ships lying offshore, which in turn are waiting to use the narrow channel into the port. An inadequate road system leading to the various terminals also continues to hamper growth. Serious proposals to move the port to another, better harbour have met with little response.

Manufacturing

      Buenos Aires's main industries include food processing (meat, fish, and grain), metalworking, automobile assembly, oil refining, printing and publishing, and the manufacture of textiles, beverages, paper, and chemicals. Heavy industry has grown much faster in metropolitan Buenos Aires than elsewhere in Argentina. More than one-third of the industrial capacity of the country is in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, and about one-half of all manufacturing jobs are located there. About one-fifth of Greater Buenos Aires's labour force works in manufacturing. Larger industrial and manufacturing establishments have been located traditionally in the neighbourhoods of Barracas and Nueva Pompeya, respectively south and west of San Telmo, but they are becoming increasingly prominent in the suburbs.

Finance and other services

      The city virtually monopolizes the banking activity of the country. Banks in Buenos Aires hold the largest share of the country's bank deposits, a large portion of which are held by foreign investors. The Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina controls the federal banking system. The Buenos Aires stock exchange, along with specialized markets for meat, cattle, fruit, and grain, makes the city the dominant stock and commodities trading centre in the country. The financial district is concentrated just north of the Plaza de Mayo.

      Service industries account for about two-fifths of the jobs in the metropolitan area. The number of tourists in Buenos Aires has increased dramatically since 2001, when an economic collapse afflicted the country, and the city is one of the most visited in South America.

Transportation

      One of the world's better urban transportation systems evolved serendipitously in Buenos Aires around the unique colectivo, or microbus, an Argentine invention. Half the size of a typical city bus, it is usually crammed with people and often barely pauses as passengers jump on and off. The drivers, who are generally owners of the cooperative that operates the bus line, are often colourful characters, noted for their frequent lively commentary on everything from weather to politics to football. The microbus driver has become a symbol of the frenetic pace of life in the city. Travelers are seldom more than one block from a bus, and often they have a choice of buses to take.

      Buenos Aires has Latin America's oldest subway system; its first line opened in 1913. The subway was designed to accommodate the city in the mid-20th century, but its adequacy for a modern, bustling metropolis had diminished toward the end of the century. After the system was privatized in the early 1990s, however, many stations were refurbished and lines were repaired. The first new subway line built since the 1940s opened in 2007.

      Most professionals and other white-collar workers commute to the city centre by car or train from the northern zones. Blue-collar workers commute across town, from residential to industrial sections, generally by colectivo. Though most city traffic is regulated by automatic traffic lights, the city's residents are notorious for ignoring them. For many years, two major streets, Calle Florida and Calle Lavalle, were traditionally closed to motor traffic during part of the day to allow for a free flow of pedestrians. Now, however, Calle Florida is reserved for pedestrians at all times. Traffic-calming measures, such as speed bumps and closed streets, have been proposed as a means of controlling noise, pollution, and congestion in many neighbourhoods, but as of the early 21st century little progress had been made in implementing these measures.

      Buenos Aires's highway system includes several expressways that radiate out from the city centre to connect it with Avenida General Paz, which circles most of the city, thus forming a spokelike pattern. Other main avenues connect Plaza de Mayo with outlying neighbourhoods. The city is the terminus of every major railway in the country. There are also electric suburban lines connecting the city with the towns of Tigre and Moreno.

      The international airport of Ezeiza, Don Torcuato airport, and El Palomar, the military airport, are located outside the city limits in Esteban Echeverría, Tigre, and Morón, respectively. They are connected to the city by expressways. Jorge Newbery Airport, the Buenos Aires city airport, lies within the Federal District and serves domestic airlines, as well as those that operate to and from neighbouring countries.

      High-speed catamaran and ferry passenger services across the Río de la Plata link Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo in Uruguay.

Administration and society

Government

      Since 1996 the city government has been headed by a directly elected mayor and city council; however, the legislative and executive powers of the mayor and the council are limited, largely because of the centralizing tendency of the federal government, which wields considerable influence over local affairs. By law, the president of the republic is responsible for governing the municipality of Buenos Aires, and the National Congress is ultimately responsible for legislation pertaining to it. Moreover, before 1996 the city council functioned only intermittently, and in times of military rule the actual governing of the city often has been assumed directly by the junta in power. The city was historically divided into administrative units, some of which coincided approximately with the traditional neighbourhoods. Each unit had a neighbourhood council, which dealt with local issues. In 2007 a political decentralization program began, which was designed to amalgamate the existing neighbourhoods into comunas (communes), each to be governed by a seven-person citizens' committee.

