Buenos Aires

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Buenos Aires
This city that I believed was my past , is my
future, my present the years I have spent in
Europe are an illusion , I always was (and will
be) in Buenos Aires . - Jorge Luis Borges,
"Arrabal", from Fervor de Buenos Aires (1921)
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History
A first expedition landed in present-day Buenos
Aires in 1536. This first settlement, founded by
Don Pedro Mendoza, was named Ciudad del Espiritu
Santo (The City of the Holy Spirit) and Puerto
Santa María del Buen Ayres (The Port of Saint
Mary of the Good Air). This settlement was
abandoned shortly thereafter because of conflicts
with the indigenous peoples who lived in the
area.   In 1580, Juan de Garay founded a
second settlement in the same area. This time,
the settlement was named Ciudad de Trinidad
(Trinity City). Almost 100 years later in 1667,
the citys population stood at about 4,000
inhabitants. The town consisted principally of
single-story adobe buildings and served as the
principal trading and commercial center for the
vast, largely unsettled region that surrounded
it.
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Buenos Aires economic prosperity
Small herds of cattle and horses brought from
Spain multiplied and spread over the Pampas,
creating the conditions for a stable agricultural
economy. The city supplied beef and draft animals
to Spanish towns and mining settlements deep in
the interior. Although the Spanish had officially
closed the Buenos Aires port to trade, smuggling
and trade with the interior prospered.   By
1776 the Spanish crown had recognized the
geographical advantages of the citys location
and its economic potential. The city continued to
grow as it consolidated its position as the key
urban center of Spains southern Latin American
colonies
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Independence-Buenos Aires
Continuing dissatisfaction with Spanish
interference led to the revolution, which began
on May 25th, 1810. The region declared itself
independent from Spain that year, and won when
Spain officially recognized Argentinas
independence in 1816. However, independence
revealed the regional disparities that Spanish
rule had obscured.
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Divisions within Argentina
Modest population growth followed, with the
number of inhabitants in the city reaching 60,000
in 1826 and 90,000 in 1854. These increases
occurred against the backdrop of a long-standing,
divisive, and sometimes-violent conflict between
the city of Buenos Aires and the interior
provinces of Argentina.   The Federalists
of the interior (conservative landowners,
supported by the gauchos and rural working class)
advocated provincial autonomy, while the
Unitarists (cosmopolitan city dwellers) upheld
Buenos Aires' central authority.

http//www.camdipsalta.gov.ar/senda/imagen/sitial7
.jpg
Illustrations of Recruited Gauchos going to war
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Unitarism and Buenos Aires
After a disastrous and tyrannical period of rule
by the Federalist Juan Manuel Rosas, Buenos Aires
and Unitarism prevailed, ushering in a new era of
growth and prosperity with the constitution of
1853. European immigration, foreign investment
and trade were hallmarks of the new liberalism.
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Economic boom in the South
In the last decades of the 19th century the city
dramatically transformed. The rich Pampas region
was completely opened to settlement and
agriculture by the early 1880s when the Argentine
army defeated the remaining indigenous peoples
who had occupied it. Simultaneously,
innovations in refrigeration and shipping
permitted Argentina to export more of its meat to
Europe. Argentina became fully integrated into
the world economy as beef, mutton, wheat, wool,
and other agricultural exports flourished,
fueling an economic boom.
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The European City
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Buenos Aires and Immigrants
Buenos Aires grew rapidly as hundreds of
thousands of southern European immigrants,
largely from Italy and Spain, migrated to the
city from the 1880s to the 1930s.
Photographs of the todays italian township in
Buenos Aires
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The Europeization of the City
The new wealth generated by the booming export
economy transformed the infrastructure of the
city. The elite sought to change the citys
landscape into the image of a European city,
notably Paris, France. They opened broad avenues,
built ornate public buildings such as the Colón
Theater, and constructed numerous commercial
buildings, apartments, and mansions.
http//www.buenosaires.gov.ar/fotogaleria/categori
as/arq/img/417x242/01.jpg
Colón Theater
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XX Century Buenos Aires
Ambitious municipal projects during the 1930s
transformed the face of the downtown area with a
sprawling grid of wide avenues running through
the heart of the city.
Colonial-era streets disappeared as Buenos Aires
sought to stamp its air of European
sophistication on South American tradition.
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The other Buenos Aires
It was in this climate of substandard employment
and living conditions that labor militancy grew,
reaching a boiling point in 1919 when striking
workers were brutally suppressed by the military
during La Semana Trágica (The Tragic Week). This
set an unfortunate precedent for the coming
decades.
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Expansion of Buenos Aires
The citys area expanded dramatically as a
system of local train lines and trolleys radiated
outward from the center of the city, allowing
land development on the urban fringe. By the
beginning of the 1930s, about 3 million people
lived in the city, nearly one-third of
Argentinas population.
Current panoramic view of downtown Buenos Aires
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Buenos Aires after II World War
Following WWII, Greater Buenos Aires began to
absorb the surrounding suburbs, and the weight of
its growth spawned problems with decaying
infrastructure and public services, the spread of
shantytowns, and rises in unemployment and
inflation.
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Living conditions in Buenos Aires
The metropolitan area continued to grow after
the war, and in 1947 its population stood at 4.7
million. By the beginning of the 21st century the
metropolitan area had swelled to almost 13
million people. This rapid growth during the last
half of the 20th century placed tremendous
strains on the city. Housing and public services
did not keep pace with population growth, and by
the 1990s as many as 1.5 million of the citys
residents lived in substandard housing or
shantytowns with limited or inadequate public
services. The citys transportation system was
also unable to keep pace with growth, and traffic
congestion increased dramatically.
The metropolitan area continued to grow after the
war, and in 1947 its population stood at 4.7
million. By the beginning of the 21st century the
metropolitan area had swelled to almost 13
million people. This rapid growth during the last
half of the 20th century placed tremendous
strains on the city. Housing and public services
did not keep pace with population growth, and by
the 1990s as many as 1.5 million of the citys
residents lived in substandard housing or
shantytowns with limited or inadequate public
services. The citys transportation system was
also unable to keep pace with growth, and traffic
congestion increased dramatically.
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Plaza de Mayo and Dictatorship in Argentina
On March 24, 1976, a military coup took over
power and gained control of the government of the
president of Argentina, Maria Estela Martínez de
Perón, who came to power after the death of his
husband, the famous President Juan Peron, three
times president of Argentina, who died in 1974.
The military proclaimed that they were taking
over the government to set "order. The military
regime kidnapped and murdered thousands of
people. The word "Desaparecidos" (disappeared)
was used for identifying the kidnapped people who
never returned to their homes.
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo organization
That environment of fear and silence marked the
birth of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of
Plaza de Mayo), a small group of women who
because of their love for their "disappeared"
children defied the power of the military regime.

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Images of Buenos Aires
http//estatico.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/com_socia
l/casco_historico/imagenes/calle_balcarce.jpg
Circuito Balcarce - Chile
http//estatico.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/com_socia
l/casco_historico/imagenes/plaza_dorrego.jpg
Plaza Dorrego
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Images
http//www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/com_social/cas
co_historico/imagenes/7.jpg
Congress
Cemetery
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Sources

• Government of the City of Buenos Aires
• Website www.buenosaires.gov.ar