Southern Cone Under the

British

Buenos Aires

Overview

Buenos Aires is the most prominent city in the Southern Cone of South America in Auchmuty-Whitelocke World, or AWW (and it is in our world too), having 8,250,000 people in its metropolitan area. Once known as the "Second City of the British Empire", it is also much more prominent of a world city than in our world. In fact, it ranks right up there with New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, and Tokyo. The skyscrapers are quite high, so that the tallest building is 87 stories high, and the second tallest is 75 stories high (the Bank of London and South America [BOLSA] Tower). The financial district and stock exchange are by far the most important anywhere in Latin America, and Buenos Aires is without parallel south of the Rio Grande in terms of classical music (numerous well-funded orchestras and ballet companies) and theatre. In fact, Buenos Aires is a rival of New York and London when it comes to the theatre scene. Buenos Aires is the fashion and artistic centre of the Southern Cone, and shares the honour of being the most important such centre in Latin America with Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Not to be overlooked, it is the capital of Plate Province, though not of Argentina. It also has the headquarters of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, a specialized agency of the United Nations (in our world, the UNHCR is headquartered in Geneva).

The city of Buenos Aires proper is divided into two broad areas – the Inner City and the Outer City. The Inner City (or our world’s City of Buenos Aires or even that of AWW until 1994) has an area of 78 square miles, or 203 square kilometres, and extends for about 5 miles from the city centre. The population of the Inner City in 2001 was 1,622,026 – giving the city a population density of 20,795.2 people per square mile. This is much less crowded than the City of Buenos Aires in our world, the latter being 35,591.5 people per square mile in 2001. The Outer City (which covers our world’s partidos of Vicente Lopez, San Isidro, General San Martin, Tres de Febrero, Hurlingham, Ituzaingó, Moron, the eastern half of La Matanza, Lomas de Zamora, Lanus, and Avellaneda) has an area of 251 square miles, or 650 square kilometres, and has a population of 2,521,699. Altogether, the City of Buenos Aires in AWW has 4,271,716 people, or slightly more than half of the metro area’s population; the City covers 329 square miles, or 853 square kilometres.

The metropolitan area’s size is quite immense, and it extends far out into the countryside, or “camp” as it is known in the Southern Cone in English. Some say that the metropolitan area extends as far as the administrative areas of Lobos, Navarro, Monte, Campana, and the like, all 60 miles (100 kilometres) from central Buenos Aires. Within a 100-mile radius of downtown Buenos Aires, there are over 9 million inhabitants, comprising some 25% of all Argentines.

The local area code for calling is 011 (formerly 01), within the +54 country code.

For a sense of where many of the above place names are located in the Buenos Aires area, see a map of the area from our world. (Note that our world’s partidos correspond to AWW’s administrative areas, and that our world’s Buenos Aires Province and the federal district combine in AWW to form Plate Province.)

To look at a map of the metropolitan area of AWW Buenos Aires, featuring the Inner and Outer Cities, along with suburban administrative areas and Plate City, click here.

History

This prominent city has a long and oftentimes rocky history. It was first founded in 1536 by a Spaniard named Pedro de Mendoza, but then succumbed to Indian attacks. Buenos Aires was founded for the second time in 1580 by Juan de Garay. For two centuries from then, Buenos Aires was essentially a backwater for the Viceroyalty of Peru, where present-day Argentina was located until 1776. Instead, first Tucuman and then Cordova were the leading cities in what is now Argentina; they were larger than Buenos Aires because they were closer to Peru, where the action was. Buenos Aires rose to prominence only after the creation of the Viceroyalty of La Plata in 1776, becoming its capital; from around then, it had attracted people from many lands, including pirates from England, France, and the Netherlands, as well as new settlers from Spain and from the La Plata hinterlands. Invaded by the British in 1806 and 1807, it fell to British control in 1807 (versus in our world, where the British surrendered). From around 1820, Buenos Aires (along with the rest of the River Plate basin) began to attract settlers from the British Isles; it obtained more immigrants from elsewhere also (including Spain) starting circa 1850.

Meanwhile, Buenos Aires remained the capital of the Plate Colony and then the Dominion of Argentina until 1882, when the capital was transferred to Wilsonton. However, Buenos Aires has remained the cultural and financial capital of Argentina to this day. Most immigrants to Argentina have made Buenos Aires their home. The city developed in a rapid fashion owing to that immigration and to people coming in from the Argentine countryside; it rose to become an equal to New York, Chicago, or London on the world stage, and became a very European city (Continental as well as British). Living off the surplus from the economic boom, such edifices as the Columbus Theatre were being built at that time, along with wide boulevards and the beginnings of the subway system. This was interrupted, though, by violent strikes in 1919 in what was known as the Tragic Week.