      Administrative units of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region are called partidos (counties); each county is governed by an elected mayor and a municipal council. Coordinated governance of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region is complicated by the lack of any interjurisdictional governing body. The National Commission of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area was set up by the federal government in the late 1980s to harmonize the separate administrations of the central city, Buenos Aires province, and the counties. Its efforts have been largely ineffectual.

Municipal services

      Since the adoption of privatization policies in 1992, almost all public services have been turned over to private national and multinational companies, with limited oversight by federal government agencies. The municipal government is in charge of only the construction and maintenance of pavements, sidewalks, and parks. Because of population growth and uncontrolled building, public services have been severely strained. Another exception, sanitary facilities—water supply, drainage, and sewers—are the responsibility of the National Sanitary Works Agency (Dirección Nacional de Obras Sanitarias de la Nación; OSN), which services a major part of Greater Buenos Aires. OSN was privatized in 1993; after years of political struggles over tariffs, environmental concerns, and infrastructure investments, it returned to state ownership in 2006.

      The waste-disposal system includes garbage-burning centres, but most wastes are used to fill lowlands along the Río de la Plata. Reclaimed areas have been converted into parks, sports areas, and construction sites. The large water-purification plant in Palermo Park treats water from the Río de la Plata and sends it underground through tunnels to reservoirs in different parts of the city. Electricity is provided by the Northern Electrical Distribution Company (EDENOR) in the northern half of Buenos Aires and by the Southern Electrical Distribution Company (EDESUR) in the southern part. Telephone service has improved dramatically since the turn of the 21st century, and cellular phones are now ubiquitous in the wealthier neighbourhoods. Most long-distance calls are still made from neighbourhood phone centres, however. Natural gas is distributed in the Federal District by Metrogas from oil fields in the interior of the country. The city consumes more than half of all the electric and natural gas energy produced in Argentina.

Health

      The city has municipal and private hospitals, as well as numerous neighbourhood dispensaries, pharmacies, and clinics. A relatively high number of hospital beds are maintained in order to accommodate the many patients from other parts of Argentina who travel to Buenos Aires for specialized treatment.

Education

      Argentinians are among the most literate people in the world, and porteños have access to the country's finest educational facilities. The primary and secondary schools are based on the neighbourhood system, and the government runs special national high schools as college preparatory schools. Students in those high schools and others, including numerous schools administered by the Roman Catholic Church or by other religious bodies, aim for entrance into the University of Buenos Aires (1821). Despite the repressive years of military dictatorship, this institution has continued to produce outstanding students and teachers, including Nobel Prize winners. The political difficulties suffered by the University of Buenos Aires have encouraged the foundation of several private universities, the most prominent of which is the University of Belgrano (1964). In addition, the city is the site of the University of Morón (1960), and there are two major universities run by the Roman Catholic Church—the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (1958) and the University of the Saviour (1956).

Cultural life

      Daily life in Buenos Aires typically revolves around the local neighbourhood, the city centre, and the major recreation and entertainment areas, such as the theatre district near Calle Lavalle. Since the 1980s, North American influences in fast food, fashion, and music have played a dominant role in shaping the city's cultural landscape as well. Porteños tend to have a high tolerance for working long days and having even longer nights. Most offices close at 6 PM, while stores stay open well into the evening. Lunch breaks may extend over several hours, and the traditional siesta is not uncommon. Around midnight, the city's restaurants overflow with customers seeking an evening meal, especially on the weekends. Cosmopolitan cuisine, especially French and Italian cooking, dominates the dining habits of porteños, but parrilla (“grill”) restaurants remain hugely popular and serve enormous quantities of grilled meats.

