Buenos Aires (city)

I

Introduction

Buenos Aires (city), capital and largest city of Argentina, located on the western bank of the Río de la Plata, inland from the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the political, economic, social, and cultural center of Argentina, and its influence extends well beyond the nation’s borders. The original settlement’s name, Puerto Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire (Port of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Good Air), survived in abbreviated form as simply Buenos Aires (Good Airs).

Buenos Aires consists of the City of Buenos Aires and Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires. The City of Buenos Aires is a federal district, established in 1880, made up of the Buenos Aires city proper. It has 48 barrios (neighborhoods). Gran Buenos Aires includes both the City of Buenos Aires and its 19 suburbs, known as partidos (municipalities). In 2005, 3 million people lived in the City of Buenos Aires. In 2007, 12.8 million people—about one-third of Argentina's population—lived within Gran Buenos Aires. The residents of Buenos Aires are known as Porteños (people of the port).

Buenos Aires is situated on the Río de la Plata, which is an immense estuary formed by the confluence of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers. The Río de la Plata keeps Buenos Aires temperate: The city is cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than inland locations at the same latitude. Winter temperatures rarely fall below freezing, and snow fell only once in the 20th century.

In July, the coolest month, average daily highs reach 15°C (60°F), while lows drop to about 8°C (46°F). In January, the height of summer, average daily highs reach nearly 30°C (86°F), while lows average about 20°C (67°F). Rainfall is moderate with the annual total averaging 1,147 mm (45.2 in). Precipitation is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year. The humidity in Buenos Aires can be high, and in the summer months the combination of heat and humidity can make moderate temperatures feel oppressive.

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II

Buenos Aires and Its Metropolitan Area

The core of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area is the City of Buenos Aires, a federal district and the nation’s capital. It consists of 48 barrios, or neighborhoods. People in Buenos Aires often spend much of their lives in the same barrio. The City of Buenos Aires has an area of 200 sq km (77 sq mi) and is densely populated, with 3 million people residing within its boundaries. The nation’s principal government buildings, cultural institutions, parks, and businesses are found in the City of Buenos Aires.

The Plaza de Mayo, situated close to the waterfront at the eastern edge of Buenos Aires, was the starting point for the original settlement. As the city expanded outward in a semicircle, the plaza continued to serve as the principal urban focus. Facing the Plaza de Mayo are the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace that contains the offices of the president of Argentina; the metropolitan cathedral; and the Cabildo, the colonial town council, now a museum. Nearby is the Colón Theater, one of the finest opera houses in the world, and also the Obelisco, a monument strikingly similar to the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. Buenos Aires is also known for its magnificent boulevards such as Avenida 9 de Julio and Avenida de Mayo, which runs from the Plaza de Mayo to the Plaza de Congreso, home to the national congress building, the Palacio del Congreso.

The city’s most famous residential and commercial neighborhoods lie no more than 2 to 3 km (1 to 2 mi) from the Plaza de Mayo. To the south of the Plaza de Mayo and Avenida de Mayo is the colorful neighborhood of La Boca. Many people who live in this neighborhood are descended from emigrants from Genoa, Italy. This neighborhood also has industrial zones and working-class areas and is known for its brightly painted buildings. To the north are the majority of the city’s parks, its two racetracks, and many of the middle- and upper-class neighborhoods, such as Recoleta and Retiro.

Gran Buenos Aires has an area of 3,885 sq km (1,500 sq mi) and is made up of 19 partidos as well as the City of Buenos Aires. The region contains residential, commercial, and industrial districts, as well as many areas of open space. The residential areas range from wealthy upscale suburban areas to working-class barrios and government-subsidized high-rise apartments. Considerable industrialization has occurred along the principal transportation routes that radiate out from the city. As the Buenos Aires metropolitan region continues to grow, the open areas between these transportation axes will become increasingly urbanized.

III

People

Despite its immense population, Buenos Aires is surprisingly homogenous in its ethnic and racial composition. People of European origin dominate the city’s population. Most of these, perhaps three-fourths of the total population, are descendants of Italian and Spanish immigrants, millions of whom came to Argentina between the 1880s and 1930s and settled in Buenos Aires. These Italian and Spanish immigrants strongly influenced the culture of the city.

A smaller part of the population, perhaps 5 percent, is also of European ancestry, including Irish, British, Swiss, French, and Russian. Although most of these groups have assimilated into the city’s culture, Anglo-Argentines remain a distinct ethnic group and are an important economic force in the city. Many in the Anglo-Argentine community descend from wealthy immigrant entrepreneurs who arrived from Britain about 100 years ago. The city also is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community as well as to a diverse Arab community of both Christians and Muslims, many of them emigrants from Syria and Lebanon.

During the last 20 years the city’s racial mix has become more diverse as mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous ancestry) from provincial towns and rural areas have immigrated to the city. Perhaps up to 15 percent of the metropolitan population is mestizo, primarily from Argentina’s northwestern provinces as well as Bolivia and Paraguay.

The remainder of the metropolitan area’s population includes a diverse mix of ethnic and racial groups and people from other countries. Especially notable in the 1990s was the arrival of Asian entrepreneurs, particularly Korean and Chinese, who have specialized in retailing and the small-scale manufacture of consumer goods.

Spanish is the overwhelmingly dominant language in Buenos Aires, and the city has little linguistic diversity. The prevalence of Italian immigrants during the first decades of the 20th century contributed to the development of a local vernacular Spanish, known as lunfardo. Apart from the languages of recently arrived Asian immigrants, few foreign languages are spoken regularly. Historically, the elite and educated classes learned French as a second language, but English is now largely the second language of choice.

Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion in Buenos Aires, as it is in the rest of Argentina. As much as 85 percent of the city’s population is Catholic. Protestant religious denominations have increased in the city in the last 50 years, and many synagogues serve the city’s Jewish community.

IV

Culture and Education

Buenos Aires is the undisputed focus of Argentina’s cultural life, but its influence extends far beyond the nation’s borders. It is one of just a handful of cities, including Madrid and Mexico City, that dominate intellectual and artistic life in the Spanish-speaking world.

The city has produced or nurtured many of the most prominent Spanish-language writers of the 20th century, including Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Manuel Puig. Buenos Aires has long been one of the primary centers of Spanish-language publishing and printing, and it is home to major publishing companies. It supports the oldest English-language daily newspaper in Latin America, the Buenos Aires Herald, published since 1876.

The arts have a long, rich history in Buenos Aires. This is manifested in part by the ornate, yet stunningly beautiful and well-designed, Colón Theater on Avenida 9 de Julio. The Colón opened in 1908 and is renowned for its ballet, opera, and classical music. The city also has a well-developed theater district, somewhat similar to Broadway in New York, which runs along Avenida Corrientes in the downtown core. During the 20th century the city also nurtured a vibrant and respectable film industry.

Buenos Aires is the intellectual capital of Argentina and home to the nation’s largest and oldest public university. The University of Buenos Aires, founded in 1821, has a student body of more than 200,000 and provides a comprehensive university education. Since the 1960s a range of privately supported universities has been established in the city. The city is also home to the National Library, which has more than 2 million books and manuscripts.

Several annual cultural events in Buenos Aires are worth noting. The city’s book fair occurs during April each year and draws exhibitors from throughout Latin America and other parts of the world. This three-week event draws more than 1 million visitors each year. The International Livestock and Agricultural Exhibition, held each July, reflects Argentina’s traditional dependence upon agriculture. The tango and its glorification are the focus of celebrations on December 11, the Day of the Tango, and during the last week in June, which coincides with the anniversary of the death of the city’s most famous tango singer, Carlos Gardel.

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