Buenos Aires
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AR-C
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| Chief of govt. || Jorge Telerman
Buenos Aires is the
capital of
Argentina and its largest city and
port. It is on the southern shore of the Ro de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the
South American continent, opposite
Colonia del Sacramento,
Uruguay, at .
Strongly influenced by
European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the "
Paris of the South" or "Paris of
South America" . It is one of the most sophisticated cities in Latin America, renowned for its architecture, night life, and cultural activities.
Encyclopedia
- BUE redirects here. For the engineering topic, see built-up edge.
|-
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AR-C|-
| Chief of govt. || Jorge Telerman
Buenos Aires is the
capital of
Argentina and its largest city and
port. It is on the southern shore of the
Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the
South American continent, opposite
Colonia del Sacramento,
Uruguay, at .
Strongly influenced by
European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the "
Paris of the South" or "Paris of
South America" . It is one of the most sophisticated cities in Latin America, renowned for its architecture, night life, and cultural activities.
After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from
Buenos Aires Province; its city limits were enlarged to include the former towns of Belgrano and Flores — both are now
neighbourhoods in the city.
Argentines sometimes refer to the city as
Capital Federal to differentiate the city from the province of the same name. In the 1994 constitution, it was declared an autonomous city, hence its formal denomination:
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.
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 . Some of the most iconic and best-known
barrios include
La Boca,
San Telmo,
Recoleta,
Palermo and
Puerto Madero.
Population
The people of Buenos Aires are known as
, acknowledging the major historical importance of the port in the development of the city and the nation. Suburbanites are called
porteños and sometimes
bonaerenses .
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 . The population of the city proper has been stagnant since the late 1960s, due to low birth rate and a slow flight to suburbia.
Origin
A plurality of
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.
Criollo and Spanish-aboriginal population in the city has increased mostly as a result of migration, both from the provinces and from nearby countries such as
Bolivia and
Paraguay, since the second half of the 20th century.
Important Arab 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. Most are of Eastern European
Ashkenazi origin, with a minority of Sephardim of mostly Syrian descent.
The first major
East Asian community in Buenos Aires was the
Japanese, including a significant number from
Okinawa; since the 1970s there has been an important influx of immigration from
China and
Korea .
Religion
Most inhabitants are
Roman Catholic. Buenos Aires is the seat of a Roman Catholic metropolitan archbishop who is the prelate of Argentina, as well as of several
Eastern Orthodox and
Anglican hierarchs. Evangelical churches have steadily increased their ranks since the 1980s.
Sizable
Jewish and
Muslim communities have existed in the city for over 100 years. Buenos Aires is home to Latin America's largest
Jewish community.
Economy
Buenos Aires is the financial, industrial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina. Its port is one of the busiest in the world. Tax collection related to it has caused many political problems in the past
[*]; navigable rivers by way of the Rio de la Plata connect the port to north-east Argentina,
Brazil,
Uruguay and
Paraguay. As a result, it serves as the distribution hub for a vast area of the south-eastern region of the continent.
To the west of Buenos Aires is the
Pampa Húmeda, the most productive agricultural region of Argentina . Meat, dairy, grain, tobacco, wool and hide products are processed or manufactured in the Buenos Aires area. Other leading industries are automobile manufacturing, oil refining, metalworking, machine building, and the production of textiles, chemicals, clothing, and beverages.
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. There are several
symphony orchestras and choral societies. The city has numerous museums related to history, fine arts, modern arts, decorative arts, popular arts, sacred art, arts and crafts, theatre and popular music, as well as the preserved homes of a number of art collectors, writers, composers and artists. It harbours many public libraries and cultural associations as well as the largest concentration of active theatres in Latin America. It has a world-famous
zoo and
Botanical Garden, a large number of landscaped parks and squares, as well as churches and places of worship of all denominations, including many who are architecturally noteworthyanguage
Argentines refer to their dialect of Spanish as castellano , which in Buenos Aires is characterised by voseo is the use of the second person [i] singular [i] ...
, yeísmo and aspiration or loss of syllable-final -s. Heavily influenced by the dialects of Spanish spoken in Andalusia and Murcia, it is sometimes known as Rioplatense Spanish.
The lunfardo argot originated within the prison population, and in time it spread to all porteños. Lunfardo uses words from Italian dialects, from Brazilian Portuguese, from African and Caribbean origin and even from English; and employs humorous tricks such as inverting the syllables within a word . Today, lunfardo is mostly heard on tango lyrics; the slang of the younger generations has been evolving away from it.
