Rosario
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Rosario is the largest city of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located 300 km (187 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River. It has 909,397 residents as of the 2001 census [INDEC].
Rosario is the head town of the Rosario Department and is located at the core of the most important industrial corridor in Argentina. Its suburbia and several neighboring towns form a metropolitan area, Greater Rosario, with 1,121,441 inhabitants.
The city is a major railroad terminal and the shipping center for northeastern Argentina. Ocean steamers reach the city via the Paraná River, which allows the existence of a 34-feet deep port. The Port of Rosario is subject to silting and must be dredged periodically. [1] Exports include wheat, flour, hay, linseed and other vegetable oils, corn, sugar, lumber, meats, hides, and wool. Manufactures include flour, sugar, meat products, and other foodstuffs. A bridge running over the Paraná River to connect Rosario with the city of Victoria across the Paraná Delta was opened in 2003.
Along with Paraná, Rosario is one of the few Argentine cities that cannot point to a particular individual as its founder. The city's patron is the Virgin of the Rosary (feast day October 7).
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[edit] History
The permanent settlement of today's Rosario area began of the 17th century. There was no clear foundation date. The first landowner was Captain Luis Romero de Pineda, and the first formal colonial settlement was initiated by Santiago de Montenegro, who was appointed Mayor in 1751.
On 27 February 1812, General Manuel Belgrano raised the newly created Argentine flag on the shores of the Paraná, for the first time.
Until the 1850s Rosario was a small village of 3,000 inhabitants, with its port banned from foreign trade by an 1841 decree of Juan Manuel de Rosas. On 5 August 1852 Rosario was declared a city after a request by Justo José de Urquiza, who also opened up international trade. By 1880, Rosario had become the first export outlet of Argentina; in 1887 it had about 50,000 inhabitants. It was even declared the federal capital in three occasions, but each time it was vetoed by the Executive Branch.
In the last 15 years of the century, the city more than doubled in population, in part owing to immigration. Demographic growth took its toll of bad living conditions, epidemics and labour exploitation.
In 1911 the French-owned railway company Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano opened a line between Rosario and Argentina's main naval base in Puerto Belgrano.
By 1926 Rosario had 407,000 inhabitants, 47% of them foreign, many brought from Europe in the wake of World War I.
In 1946 Rosario massively supported Juan Perón's rise to power. The city received the benefits of the nationalization and subsidizing of many industries. Perón was deposed in 1955. In 1969 workers and students took the streets to protest against the dictatorship (Rosariazo). During the dictatorship started in 1976, hundreds of citizens were "disappeared" by the government. The city hosted some matches of the Football World Cup 1978.
In 1983 Argentina returned to democratic rule. Hyperinflation caused an economic collapse of the country in 1989. In Rosario there were riots with episodes of looting. Under the Menem administration the situation became worse as the industrial sector of the city was dismantled by foreign competition and the agricultural exports stagnated. In 1995 unemployment in the area reached 21.1%, and a large part of Rosario's population fell under the poverty line. Since then, villas miseria (shantytowns) have grown, usually augmented by internal migration from poorer areas of the country (particularly Chaco); the last survey (1996) indicated the presence of 91 "precarious urban settlements", with 115,000 inhabitants. [2]
Since the recovery of the national economy that followed the 2001 collapse, Rosario's economic situation has improved. The boom in agricultural exports has caused a large amount of consumer spending and investment. Mayor Miguel Lifschitz's administration is taking advantage of the economic boom to invest heavily in public works, as well as public health (which takes up about a quarter of the whole budget).
[edit] Institutions
Rosario is an important educational center on the national and international level. It is the home of the National University of Rosario (UNR) since 1968, and of a regional faculty of the National Technological University (UTN), which are both public and free; also the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), the Austral University, the University of the Latin American Educational Center (UCEL) and the Interamerican Open University (UAI), which are private institutions.
Rosario is also seat of the soccer teams Rosario Central (founded 1889) and Newell's Old Boys (founded 1903).
The city has three notable newspapers: La Capital (Argentina's oldest still-published newspaper, founded 1867), Rosario/12 (founded 1991), and El Ciudadano & la Región (founded 1999).
The city has several museums, among which are to be noted: the Juan B. Castagnino Fine Arts Museum, the Firma y Odilo Estévez Municipal Decorative Art Museum, the Dr. Julio Marc Provincial Historical Museum, the Museum of the City, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rosario (MACRo). The Dr. Ángel Gallardo Provincial Natural Sciences Museum was reconstructed after a fire in 2003 and re-opened in a new location in 2006, and there are projects to move the National Oriental Art Museum, which currently shares a building with the National Decorative Art Museum in Buenos Aires, to Rosario.
There are many theaters of varying size and importance, such as El Círculo, the Sala Lavardén and the Broadway.
Rosario has a public astronomical complex consisting on an observatory (inaugurated in 1970) and a planetarium (1984). It is located within Urquiza Park.