Buenos Aires held the South American Continental Exposition in 1882, and the International Centennial Exposition in 1907. It hosted the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, in which the main games were played in River Plate Stadium (in the borough of Noonan). The city was also the host of the 1934 Commonwealth Games and the 1951 Pan American Games, along with the 2006 South American Games. In the 1970s, it suffered from some terrorist attacks at the hand of radical Spanish-speaking groups like the Western Revolutionary Army and the Montoneros demanding independence of areas like the Argentine northwest from the rest of the country. The most notable incident was the Ezeiza airport massacre at the hands of the Montoneros in 1973. In 1992, the Israeli consulate was bombed, killing 32 and injuring more than 100, and two years later, one of the main Jewish community centres had a minor bombing (nowhere near as big as in our world). Also in 1994, the City of Buenos Aires merged with the administrative areas now forming the Outer City to make a new, merged City of Buenos Aires.

People

Being the biggest city in the River Plate Basin, it is home to a striking ethnic diversity not found elsewhere in the Cone. First of all, English speakers make up 43% of the population of Greater Buenos Aires, while Spanish speakers and alloparlants make up the rest, respectively at 26% and 31% – though many are fluently bilingual in English and Spanish nowadays. In fact, Buenos Aires can claim to be one of the world’s biggest bilingual cities, ahead of such cities as Montreal, Johannesburg, or Brussels. Many Spanish speakers are concentrated in parts of the south and west sides of the city. The people in the city are known as Buenos Aireans in English, and as bonaerenses in Spanish.

Among virtually every single ethnic group that is not American Indian, British, or Spanish, the majority of its Argentine inhabitants live in Buenos Aires. The huge Chinese community can be found throughout the city, with high concentrations in two Chinatowns (one in Bellaire and Noonan, the other next to Onsett). Japanese porteños (informal Spanish term for Buenos Aires inhabitants) can be found in the northern suburbs (particularly Bethlehem), while the Koreans live largely in Onsett and Flores. There are also large Arab, Jewish, Armenian, and Greek communities, along with a 1.5-million-strong Italian community whose historical centre has been La Boca, just south of downtown.

Buenos Aires is also the preferred destination of numerous, more recent immigrant groups. For instance, of the 350,000-or-so South Asian community in the country, some of which is composed of immigrants from Guyana, Trinidad, Surinam, and South Africa (among other countries) but others are from the Indian Subcontinent, Buenos Aires is the centre of its activities (and for Latin America in general). The city is also a favourite destination of the many immigrants who have come to Argentina from Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru (and have regarded it as their version of Miami, which many from northern Latin America have migrated to), and the many black immigrants from Africa and the West Indies. Uruguayans, seduced by the big city nearby, have also come to Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is represented by so many religious groups, including Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, and Sikhs as well as Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

Transportation and Tourist Attractions

The city has an outstanding transportation system. It is served by two airports: The one in Ezeiza, just outside the city, is the international airport, while George Newbery Airpark, near downtown, serves flights for Argentina, Uruguay, and some neighbouring areas. The port near downtown, one of the biggest in South America, is a major terminal for freight to be exported or imported, as well as for ship passengers and the ferries to Uruguay (including Shipbus). There are also major bus and train stations (the latter including Retiro, Farrell [formerly Dominion], Onsett, and Lacrosse stations) that give easy access to the rest of the country.

Buenos Aires boasts a comprehensive transit system, complete with ten subway (Subte – in English, pronounced “sub-tee”) lines extending into the Outer City, suburban commuter rail lines, and bus routes that serve virtually every neighbourhood of Greater Buenos Aires. Public transit in Buenos Aires also includes light rail and tramway lines, along with a bus rapid transit line that opened in 2003. The Buenos Aires metropolitan area has an extensive system of expressways. Among these are two beltways - an inner one on the fringes of the Outer City, and an outer one on the outer limits of the metropolitan area. The fringes of the Inner City are not defined by an expressway, or even streets in some cases, like in our world.

Being one of the largest cities in South America, Buenos Aires has so much to see and do. A good start is the Broad Way – built in 1936, it is said to be the widest street in the Western Hemisphere, at about 100 metres wide. It is not far from the Old Pink House, which used to serve as the residence of the governor of the Plate Colony, for a few years that of the Dominion of Argentina until Wilsonton was completed, and then that of Plate Province until Argentina became a republic in 1956.