In the early 20th century, Argentina absorbed millions of immigrants, many of them Italians, who spoke mostly in their local dialects . Their adoption of Spanish was gradual, creating a pidgin of Italian dialects and Spanish called cocoliche, widely heard in the beginning of the 20th century; its usage decayed around the 1950s, and today survives mostly as comic relief.
As many Spanish immigrants were from Galicia, to the extent that Spaniards are still generically called gallegos , Galician language, cuisine and culture had a major presence in the city for most of the 20th century. In recent years, descendants of Galician immigrants have led a mini-boom in Celtic music .
Yiddish was commonly heard in Buenos Aires, especially in the Balvanera garment neighborhood and in Villa Crespo, until the 1960s. Korean and Chinese have become significant since the 1970s. Most of the newer immigrants learn Spanish quickly and assimilate into city life.
Tango
Tango music was born in the suburbs, notably in the brothels of the Junín y Lavalle district and in the arrabales . Its sensual dance moves were not seen as respectable until adopted by the Parisian high society in the 1920s, and then all over the world. In Buenos Aires, tango dancing schools were usually men-only establishments.
Starting in the 1920s, the Buenos Aires style of tango music evolved into an elaborated genre. In its heyday, tango had many famous orchestras such as those led by Aníbal Troilo and Juan D'Arienzo, and singers such as Carlos Gardel and Edmundo Rivero. Tango enjoyed a resurgence in global popularity later in the century due almost exclusively to Astor Piazolla and his development of the tango nuevo style.
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. Tango shows can be found in establishments such as Rivero's El Viejo Almacén, and the cultural-centred Corrientes Avenue.
Following the economic mini-boom of the 1990s, more people started commuting by car, and congestion increased. Most major avenues are gridlocked at peak hours. Another source of congestion is the flight of many people to the country on weekends.
Black-and-yellow taxis roam the streets at all hours. Some of these are unlicensed , so visitors are advised to phone a reputable radio-link company. Low-fare limo services, known as remises, have become more popular in recent years.
Rail transport
All of Argentina's extensive railway network converges on Buenos Aires. The three principal stations for both long-distance passenger services and commuter trains are Estación Retiro, Estación Constitución, and Estación Oncee is a project to build a Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba high-speed railway, which would join the three most populated cities in Argentina. Bids were opened in mid-2006, and proposals by four European firms are under study. Construction is slated to start in 2007, to be finished in 2010.
Airports
The Buenos Aires international airport, Ministro Pistarini International Airport, is located in the suburb of Ezeiza and is often called simply "Ezeiza". The Aeroparque Jorge Newbery airport, within city limits near the river, serves mostly domestic traffic.
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. The best-known rivalry is the one between Boca Juniors and River Plate, and a match between these two teams has been qualified as "the Nº 1 sporting event to watch before dying" by The Observerego 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 .
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; for the 1968 Summer Olympics, which were held in Mexico City ; and in 2004, when the games were awarded to Athens. As of 2006, Argentina is the only founding member of the International Olympic Committee that has not hosted the games.
However, Buenos Aires hosted the 1951 Pan American Games - the firstage:Buenos Aires-Puente de la Mujer.jpg|thumb|250px|Women's Bridge in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires|left]]
The Buenos Aires Oscar Gálvez car-racing track hosted 20 editions of the Formula One Argentine Grand Prix between 1953 and 1998; its discontinuation was due to financial reasons. The track features local categories on most weekends.
Juan Manuel Fangio is considered one of the greatest figures in the history of Grand Prix racing. Other notable Argentine drivers include José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann.
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 , and pato, a kind of basketball played on horseback that was declared the national game in 1953.
Buenos Aires native Guillermo Vilas was one of the great tennis players of the 1970s and 1980sr 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. Suburban users routinely experience lower ADSL speeds, but their situation is improving steadily as investment in new facilities has been stepped up.
The Internet boom in the early 2000s gave birth to cibercafés. There is a growing number of wi-fi hotspots, mostly around the downtown area.
See also
- List of Mayors and Chiefs of Government of Buenos Aires
- List of cities
- List of national capitals
- List of twin towns and sister cities of Buenos Aires
- Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
References
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- Patricia Moglia, Fabián Sislián and Mónica Alabart, Pensar la historia argentina desde una historia de América Latina, Buenos Aires:Plus Ultra
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