      Cultural life in the capital has been peculiarly vulnerable to political change. Military governments, wary of artistic expression, tended to be more restrictive than democratic governments. Newspapers particularly struggled for free expression during periods of military dominance. Buenos Aires, one of the major publishing centres of Latin America, has a wide variety of newspapers, including several in foreign languages. At least two dailies, La Prensa (Prensa, La) (“The Press”) and La Nación (“The Nation”), are internationally known. Porteños are avid readers, and bookstores are prevalent in the city.

The arts

      The fine arts are prominent in Buenos Aires, with dozens of galleries located along and near Calle Florida, just off Avenida Santa Fe, or in elegant, remodeled colonial houses in the San Telmo district. Every modernist movement of note has had its adherents in Buenos Aires, and it is easy to see the influence of world movements on the art, theatre, music, and literature associated with the city. Amateur theatre groups are active, and there is an open-air stage in La Boca. Performances of folk songs and dances known as peñas are extremely popular. Concerts by popular and classical music performers are often held in the city's football stadiums and in theatres along Avendia Corrientes. Argentina's national dance, the tango, is practiced and performed in dance halls, parks, squares, and ballrooms. Buenos Aires celebrates the Day of the Tango on December 11, and in June the city commemorates the anniversary of the death of Argentine singer and dancer Carlos Gardel (Gardel, Carlos). The landscape and culture of Buenos Aires are well represented in literature, particularly in the writings of Jorge Luis Borges (Borges, Jorge Luis), Julio Cortázar (Cortázar, Julio), Ernesto Sábato, and Silvina Ocampo.

Cultural institutions

      The magnificent opera house, the Colón Theatre (1908), is one of the major stops for opera stars, as well as the headquarters of the national ballet and the national symphony. The San Martín Municipal Theatre houses three stages as well as an art gallery; the Presidente Alvear Theatre offers performances almost daily. Another theatre of note is the Cervantes National Theatre. The city's museums—several of which are run by the municipal government—house varied collections. The Bernardino Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences has an exceptionally rich fossil collection and operates a scientific institute. The National Museum of Fine Arts contains collections of world masters and of Argentine painters and sculptors, while the National Museum of Decorative Arts houses tapestries and antiques. The Isaac Fernández Blanco Municipal Museum of Hispanic-American Art contains antique silver objects in a replica of a colonial home. Other art collections include Spanish, Italian, and modern works, and there are several historical museums and documentary centres. In addition, the city's cultural scene includes the Museum of Modern Art (1989) and the Museum of Modern Latin American Art (2001). The Evita Museum (2002), dedicated to the life of Eva Perón (Perón, Eva), is in Palermo.

      Public municipal libraries are distributed throughout the city; there are university and research libraries as well. The National Library, the city's largest, is housed in a modern building in Barrio Norte.

Sports and recreation

      The city is ringed with green spaces, which include plazas, parks, and tree-lined boulevards, as well as the zoological and botanical gardens. Two extensive parks that were built on reclaimed floodlands are the Almirante Brown Park, in the Riachuelo valley, and the Tres de Febrero Park, on the Río de la Plata. Palermo is the city's oldest park (1580).

 Equestrian sports are enormously popular, especially polo, which has become the national sport. Pato, another popular game played on horseback, traces its origin to nomadic Pampean Indians. The most popular team sport is football (soccer), which can be seen being played in parks and on fields throughout the urban area. The 1978 World Cup was held in Buenos Aires. Local teams have a fanatical following, and Buenos Aires has produced a number of international football stars, including Diego Maradona (Maradona, Diego Armando), Osvaldo Ardiles, and Gabriel Batistuta. Sports and recreation facilities include the Municipal Auto Race Track, the public bath houses, and various nautical and sports clubs.

José M.F. Pastor José Bonilla David J. Keeling

History

The early period

      The city of Buenos Aires was founded twice. It was first founded in 1536 by an expedition led by the Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza (Mendoza, Pedro de), who named it Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire (“Our Lady St. Mary of the Good Air”). He was made the first governor-general of the Río de la Plata (Plata, Río de la) region. That settlement soon fell victim to local Indians and to deficient supplies, and the survivors had to retreat up the river to the fortified settlement of Asunción. Nearly 50 years later Juan de Garay led a more substantial expedition back to the site, and there, at the mouth of the Riachuelo River, he refounded the city, which he called Ciudad de Trinidad (“City of Trinidad”), in 1580. Huge tracts of land in the environs of the city were granted to members of the expedition, and they began immediately to harvest the pastoral animals that had multiplied since being left by the original party.