The Broad Way is linked to various other sites. These include the nearby Columbus Theatre, one of the world’s great opera houses, with a capacity of 3500 people. The most prominent cathedrals in the city are the Metropolitan Cathedral (Catholic), Saint John’s (Anglican), and Saint Andrews (Presbyterian). Sayres Square is next to the Old Pink House, the cathedrals, the obelisk, and also The City (the main financial district, where the tallest buildings and the stock exchange are located). At the other end of the celebrated Sayres Avenue from the Old Pink House is the Parliament Building, used for the Plate Province legislature, except briefly in the 1880s for the Argentine Parliament awaiting completion of Wilsonton, the new capital.

The leading museums in Buenos Aires are the Buenos Aires Museum of Fine Art, the Modern Art Museum, the Buenos Aires Historical Museum, the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art, the Natural Science Museum, and the Jose Hernandez Museum of Argentine Motifs. Within the most famous park, Palermo Park, one can find the Japanese Garden (a gift from the Japanese community), the Galileo Galilei Planetarium, the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, and the Buenos Aires Zoo. Cemeteries where famous Argentines are buried include Recoleta and Chacarita Cemeteries. The Southern Waterfront Ecological Reserve, a jewel of nature in the heart of the metropolis, is found south of downtown. A park that can be found in the Severn neighbourhood in the northern part of the city is Victoria Park, along with Severn Park. There is also an amusement park, City Park, that includes the Space Tower, where one can observe the Uruguayan coast on a clear day.

Among the more outlying neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires, the most interesting are those along the shore of the River Plate north of the city, in an area known as the North Shore (or Costa Norte in Spanish). These include Dunlop, Marlborough, Olivos, and San Isidro, and are some of the wealthiest in the entire metropolitan area. They stretch along the continuation of Lumley Avenue. That area has traditionally been mostly angloparlant, and houses a significant percentage of Buenos Aires’ Jewish community. Olivos contains many yacht clubs and fancy European-style residences (both British and Continental), along with fishing, outdoor tea rooms, and the President's Buenos Aires residence. San Isidro is even richer, and contains the San Isidro Racetrack, which belongs to the Jockey Club.

Leisure and Finance

The numerous festivals include Carnaval (near May Square in February), the Criollos Horse Exposition (in Palermo in early March), and the Tango Festival (in March) during the summer. Fall brings about the International Independent Film Festival (in April), the Book Fair (first three weeks in April), the Argentine Grand Prix (early- to mid-April), and the Art Galleries Fair (mid-May). Later in the year, Tango Days are on June 24 and December 11, the International Ranching, Agricultural, and Industrial Exposition, usually known as the Rurals, takes place in July, and the Buenos Aires Marathon is usually in September, October, or November. Other festivals take place also, such as the Jazz Festival, the German Film Festival, the Buenos Aires International Fringe Festival, the International Humour Festival (aka the Laughter Festival), and the Shakespeare Festival.

Buenos Aires has no shortage of sports also. First of all, there are so many rugby, cricket, polo, and pato (a local sport) teams in the area, as well as elsewhere in Argentina. There are many rugby teams, including the national Pumas (which play at Velez Sarsfield stadium in Pophamville), as well as the Hindu Club, the Bullfighters, the San Isidro Club, the San Isidro Rugby Athletic Club, the Red Devils, and the Olivos Rugby Club. The two professional cricket teams are the Squids and the Hurricanes. This is not to leave out soccer, represented on top by the River Plate Football Club (traditionally angloparlant), Asociacion Atletica Argentinos Juniors, and Club de Futbol Boca Juniors (both hispanoparlant) teams.

Horse racing is also hugely popular in the city, like throughout the Argentine. The foremost racing tracks in the entire country are the Palermo Racetrack in Palermo and the San Isidro Racetrack in suburban San Isidro. Basketball is another popular sport, represented by the Genovians, and by the Garnets in suburban Lanusse. Golf enjoys a big following too; the most prestigious golf courses in Greater Buenos Aires are the Jockey Club Golf Course in San Isidro (host of the 2003 Presidents Cup), the Olivos Golf Club, the Buenos Aires Golf Club (in San Miguel Admin. Area), the Pilar Golf Club, and the Martindale and Highland Park Country Clubs (the last three in Pilar Admin. Area).

The theatre scene is captivating, and there is nothing like it in the Southern Hemisphere (only New York and London compete). For musicals and the like, there is Curzon Street, the equivalent of Broadway in New York and the West End in London. For more high-brow offerings, besides the Columbus Theatre, you have the Avenue Theatre, El Vitral, the Marriner Theatre (the largest venue for plays), La Plaza, Ópera, the Coliseum Theatre, and La Scala de San Telmo. The national theatre for the country is the National Theatre of Argentina.

