Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port. It is located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata (also known as the River Plate), on the southeastern coast of the American continent.
Strongly influenced by European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the "Paris of South America".
After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province in 1880; its city limits were enlarged to include the former towns of Belgrano and Flores; both are now neighbourhoods in the city.
Names
Buenos Aires (Fair Winds, ) was originally called Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire, "City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Wind".
The city name was chosen by the chaplain of Mendoza's expedition (see History, below), who was a devout follower of the Virgine de Bonaria ("Our Lady of the Fair Winds") of Cagliari, Sardinia.
Argentines sometimes refer to the city as Capital Federal to differentiate the city from the province of the same name. In the 1994 constitution, the city was given autonomy, hence its formal name: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.
The abbreviations Bs. As. and Baires are sometimes used, the first one mostly in writing and the second one in everyday speech. The city is sometimes called La Reina del Plata, that is, "The Queen of the Plata" (a reference to the Plata river basin).
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, on today's Uruguay.
The city was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre Industrial workers of the Greater Buenos Aires industrial belt have been Peronism's main support base ever since, and Plaza de Mayo became the site for demonstrations and many of the country's political events.
On June 16 1955, a splinter faction of the navy bombed the Plaza de Mayo area, killing 364 civilians (see Bombing of Plaza de Mayo). This was the only time the city was attacked from the air. This event was followed by a military uprising that would depose President Perón three months later (see Revolución Libertadora).
In the 1970s, the city suffered from the fighting between left-wing revolutionary movements (Montoneros, E.R.P. and F.A.R.) and right-wing paramilitary group Triple A, supported by Isabel Perón, who became president of Argentina in 1974, after Juan Perón's death.
The military coup of 1976, led by Jorge Rafael Videla, only escalated this conflict; the "Dirty War" produced between 10,000 and 30,000 desaparecidos, people kidnapped and killed by the military during the years of the junta. The silent marches of their mothers (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) are a well-known image of Argentine suffering during those times.
The city was visited by Pope John Paul II twice: 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. Another explosion, on July 18 1994, destroyed a building housing several Jewish organizations killing 85 and injuring many more (see AMIA bombing).
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 (the mayor's title was changed to "Chief of Government"). The winner was Fernando de la Rúa, who would be President of Argentina in the period from 1999 to 2001.
De la Rúa's successor, Aníbal Ibarra, won two popular elections, but was impeached (and ultimately deposed on 6 March 2006) as a result of the fire at República Cromagnon. Jorge Telerman, who had been the acting mayor, was invested with the office.
In the mayoral election of June 3, 2007, Mauricio Macri obtained a plurality of the vote, forcing a ballotage against Daniel Filmus on June 24, which Macri won with over 60% of the vote. Macri will assume the office in December of 2007.
National representation
Buenos Aires is represented in the Argentine Senate by three senators (as of January 2007, Rodolfo Terragno, María Leguizamón and Vilma Ibarra). The people of Buenos Aires also elect 25 national deputies for the Argentine Chamber of Deputies.
Barrios
The city is divided into 48 barrios (neighbourhoods) for administrative purposes. The division was originally based on Catholic parroquias (parishes), but has undergone a series of changes since the 1940s. A newer scheme has divided the city into 15 comunas (communes).
Population
The people of Buenos Aires are known as (people of the port), due to the significance of the port in the development of the city and the nation. The people of Buenos Aires province (sometimes including the city's suburbia) are called bonaerenses.
Census data
According to the census, the city proper has a population of 2,776,138, while the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area has more than 12.4 million inhabitants (). The population of the city has been stagnant since the late 1960s, due to low birth rates and a slow emigration to suburbia.
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, Lombardy and Neapolitan regions of Italy.
Other European origins include German, Portuguese, Polish, Irish, French, Croatian, English and Welsh. In the 1990s, there was a small wave of immigration from Romania and Ukraine.
There is a minority of old criollo stock, dating back to the Spanish colonial days. Criollo and Spanish-aboriginal (mestizo) population in the city has increased mostly as a result of migration, both from the provinces and from nearby countries such as Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay, since the second half of the 20th century.
Important Arab (mostly Syrian-Lebanese) and Armenian communities have been significant in commerce and civic life since the beginning of the 20th century.
The Jewish community in Greater Buenos Aires numbers around 250,000, and is the largest in Latin America. Most are of Northern and Eastern European Ashkenazi origin, mostly German and Russian Jews; with a significant minority of Sephardic, mostly Syrian Jews.
The first major East Asian community in Buenos Aires was the Japanese, mainly from Okinawa. Traditionally, Japanese-Argentines were noted as flower growers; in the city proper, there was a Japanese near-monopoly in dry cleaning. Later generations have branched into all fields of activity. Ever since the 1970s there has been an important influx of immigration from China and Korea (see also: Asian-Argentines).
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.
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 South American continent.
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 farming). 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 by (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 noted 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 many denominations, many of which are architecturally noteworthy. and Corrientes Avenue, the main thoroughfare of culture and entertainment. Avenida General Paz is a motorway that surrounds Buenos Aires thus separating the city from Buenos Aires Province.
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 (controls are not fully enforced), 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
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 Once. Most lines use Diesel power; some commuter lines switched to electric power during the 1980s and 1990s with many of its teams playing in the major league. The best-known rivalry is the one between Boca Juniors and River Plate; a match between these two teams was named as one of the "50 sporting things you must do before you die" by The Observer. and
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