      For nearly two centuries Buenos Aires grew at a modest pace. It was a reasonably good port, but it suffered from the rigid organization of the Spanish empire in America, under which only selected ports could be used for trade. The entire Río de la Plata region was made part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (Peru, Viceroyalty of) and was governed from Lima. Within the viceroyalty, only Callao, the port near Lima, was granted permission to trade with Spanish merchants. This effectively reduced Buenos Aires to a backwater. Goods from Callao took nearly six months to reach Buenos Aires by oxcart. Any goods the settlers wanted to sell to Spain took that long to reach Callao and another four or six months before they might be shipped from the port to Cádiz. A complete exchange took at least 24 months.

      The vast distance separating Buenos Aires from other centres of population in the viceroyalty left the city with only sporadic contact with the administrative authority of the crown. Gradually, the city evolved its own way of life, based on extensive ranching and contraband trade, while the rest of the viceroyalty was focused to one degree or another on the mining enterprises of the Andean region called Upper Peru (modern-day Bolivia). A string of settlements was established along the foothills of the Andes to serve the mining region. Their links with the port on the Río de la Plata were of little consequence.

      Instead of suffering from neglect, the porteños, the people of Buenos Aires, thrived. In the last quarter of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th, settlements spread rapidly to the northwest along the banks of the Paraná River, a fertile area well irrigated by many streams and small rivers; these were easily navigated by small boats operated by smugglers who reached the many farms and ranches that lined the river. By the beginning of the 18th century, Argentina was exporting thousands of tons of cereals, tens of thousands of cattle hides, and tons of dried beef destined for the plantations of northern Brazil and the Caribbean islands. The British were the principal source of capital and of transportation for this contraband trade.

      By the middle of the 18th century, Buenos Aires was a thriving, if still modest, commercial entrepôt of nearly 20,000 inhabitants. The houses were built along the narrow earthen streets stretching north from the Riachuelo. The original harbour had become silted up, and the larger boats that now called at the port had to anchor offshore. But the economic success of the region was undeniable, and in 1776, as part of the Bourbon monarchy's broad reform effort, Buenos Aires was named the capital of the new Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (Río de la Plata, Viceroyalty of the). The Bourbon monarchs (see house of Bourbon (Bourbon, House of)) hoped that by expanding their administrative setup in the Americas they would increase tax revenue from the colonies and, at the same time, increase control over the colonies to protect them from the covetous attentions of Spain's rivals, especially the British. Trade out of Buenos Aires was by this time legal, although the crown still attempted to control its flow and pattern. Because the major mining towns of Upper Peru were now within the confines of the viceroyalty, silver was the most valuable export. The city flourished, and, over the last quarter of the 18th century and in the early 19th century, the population of the city nearly doubled, from 24,000 in 1778 to 42,500 in 1810. Official trade reflected Buenos Aires's position as the administrative centre of the viceroyalty. Spain became the region's principal trading partner.

      Perhaps the most significant result of the administrative reforms of 1776 was that they split the elite into two groups whose economic interests were divergent. One continued to concentrate its energies on the pastoral activities of the city's hinterland and the related trade with Cuba, Brazil, and Great Britain; its interests were more international. The other group was tied economically and administratively to the official activities of the viceroyalty. It was linked to the official bodies, such as the consulado (the trade board), that were recognized by the crown and through which the crown attempted to channel all economic activity. This group's interests were more regional.

The independent capital

      The independent spirit of the city was given a tremendous boost in 1806 and 1807, when local militia forces fought off two attempted invasions by British troops. Neither invasion was a major effort, but the fact that local forces had defeated a British army marked the initial episode in the history of Argentine nationalism. In 1808, when Napoleon (Napoleon I) invaded Spain and placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte (Bonaparte, Joseph) on the throne in Madrid, many porteños, like people throughout the empire, reconsidered their ties to the crown. In May 1810 the town council severed ties with Spain and the viceregal government, and on May 25 it declared allegiance to a new ruling junta.