Classical music and ballet are world-class in Buenos Aires; the best classical music orchestras are the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra, the Columbus Theatre Orchestra, and the Columbus Theatre Chamber Opera, with the best ballet company being the Columbus Theatre Ballet – all of which are based in the Columbus Theatre. They are among the most prestigious such ensembles in Argentina and in Latin America; in fact, they compete with such greats as the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the like. There is a whole assortment of other orchestras and ballet companies in the city. Also, the city hosts a number of fine international competitions in classical music and ballet.

Shopping also abounds in Buenos Aires. Gower and Leeson Streets are a shopper’s paradise; other shopping areas include the arcaded Pacific Galleria in downtown, Bullrich Plaza, and the Upper Palermo Mall. Antiques can be bought in abundance in San Telmo at Parish Robertson Square, which also has lots of historic buildings. In the North Shore suburb of Marlborough, there is also the Unicentre, claimed to be South America's biggest mall, and complete with a bowling alley and an indoor amusement park.

Not surprisingly, Buenos Aires has the most elegant hotels in the country. The most luxurious of all is the Alton Palace Hotel, in exclusive Recoleta. Other deluxe hotels there or in Retiro include the Caesar Park Hotel, Park Hyatt, Domus Recoleta Hotel, Courtyard by Mariott, Conquistador Hotel, and Comfort Aspen Suites. In downtown, one can find the Claridge Hotel, Crown Plaza Panamerican, Savoy Hotel, Hotel Inter-Continental, and the Sheraton Buenos Aires.

As mentioned before, Buenos Aires is the top financial centre anywhere in Latin America, surpassing places like Sao Paulo or Mexico City. It is headquarters to many of the banks in Argentina, as well as tons of insurance companies, investment firms, and brokerage houses. Just as important, Buenos Aires is also home to the mighty Buenos Aires Stock Exchange (whose index is the BASM Index), the largest in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere as well as the Southern Cone. It is located on May Street – hence, “May Street”, along with “The City”, is often used as a byword for the stock market in the Southern Cone the way “Wall Street” is in the United States. The Buenos Aires area has the Latin American regional headquarters for many multi-national corporations. As well, the city and its region has many of the industries in Argentina, including heavy manufacturing as well as high-tech.

All of this economic base attracts workers from elsewhere in Argentina, Uruguay, and the rest of South America and the world. Moreover, Buenos Aires is where many people from throughout much of South America invest their money, much like people in Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, and the Caribbean invest their money in Miami – in order to shield their own currencies from hyperinflation or devaluation which the Argentine peso (as well as the American dollar) is spared from. For offshore finance, Uruguay is more popular.

Miscellaneous Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires also has no shortage of hospitals, many of them nationally or internationally renowned. English-speaking hospitals include the Queen Victoria Hospital for Children, the Buenos Aires General Hospital, the Royal Women’s Hospital of Buenos Aires, the University Medical Centre, Argerich Hospital, the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery (part of the Favaloro Foundation), the German Hospital, and the Mount Sinai Clinic (formerly the Jewish Hospital). Their Spanish-speaking counterparts include the Hospital Municipal Juan Fernandez, Centro Medical de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, and Hospital de Nueva Señora.

Buenos Aires is a major publishing centre, with presses in both English and Spanish. Among other things, it has major branches of English-language publishing giants like Penguin Books, Bantam Books, and Doubleday. It also has a lot of newspapers in both languages. Among the better known newspapers, the Buenos Aires Herald publishes in English, as do the Press, the Clarion, the Journal-Republic, Page 12 (leftist), the Southern Cross (originally founded as an Irish community newspaper), and the Chronicle (sensationalistic). Many of those are national papers. Of all of these, the Herald is the most prestigious, followed by the Press and the Clarion (tied). There was another English newspaper, the Standard, that folded in 1959. In Spanish, you have La Nación and La Razón, with the first one being the best-regarded. As well, there are two financial newspapers, available in English and Spanish, respectively: The Financial Review (founded in 1891), and Ambito Financiero (founded in 1976).

