BREVE RESEÑA

History

 

First and second foundation

 

The first European to visit the Rio de la Plata (River Plate) was Juan Díaz de Solís in 1516. He named it Mar Dulce (Fresh Water Sea). Not only did he think he had discovered a path to the Southern Sea (Pacific Ocean) but a connecting route to the wealth of Tarsis, Ofir and Cipango. Legend had it that theses kingdoms rose to the northwest and they were loaded with gold and silver. In his attempt to disembark on the east coast of the river he lost his life to the Charrúa Natives.

Four years later a new expedition led by Fernando de Magallanes explored the then renamed Mar de Solís (Sea of Solís) and found out that the Rio de la Plata lead neither to the Pacific Ocean nor any golden paradise. Nevertheless in 1526, blooming with optimism, Sebastián Gaboto returned to these coasts and gave the river its final name: Rio de la Plata. He returned to Spain certain that this river was a sure road to the mythical “City of the Caesars”. He managed to get a few samples of gold and silver from the natives, enough to persuade the Spanish Crown that the River Plate honored its name.

The King of Spain then sent over Pedro de Mendoza carrying the title of Adelantado (governor of a frontier province). On February 2^nd of 1536 he raised a fortified settlement which he named Puerto de Nuestra Señora Santa María de Buenos Aires (Harbor of our Holy Saint Mary of Buenos Ayres).

The early peaceful coexistence with the Querandíes Natives soon turned into hostility. On June 24^th of that same year primitive Buenos Aires was under siege by thousands of natives. Ulrico Schmidel, Bavarian soldier and first chronicler of the city, remembers that “people had nothing to eat and starved. The situation was so terrible and the hunger so disastrous that mice, snakes and other insects were not enough, we had to eat up shoes and leather”.

The siege of Buenos Aires lasted eighteen months. In 1537 Mendoza, ill with syphilis, decided to return to Spain. He left in Buenos Aires a garrison of 100 men but was surprised by death at sea and his body cast into the ocean.

Francisco Ruiz Galán remained as head of the settlement and in June of 1541 Captain Domingo Martínez de Irala ordered the garrison to leave the settlement. The settlers left towards Asunción harassed by the natives.

In 1580 the Bask head bailiff Juan de Garay, along with 64 men and a woman called Ana Díaz, sailed from Asunción down the Paraná River. On June 11^th “the tree of justice” was planted at the present Plaza de Mayo. The city layout was drawn on a piece of cattle leather. The new settlement by the river Plate was called Santísima Trinidad (Holy Trinity) and its harbor kept the old name of Buenos Aires. The surface of the village was 250 blocks (40 blocks for housing and the rest for vegetable gardens).

 

Smuggling

 

Buenos Aires was not very important to the Spanish Crown in comparison to Peru, a mine of precious stones. For two centuries the city was under a law that banned free commerce at the Buenos Aires harbor. Goods shipped from Spain to the River Plate went first to the Caribbean up to Panama. From there they traveled by land up to the Pacific Ocean and then by ship to Lima. Finally after thousands of miles on ox drawn carts they arrived in Buenos Aires. Any product there was much more expensive than in Spain. Besides, the Native attacks to the transports descending from Peru made Buenos Aires endure long periods without supplies.

The natural consequence to this was smuggling. The Portuguese, rivals of the Spanish Empire, encouraged it. This business was later capitalized by England, the emerging power of Europe. Meanwhile, the colonial society, ruled by Spanish and white creoles, grew richer disregarding the law.

The sanitary conditions were poor. The first big epidemic hit the city in 1605. Antonio Mosqueras and his troops brought small pox and infected the Buenos Aires locals. Over 500 people died in a few days; they were mainly half castes and natives. The city run out of servants and labor force.

In 1680, one century after its foundation, 5000 people lived in Buenos Aires and the first brick building had been raised. The Roman Catholic Church was in charge of public education. The events that ruled everyday life were masses, bullfights, billiard games and cockfights.

By mid 17th century Buenos Aires had become one of the main business centers of South America thanks to smuggling. The Portuguese founded Colonia del Sacramento on the east bank of the River Plate thus opening a new illegal commerce route. The Buenos Aires inhabitants and the non Spanish ships performed various tricks to avoid the customs: numerous Dutch, French and English ships invented accidents caused by the turbulent waters of the River Plate in order to anchor near the harbor. Usually the customs officials, in accordance with the captains, confiscated part of the merchandise to resell it.