      The events of the next decade emphasized the split between the city and the rest of the region. Few residents of the interior were disposed to follow the lead of Buenos Aires, and it was not until 1816, at a congress in Tucumán (Tucumán, Congress of), that the other provinces declared their independence. A provisional government was created, and Buenos Aires was named capital of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. The more distant provinces of the former viceroyalty—Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay—refused to become part of a new country dominated by the port city, however. For nearly 30 years, the provinces were held together by federalism, which meant virtual autonomy for each province. (The city of Buenos Aires exercised whatever central authority existed in the new country; the interior provinces were allowed to go their own way.)

      Ironically, it was the interior provinces that suffered most from this arrangement, and in 1851 they mounted a coalition that attempted to change the balance of power by force. They succeeded in ousting the porteño dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas (Rosas, Juan Manuel de), but were unable to reorganize the country in an effective manner. A decade later, the porteños, under the leadership of Bartolomé Mitre (Mitre, Bartolomé), defeated the military forces of the interior and established a strong government centred in Buenos Aires. This development was recognized officially when the city was made the federal capital in 1880. (The political boundaries of the modern state did not become firmly established until well into the 20th century, with several minor disagreements over the boundary with Chile still extant.)

      The political struggles between the porteños and the interior became more intense after 1850 because the stakes became greater. Dramatic changes in the European market as a result of industrialization and the transformation of capitalism, together with significant advances in technology, made exploitation of the fertile plains of Argentina economically viable. All that was required was the labour to work the land and the capital to pay for the transportation of products to the ports. For the most part, the capital came from Britain. The bulk of the labour came from Spain and Italy. In little more than a generation the land was transformed. By the beginning of World War I, Argentina had become one of the world's principal exporters of agricultural products.

      The economic change in the countryside led to three fundamental changes in the character of the city. First, the population changed. Immigrants who had been attracted to the country with the hope of settling on the land found it impossible to buy land, and they migrated back to the city. At the same time, the need for new port facilities and service activities that were related to increasing exports created a demand for labour. Those newcomers, mainly from Spain and Italy but also from eastern Europe and Germany, jammed into the older houses on the south side of the city, pushing the middle-class residents north across Avenida de Mayo. Because many jobs were in the port and in the slaughterhouses on the outskirts of the city, the newcomers also pushed south across the Riachuelo into adjoining counties.

      The second significant change in the city was the massive amount of wealth that came into the hands of individuals and to the state. The former built great mansions, modeled after French châteaus. These mansions today house government ministries or the embassies of foreign governments. At the time, they were the international symbol of vast wealth. In Paris at the turn of the century, a common phrase was “to be as rich as an Argentine.” These mansions were constructed in Barrio Norte, many around Plaza San Martín, at the northern end of Calle Florida, or close to Avenida Santa Fe.

 The third major transformation was in the physical layout of the city. The owners of the mansions, members of the ruling elite, decided that they would transform Buenos Aires into the Paris of South America. As part of the preparations for the May 1910 celebration of the centennial of the first declaration of independence, the city council decided to build a subway system and a network of broad avenues radiating out from the city centre, in frank imitation of the urban reforms imposed on Paris by Napoleon III and made famous by Georges-Eugène Haussmann (Haussmann, Georges-Eugène, Baron). The “Haussmannization” of Buenos Aires called for the construction of broad avenues every four blocks, running east and west, and every 10 blocks, running north and south, and for construction of what would be claimed as the broadest avenue in the world, patterned on the Champs-Élysées. Named 9 de Julio (July 9) after the official national day of independence, that block-wide swath was cut through the city in the 1930s and opened officially in October 1937.

      The infrastructure put into place in the years before World War I endures to the present. The broad avenues in the core of the city, most of them carved out during the 1920s and '30s, continue to carry the burden of vehicular traffic and only two of the five subway lines were built after World War II.