Education is divided mainly between English and Spanish schools, with some parochial/ethnic schools. There are over 40 English-language private schools in Buenos Aires; the best include Saint Andrew’s College, Saint George’s School for Boys, Watson Hutton Academy, Bellaire Day School, Bayard College, Northlands, Saint Charles College, Saint Mary of the Hills, Saint Catharine’s-Moorlands, and Saint Hilda’s College. There are many universities in the area, both English and Spanish. To name but a few of them, the most prestigious English-speaking university (in all of Argentina, not just the city) is Gibson University, along the Recoleta/Balvanera border, founded in 1837 as Gibson Preparatory College of Buenos Ayres. The most prestigious Spanish-speaking university in the city is Universidad de Buenos Aires, in the heart of Recoleta, founded in 1821. Other English universities in Buenos Aires include Fair University (1901), located in Noonan, and more specialized places. The Spanish side, for its part, has plenty of tertiary institutions. Angloparlant liberal-arts colleges in Buenos Aires are Saint Columba, Thatcher, Crestwood, Palermo, Dodge, Hinwood, and Schrock Colleges. Buenos Aires also has quite a few music conservatories, the leading one of which is the Buenos Aires Conservatorium of Music; it has some art schools, too - the leading one being the Buenos Aires Academy of Fine Arts.

Perhaps the largest and most active gay community in Latin America is in Buenos Aires; it can count itself as a rival to New York, San Francisco, and Sydney. In Latin America, only Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and a handful of other cities can hope to even approach Buenos Aires when it comes to gay life. There is a huge and fantastic gay pride parade happening every November, and there are so many gay bars and other nightlife. The gay community centre is very big and vibrant. Buenos Aires’ queer community is primarily concentrated in the North Quarter, just south of Recoleta; some others live in places such as bohemian San Telmo (in the southern end of downtown). The atmosphere is more liberal there than in many other parts of Argentina. Buenos Aires hosted the 1990 Gay Games.

Nearby

About 60 kilometres from Buenos Aires lies the pleasant city of Plate City (in Spanish: La Plata), whose metropolitan population is 328,000; it is also known as “the Linden City”. In English, it inhabitants are known as Plateans; in Spanish, platenses. One of the first towns in Argentina founded by the British, in 1821, it has Forest Row, a series of parks in the city centre which is home to a number of museums (e.g. the Natural Science Museum and the Plate Museum of Fine Arts) and the Plate City Zoo, supposedly having a better reputation than the Buenos Aires Zoo. Forest Row also hosts the Ferris Ampitheatre.

As well, around Rawlins Square is the cultural centre; just off Rawlins Square are Saint Robert’s Anglican Cathedral and the city hall. The angloparlant newspaper there is the Plate City Daily; universities include the angloparlant University of Plate City and the smaller and more hispanoparlant Universidad Católica de La Plata. Plate City also has its own Jazz, Shakespeare, and Tango Festivals, as well as the Gaylord Gilchrist Conservatorium of Music. The local area code for calling is 0223 (formerly 023), within the +54 country code.

On the way to Platesea, about 120 kilometres south of Buenos Aires, is the pretty colonial town of Chascomús. At the centre of a productive agricultural region, it is located at the northern end of a chain of lakes, and it attracted some of the first Scottish settlement in the country around 1825. There is plenty of fishing, horse-riding, and other outdoor activities to be had, along with Fort Chascomús, the scene of matches against the Indians in 1780.

Of particular religious importance is the town of Luján, 63 kilometres west of Buenos Aires. The number one attraction is the Nuestra Señora de Luján basilica, attracting Catholic pilgrims from all over Argentina (and beyond); within it, the statue of the Virgin of Luján is the most popular. Also in Luján, the Udaondo Museum Complex displays some Argentine customs and history, especially on the Spanish side; within it is the Transport Museum (featuring the first plane to fly over the South Atlantic plus horse-drawn carriages).

     Last but not least is the Parana Delta with the splendid town of Tigre, on the edge of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area only 28 kilometres from central Buenos Aires. It is accessible from the heart of Buenos Aires by the Coast Train, which ends at the new, enormous Coast Park amusement park in Tigre. The air is cleaner and the pace of life is much less frenetic than in the big city, and these days, it is economically dependent on summer and weekend visitors. The main street, Victoria Row, is lined with old British-style rowing clubs and meat restaurants, and is next to the river. The town is filled with gorgeous plant-filled residential neighbourhoods.

     Outside the town, in the delta, there is lush subtropical vegetation with many species of animals, including waterbirds and deer; the largest of the delta islands, García Island, is now a nature reserve. García Island became this way because that was part of a 1973 agreement between Argentina and Uruguay in ending a dispute over control of that island (it had actually been Uruguayan but Argentina effectively owned it).

     Much of the information on this page, especially about the tourist attractions, shopping, hospitals, theatres, and hotels, is derived from the Lonely Planet Guide - Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, Lonely Planet Publications, 4^th edition, 2002, and other sources, and is altered for AWW conditions. Calculations for the population of the Inner City were based, in part, on http://www.barriada.com.ar.


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