Buenos Aires also became an important center of slave traffic. The slaves were lodged at sheds at the present area of Retiro.

A local bourgeoisie emerged from the leather business. They had to provide leather to equip the soldiers that fought the never ending European wars. This bourgeoisie soon became eager to get rid of the dominion of the Spanish Crown.

 

From Viceroyalty to independence

 

Finally Spain had to accept the strategic and economic importance of the region. The 1^st of August of 1776 a Royal Letter determined that Buenos Aires would be the capital city of the new Virreinato del Rio de la Plata (Viceroyalty of the River Plate). Its territory comprised present Argentina, present Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, a part of Chile and Brazil. The first Viceroy was Pedro de Cevallos whose first mission was to seize the Portuguese Colonia del Sacramento, at that time a city of 20 thousand inhabitants.

Juan José Vértiz, the second Viceroy, whose government as Governor had been quite modernizing, accelerated the transformation of Buenos Aires. During his rule the first streets were paved and an orphanage, a hospital, and a few theatres were raised. In 1780 a system of public lighting with lamps fueled by oil was installed. Numerous Spanish professionals chose to live and make a fortune in a city that, at the end of the 18th century, counted with a cathedral and eight churches and an atmosphere of tolerance and modernism.

Free trade with Spanish ports and other ports of the Spanish Empire increased exports. Between 1790 and 1794 Buenos Aires shipped to Europe 3,5 millions of cattle leather skins. The viceroyal income was boosted thanks to local and foreign commerce thus covering the public expense and raising the public surplus. Nevertheless despite the concessions granted by the Crown it opposed the autonomy desired by the colonials.

On the other hand the absolute dominion of the seas by England, especially after Trafalgar victory over Napoleon, changed the scenario. The English Minister William Pitt decided to open up Latin American markets through military expeditions. So Buenos Aires was invaded by the English in 1806 and 1807. The brave resistance of the city proved that it was ready to have its own government independent from Spain. The people of Buenos Aires had defeated the invaders and removed the Viceroy Sobremonte from his charge. Instead they appointed Santiago de Liniers as Military Chief. It became clear that Buenos Aires would not accept going back to the old regime.

The road to independence was favored by the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The revolution of 1810 strengthened the position that proposed an independent country in the territories of the Viceroyalty. On May 25^th the people of Buenos Aires forged their destiny.

Juan Martín de Pueyrredón arrived in Buenos Aires the 19^th of July saying that ten days before the national independence had been declared at the city of San Miguel de Tucumán.

 

Agrarian exports model and national organization

 

Right after the declaration of independence the enormous Viceroyalty of the River Plate started to fall apart. Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay took their own roads and the provinces started to ask for their autonomy from Buenos Aires. The merchants in Buenos Aires thought it would be highly profitable to open up the country to free trade but forgot the damage that would cause to the regional economies. England knew how to take advantage of this situation. The textiles from Manchester were much cheaper than the woolen “ponchos” made in Tucumán and Catamarca and the knives from Sheffield were less expensive than the facones (gaucho knives) from Jujuy.

During the presidential period of Bernardino Rivadavia Buenos Aires was renovated, i.e. the influence of Neoclassical literature and the first public cemetery on the Recoleta grounds. Simultaneously the close relationship with the British Empire gave Buenos Aires a characteristic is still bears nowadays: it is a city that turns its back to the provinces and looks abroad. The porteños (people that live at the port of Buenos Aires) had the harbor, the master key to a country that would stick to the agrarian exports model based on the Pampa Húmeda (the fertile plains). The people of the provinces, who believed in federalismo (federal system), rose against Buenos Aires that believed in unitarismo (system based on one leader, Buenos Aires). Years of wars, alliances and betrayals followed until the arrival to power of Juan Manuel de Rosas, who became Governor of Buenos Aires in 1829. He was a very polemic leader, to unitarios he was the Caligula of the River Plate, to federales the “Restaurador de las Leyes” (Restorer of the Law).

Life in Buenos Aires did not change substantially during the years Rosas was in power despite the exile of young writers (Echeverría, Alberdi, Mármol, Sastre) in Montevideo and the excesses of the regime.