The modern city

      Since the mid-20th century, three important developments have affected the character of the city. The first was the virtual halting of international immigration after 1930. The demand for labour in the metropolitan area was met thereafter, in large measure, by migrants from the interior—Argentinians of mestizo (mixed Indian and European) ancestry, whose presence created conflicts with the porteños. These people came from northwestern Argentina or from the neighbouring countries of Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

      The second development stemmed from the movement of the mestizos, who, finding the inner city slums too crowded, settled on unoccupied land in the suburbs near the manufacturing establishments that provided many jobs. Their dwellings, generally made of corrugated metal, were part of the first shantytowns, or villas miserias (“neighbourhoods of misery”), to appear in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. The ethnic differences of these newer migrants to the city added a nuance of bitterness to the social conflicts that characterized the development of industrial capitalism in the metropolitan area in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. Many of the newcomers would become staunch followers of the populist leader Juan Perón (Perón, Juan), who came to power in a military coup in 1943 and served as president from 1946 to 1955 and again from 1973 until his death in 1974.

      The third important development in the second half of the century was the replacement of the tramway and train by the automobile and the colectivo, or microbus, as the dominant modes of transportation in the city. Unlike many other large Western cities, Buenos Aires is not yet ringed by a network of superhighways. A complete network was planned after World War II, but economic and political difficulties have prevented its construction. By the beginning of the 21st century, the existing network of streets was saturated with vehicular traffic, and the need to improve other modes of transportation seemed imperative as traffic jams and gridlock added to the more frustrating characteristics of contemporary Buenos Aires.

Joseph S. Tulchin

      During the Guerra Sucia (“Dirty War”) the military regime that controlled Argentina from 1976 until 1983 covertly tortured and killed several thousand civilians in an attempt to purge the country of alleged left-wing radicals; one group in Buenos Aires—the Grandmothers and Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo —called attention to the fates of their family members and other desaparecidos (“disappeared persons”) by holding weekly vigils on the square fronting the Casa Rosada.

      In the early 2000s Buenos Aires was greatly affected by Argentina's faltering economy. In 2001 the country suffered a massive economic collapse after defaulting on its foreign debt payment. Inflation increased by 50 percent, and the unemployment rate in Buenos Aires reached an all-time high. Porteños with savings accounts or investments lost significant amounts of money. Social services were cut and pension payments were delayed. Violent protests occurred in the city streets as porteños and others demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the government's handling of the economy.

      By 2004 Buenos Aires had recovered from the crisis, and its economy was booming again. But the city still experiences the challenges of modern urban life. Buenos Aires's new underclass, its most recent migrants, who have crowded into shantytowns, are disproportionately undereducated and unskilled and have not been easily absorbed in the service-oriented economy. Although the national and local governments have dedicated significant resources to trying to close the ever-widening gap between the privileged and the underclass, they have had little success in helping the newcomers raise their standard of living. Moreover, the cost of living in Buenos Aires is among the highest in Latin America, and about one-fourth of the population in the metropolitan area lives in poverty. Crimes such as pickpocketing, mugging, sexual assault, and car theft are major concerns throughout the area, but the well-trafficked city centre has remained the safest part of Buenos Aires. In 2007 and 2008, power shortages in the city were indicative of a broader infrastructure problem, and the city experienced periods of high inflation.

      Despite these numerous obstacles at the beginning of the 21st century, Buenos Aires exhibited signs of social improvement and a burgeoning economy, especially in response to developments in technology and the city's increasing globalization. Internet cafés have proliferated since the 1990s, demonstrating the city's growing electronic connectivity to the rest of the world. Moreover, Buenos Aires has remained the cultural heart of Argentina, shaping much of the country's identity through education, art, publishing, and locally produced television shows, advertising, radio programs, and movies.

David J. Keeling

Additional Reading

General Works

General travel guides for Buenos Aires include Fodor's Buenos Aires (2008); Lara Dunston and Terry Carter, Buenos Aires Encounter (2007), published by Lonely Planet; and Time Out Buenos Aires (2006). Examinations of daily life can be found in Jason Wilson, Buenos Aires: A Cultural and Literary Companion (1999); and Miranda France, Bad Times in Buenos Aires (1998). David William Foster, Buenos Aires: Perspectives on the City and Cultural Production (1998), examines the cultural attitudes of porteños and the use of public spaces. George Reid Andrews, The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800–1900 (1980), provides a detailed account of this specific community in Buenos Aires. Charles S. Sargent, The Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1870–1930 (1974), analyzes the effects of transportation innovation on urban growth. An outstanding work on Buenos Aires's urban poverty and its shantytowns is Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, Old Age and Urban Poverty in the Developing World (1997). Javier Auyero, Poor People's Politics: Peronist Survival Networks and the Legacy of Evita (2001), considers the political practices of the Peronist Party and how they affect the shantytown dwellers in contemporary Buenos Aires. David J. Keeling, Buenos Aires: Global Dreams, Local Crises (1996), details the contemporary city's engagement with globalization and neoliberal reforms.