The national organization started consolidating by the period 1850-1880. The presidents during such period were: Urquiza, Derqui, Mitre, Sarmiento and Avellaneda. The development strategy was to insert Argentina in the world market as a rural producer. Buenos Aires slowly grew bigger because of the cold-storage plants, the railway lines, banks and insurance companies. The city expanded towards the quarter of Retiro at the north and Constitución at the south. Its population became eight times bigger between 1864 and 1914 due to the immigration policy. The Gran Aldea (Big Village) turned into a modern urban center. In 1880, during Julio A. Roca’s presidential period, Buenos Aires was declared Capital Federal of the Argentine Republic. A period of rebuilding the city started. Luxurious houses were built and the layout was improved. Avenida de Mayo (de Mayo Avenue) was constructed at the time. In 1876, while the hippodrome was opened up to the public and the first cold storage ship that transported frozen meat arrived in the harbor, a Native attack crossed the fortified defensive line and reached up to 250 km./ 155 miles from the port. General Roca decided to put an end to this situation with the Desert Campaign that kept the Natives away from the Buenos Aires harbor horizon and expanded the Pampa Húmeda. To achieve this goal thousands of Natives were killed by the army. But the city-port strengthened its position as economic, political and social center of Argentina. On the other hand the vast fertile land acquired demanded more labor force. So a new character became a permanent presence at the Buenos Aires streets: the immigrant. Immigrants, mainly from Italy and Spain, would change forever the city atmosphere, not only because of their languages and habits but for their ideologies, like anarchism and communism, that up to that moment were alien to the city.

 

Immigrants

 

Most part of the immigrants settled at the city. On the one hand they did not have money to buy land and on the other the rural exports model needed them to work at the railroad that brought products from the provinces to the ships, and crops and meat to the processing plants. An old stud was turned into Hotel de Inmigrantes (Immigrants Hotel) and there they could find a job as urban workers. As time went by they would also turn into little shop owners, retailers, teachers and bank employees forming the urban middle class. In 1910 the centennial of independence was celebrated and Buenos Aires had become the largest city in South America and the second in America, after New York. The historian Arturo Jauretche says that the families that profited from agrarian exports had “their pocket in London and their heart in Paris”. According to this the railway stations of Retiro and Constitución were built after the model of those in London and Liverpool and the Palermo Park remodeled after the Bois de Boulogne. While the local aristocracy, families called Ortíz Basualdo, Anchorena, Paz, raised their mansions facing San Martín square, horse drawn carriages were replaced by electric tramways. Buenos Aires had its first underground line only ten years after New York.

 

The roaring twenties

 

In 1916 the universal male suffrage was established in accordance to the Saenz Peña law promulgated in 1912 (women’s suffrage would have to wait until Eva Peron’s initiative in 1952). Thanks to this innovation the “Partido Radical” (a political party) started to take part in the government. Since 1890 this political party represented the new sectors born of the economic transformation. Hipólito Yrigoyen became the president that would carry to the Casa Rosada (literally Pink House, the house of government) the claims of the middle class. His government faced social transformations but also had its contradictions. In 1919 the strike in the Vasena workshops was severely repressed, this episode is known as the “Semana trágica” (Tragic week). Police and military forces hunted “Bolsheviks” in the poor quarters of the city.

Despite these incidents Buenos Aires, prosperous and vigorous, became the cultural capital of Latin America: the Colón opera house was the Mecca of world bel canto and ballet; the presence of Carlos Gardel made tango popular; literary magazines such as Martín Fierro spread the deeds of European avant-gardes; local and foreign thinkers, such as Ortega y Gasset, strolled along the city streets.

Two football stadiums were raised: River Plate at Alvear Avenue (present Del Libertador Avenue) and Tagle Street and Boca Juniors at Brandsen Street and Del Valle Iberlucea Street, the same spot where later on the “Bombonera” (“Sweet box”) stadium was constructed.

Florida Street became a shopping center; Corrientes, the street of cabarets, cafes and dances; the finances and banks quarter was north of Plaza de Mayo; the Bajo, near the harbor, the quarter of brothels or piringundines. The middle class and the working class lived in further away quarters.

 

Peronism

 

The 6^th of September of 1930, two years after Yrigoyen was reelected as president, the first cuop d’etat of Argentine history took place. General José Félix Uriburu and a group of military men put an end to the dream of indefinite progress. One year later the echoes of the crack of the New York stock market reached Buenos Aires. It had become an industrial city. The world crisis, i.e. World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945), encouraged the development of a national industry oriented towards the substitution of imports. The goods that stopped flowing from Europe and the USA started being manufactured in Argentina. After the fraudulent conservative governments that succeeded the military government of Uriburu, new social sectors emerged and wanted a political expression that represented them. This time the new faces did not arrive in Buenos Aires from overseas but from the provinces. More than half the population of the nation lived in the capital city and its suburbs full of chimneys and slums. The time had come for the emergence of General Juan Domingo Perón and the popular Eva Duarte de Perón.

 

Dictatorships and democracies

 

The second Peronist government was overthrown in 1955 by the so called “Revolución Libertadora” (“Freedom Revolution”). Generally speaking the following civil and military governments aggravated the economic and political situation. This caused the impoverishment of huge great part the population.

The military coup of March of 1976 was the last and most bloody, it started a period of state terrorism that resulted in 30.000 “missing” people throughout the national territory. Several associations gather the relatives of “missing” people, Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo), Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo) and Hijos (Sons). They still keep watch over the missing members of their families. The Grandmothers fight for the identification of their grandchildren that were illegally seized by military men and in most cases do not know their true identities. The final game of the Football World Cup, featuring Holland vs. Argentina, was held in 1978 at Buenos Aires amidst the horror of state terrorism. The local national team won. The Malvinas War, over islands sized by England in 1833, was fought in 1982. This war that General Leopoldo Galtieri declared to Margaret Thatcher was an absurd political maneuver that cost many young lives. In 1983 Argentina returned to democracy and elected the candidate from the Unión Cívica Radical as president. He abandoned his charge six months before due time because of the hyperinflation process.

Alfonsín was succeeded by Peronist Carlos Menem that governed during the ’90s decade. Among the dramatic changes he made were the privatization of all state owned companies and the opening of the economy to foreign investments. In 1991 the Minister of Economy, Domingo Cavallo, launched his “Conversion Plan” that tied up the peso to the American dollar at an exchange rate of one to one. Inflation went down from 5000% in 1989 to 1% in 1997. Even though these measures tamed hyperinflation, the neo-liberal turn led to the increase of unemployment and a long lasting recession. During that decade the city suffered two terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions: the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the mutual aid society AMIA in 1994. Both caused lots of fatal victims.

Since Buenos Aires was elected capital city its legal status prevented its citizens from exercising at full their political rights. The city was governed by the national President who appointed a City Major to take care of the city affairs in his name. The legislative power was exercised by the National Congress that in turn delegated it to the Concejo Deliberante (City Council). The constitutional amend of 1994 reverted this situation. In the article 129 it says: “the city of Buenos Aires will have an autonomous government, with legislative and jurisdictional attributions, and the Chief of Government will be chosen by the people of the city”. On June 30^th 1996 the porteños elected their first Chief of Government and on June the 1^st the city constitution was sanctioned.

In 1999 Fernando de la Rua, from the Unión Cívica Radical party and who had been Chief of Government of Buenos Aires city, was elected national president. He managed to defeat the Peronist party thanks to an alliance with a new party, the FrePaSo (Frente del País Solidario), led by Carlos “Chacho” Alvarez who assumed as vice-president. His austere image seemed to counterpoint the excesses of the Menem period. Nevertheless the adjustments of his government proved to be not enough to mitigate the critical social situation. This created a wave of popular discontent and he resigned from the government the 20^th of December of 2001 in the midst of tragic days of plunder and police repression.

The Peronist Eduardo Duhalde became the fourth Argentine president in two weeks. His provisional government was characterized by direct social help, the devaluation of the local currency and a protectionist foreign policy.

The 25^th of May of 2003 the Peronist Néstor Kirchner assumed as president. The challenges his government faces are the economic reactivation, the end of the social crisis and pending human rights issues from the last dictatorship.