History

The history of the city is covered in Stanley R. Ross and Thomas F. McGann (eds.), Buenos Aires, 400 Years (1982), a comprehensive collection of conference papers; and in Margarita Gutman and Jorge Enrique Hardoy, Buenos Aires: historia urbana del área metropolitana (1992). Daniel Schávelzon, The Historical Archaeology of Buenos Aires: A City at the End of the World, trans. by Alex Lomonaco (2002),explores the origins and development of the city with a special focus on ethnicity and gender. James R. Scobie, Buenos Aires: Plaza to Suburb, 1870–1910 (1974), is the classic historical analysis of Buenos Aires, chronicling the city's transformation from a relatively small town to one of the world's largest metropolitan areas. Urban political structures are examined by Richard J. Walter, Politics and Urban Growth in Buenos Aires, 1910–1942 (1993, reissued 2002).Various periods of the city's history are examined in Ricardo Luis Molinari, Buenos Aires, 4 siglos, rev. ed. (1983); Manuel Mujica Láinez, Los porteños (1979), essential for cultural history; and José María Peña, Buenos Aires Yesteryear: A City in Pictures, 1854–1930, English version by Harold Sinnott and Flaviana Penna (1994), and Buenos Aires Yesteryear: A City in Pictures, 1910–1930, English version by Harold Sinnott (1984), mostly photographs, with texts in Spanish and English. Laura Podalsky, Specular City: Transforming Culture, Consumption, and Space in Buenos Aires, 1955–1973 (2004), explores the middle-class transformation of the city during the period between the exile of Juan Perón in 1955 and his return in 1973. José C. Moya, Cousins and Strangers: Spanish Immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850–1930 (1998), examines migration flows during the height of the city's foreign population growth. Issues of women's history are detailed in Donna J. Guy, Sex & Danger in Buenos Aires: Prostitution, Family, and Nation in Argentina (1991).David J. Keeling

▪ province, Argentina

      provincia (province), eastern Argentina, lying south of the Paraná River and southeast of the Río de la Plata (which forms the border with Uruguay) and extending westward from the Atlantic Ocean to include the major part of the humid Argentine Pampas (Pampas, the), a vast, grass-covered plain. The province, which surrounds the federal district and city of Buenos Aires, includes Martín García Island. The largest and most populated of the provinces, it is the cultural and economic centre of Argentina. One main river, the Salado (Salado River), crosses the province (northwest–southeast) for a distance of 360 miles (580 km). In the south, two low mountain ranges, the Sierra del Tandil and the Sierra de la Ventana, extend inland from the coast in northwesterly directions.

      During colonial times the region was lightly settled but produced hides from the vast herds of cattle and horses that ran wild on the Pampas. The inhabitants supported separation from Spain in 1810, but throughout most of the 19th century there was continued internal strife during the efforts to organize the nation. Provincial status was attained in 1862. The city of Buenos Aires became the site of the national government in 1880, and the provincial authorities moved their administration to La Plata. About the same time, the Pampa Indians were decimated by the Argentine military. The period of peace that followed, as well as an influx of foreign immigrants, stimulated economic development.

      The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed the expansion of cattle raising and of wheat, corn (maize), and alfalfa farming as major sources of income for both domestic and European markets. Although Buenos Aires province ranks first in the republic for the number and quality of its livestock, an increasing area has been given over to crops. Livestock raising is concentrated in the coastal area below the federal district, extending inland for 150 miles (240 km) and southward to Mar del Plata. A broad band running north and south through the province and growing wider in the southern coastal region is devoted to wheat. Corn (maize) is raised in the north, while around the federal district, for a radius of some 50 miles (80 km), are intensive truck gardens that supply the urban population with fresh fruits and vegetables. Industry and transportation systems are concentrated in the federal capital of Buenos Aires and its suburbs, but Bahía Blanca, Mar del Plata, and La Plata are also important industrial and communication centres. Pop. (2001) 13,827,203.

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