Geography

 

Location

 

Buenos Aires is located in the southern hemisphere of South America, at 34° 36’ South Latitude and at 58° 26’ West Longitude. It is on the east coast of Argentina. Its surface is of 192 square km. / 47.500 acres. It is part of the great plain that ends in an abrupt gully when it reaches the waterfront of the River Plate. Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, is right across the river.

The River Plate and the Riachuelo River are the natural limits of the city in the east and south. The rest of its perimeter coincides with the General Paz Avenue, a highway 24 km. long that circumvallates the city from north to west and links it to Gran Buenos Aires. This area is densely populated and has an intense commercial and industrial activity.

It is very easy to move arond in Buenos Aires since it is divided in blocks of 100 square meters/ 328 square feet. It features 47 neighborhoods but only nine concentrate the main part of tourist attractions: La Boca, San Telmo, Montserrat, Puerto Madero, San Nicolás, Retiro, Recoleta, Palermo and Belgrano.

 

How to get there

 

Access roads: Avenida General Paz (Avenue), Ruta 9 (National Route), Autopista Buenos Aires-La Plata (highway), Acceso Sudeste, Acceso Norte, Acceso Oeste, Autopista Teniente General Ricchieri (highway).

 

By plane

 

Almost all the lines that fly to Argentina arrive in the Aeropuerto Internacional de Ezeiza Ministro Pistarini, 37 km./ 23 miles away from Buenos Aires (phone number: 0054-11-5480-2500). While leaving the country a boarding tax of U$S 18 should be paid.

The Ricchieri highway links the international airport to the capital city. Buses can be taken every half an hour between 5 AM and 8.30PM. The trip lasts 40 minutes. You can also take taxis or remises (rented cars with chauffeurs).

Local flights and flights to Uruguay depart from Jorge Newbery Airport. This airport is by the river, north of the city (phone: 0054-11-4771-0104). The airport tax is $7,05 for local flights and U$S 8 for flights to Uruguay.

 

Flight time from Buenos Aires to:

 

Puerto Iguazú: 1hour 45’

Posadas: 1 hour 30’

San Salvador de Jujuy: 2 hours 10’

San Miguel de Tucumán: 1 hour 50’

Salta: 2 hours

Córdoba: 1 hour 15’

Mendoza: 1 hour 50’

Mar del Plata: 45’

San Carlos de Bariloche: 2 hours 20’

Trelew: 2 hours

Río Gallegos: 2 hours 55’

Ushuaia: 3 hours 20’

El Calafate: 3 hours 15’

Montevideo: 45’

San Pablo: 3 hours

New York, Madrid, London, Paris and Rome: 10 hours approximately

 

By bus

 

The bus terminal is at Avenue Ramos Mejía 1680, Retiro neighborhood (phone: 0054-11-4310-0700). Long distance buses count with W.C., air conditioning and bar.

 

Economy

 

The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is the seat of the institutions of the national government and of the boards of the top companies.

The cultural industry (industrial design, fashion, theater, cinema, art galleries, publishing houses and recording companies) is an important development factor.

Recently Buenos Aires has redefined its profile as a city of congresses, conventions, fairs and festivals.

Since the devaluation of the Argentine peso in 2002 tourism has met a historic opportunity. The amount of tourists that start their tour of the country in Buenos Aires is now bigger. The city has changed from being one of the most expensive places in the world to be one of the cheapest.

Since the peso devaluation national design has been also recognized. The new local designers who produce clothes, furniture and decoration items of exportation quality are located at Palermo neighborhood.

 

Population: 2.965.403 inhabitants

 

Climate:Temperate. Between January and March the temperature reaches peaks of 40°C/ 110°F chill feel. The coldest months are June and July with temperatures down to 0°C/ 30°F.

 

Average temperature: 19,7°C/ 68°F.

 

Annual rainfall: 1200mm

 

Tourist Police Office

 

English, Italian, French, Portuguese and Ukrainian spoken.

Address: Corrientes 436

Phone: (0054) (11) 4346-5748 / 0800 999 5000

E-mail: turista@policiafederal.gov.ar

 

Defensoría del Turista (Tourist’s Rights Defense Office)

 

Address: Avenida Pedro de Mendoza 1835 (Museo de Bellas Artes “Benito Quinquela Martín”), La Boca.

Phone: (0054) (11) 4302-7816

Opening hours: every day from 10 AM to 6 PM.