There are four AM radio stations: three private ones, Radio 2 (LT2), LT3 and LT8, and one public, Radio Nacional Rosario, property of the national state. Among the multitude of FM stations some notable ones are FM Vida, Estación del Siglo, Radiofónica, Clásica Rosario, etc.
As for television, Rosario has two private local channels, Canal 3 and Canal 5 (the latter is part of the national network Telefé), and a relay station for the public national station, Canal 7 Argentina. Besides, there are three cable TV networks (the national ones Cablevisión and Multicanal, and a local net, Cablehogar), which support two local channels, Canal 4 Noticias and Canal 6.
Rosario is serviced by a number of public health centers: 5 municipal hospitals (including a children's hospital and an emergency hospital/trauma center) and a municipal outpatient-only center, plus 2 large provincial hospitals (Hospital Provincial and Hospital Centenario), and their associated primary care centers in the city proper and its metropolitan area.
The Rosario Board of Trade hosts the country's largest commodity market, dealing in cereals and oilseeds, and also the largest futures exchange (ROFEX). The banking sector includes the state-owned Municipal Bank of Rosario, with branches and offices throughout the city, and the central branch of the New Bank of Santa Fe.
[edit] Government
Rosario is ruled by an Executive Branch represented by a Mayor (seat: Palacio de los Leones), and a Legislative Branch, consisting of a Deliberative Council (seat: Palacio Vassallo). The Mayor is elected for a four-year term. The Council renews half of its 21 members every two years.
The city is divided into six large administrative districts (Center, North, Northwest, West, Southwest, and South), with Municipal District Centers that provide services to the citizens.
Local people and institutions are pushing the provincial government to grant Rosario the status of Autonomous City. Some, with the sponsorship of the governors of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Córdoba as well as other important politicians, have put forward a legislative project to move the National Congress to Rosario, to decentralise the national government.
Since the return to democracy in 1983, the Mayors of Rosario were Horacio Usandizaga, Héctor Cavallero, Hermes Binner, and the current one, Miguel Lifschitz (of the Socialist Party, elected in 2003, until 2007).
The city does not have a police force of its own (it is served by the provincial police), but in 2004 it pioneered the creation of a special patrol force of unarmed officers called Guardia Urbana Municipal ("Municipal Urban Guard").
[edit] Geography and urban structure
Rosario lies on the ravine of the right-hand shore of the Paraná, about 24 m above mean sea level, in a place with a natural slope to the low shore. The point of origin of the city is Plaza 25 de Mayo ("May 25 Square"), now surrounded by the Municipality (Palacio de los Leones), the Basilica Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Central Post Office, the Decorative Art Museum and a building called La Bola de Nieve ("The Snowball"). Between the Cathedral and the municipal building is Pasaje Juramento ("Oath Passage"), leading to the Flag Memorial. The streets mostly follow a regular checkerboard pattern.
Córdoba Street begins in the Flag Memorial Park, climbs toward the center, and becomes a pedestrian walk for seven blocks, between Plaza 25 de Mayo and Plaza Pringles. Along Córdoba to the west there is the Paseo del Siglo ("Walk of the Century"), with former houses of wealthy families. There is also Plaza San Martín, and elsewhere, Plaza Montenegro (on Peatonal San Martín, the pedestrian-only four blocks of San Martín Street) and Plaza Sarmiento.
Oroño Boulevard (going north–south) and Pellegrini Avenue (east–west) mark the boundaries of the town center together with the river. At their confluence starts the Parque de la Independencia, that houses the Juan B. Castagnino Fine Arts Museum, the Newell's Old Boys football club, and the sports clubs Provincial and Gimnasia y Esgrima, as well as the horse racetrack and the former Sociedad Rural (Rural Society).
Towards the south, beyond Pellegrini Avenue, there are two more boulevards, 27 de Febrero and Seguí, and avenues Uriburu, Arijón and Battle y Ordóñez.
To the west, after Oroño, there are the avenues Ovidio Lagos and Francia, Avellaneda Boulevard and Provincias Unidas Avenue. The main barrios in the south are La Tablada, Parque Casado, Las Heras, Las Delicias and Las Flores. The city ends in the Saladillo Stream.
Among the barrios in the west are Echesortu, Belgrano, Triángulo, Moderno, Godoy and Fisherton. To the north-east there lie Pichincha, Ludueña, Lisandro de la Torre (home of Rosario Central's stadium) and Empalme Graneros.
Next to the stadium there is the Parque Alem, and nearby the Sorrento thermal power plant. To the north lie the barrios of Alberdi, La Florida (with a popular beach resort of the same name) and Rucci. The main streets are Alberdi Avenue and its continuation, Rondeau Boulevard (which leads to the Rosario-Victoria Bridge and the city of Granadero Baigorria). These are crossed by several avenues: Las Tres Vías, Génova, Sorrento and Puccio.
An important part of Rosario's urban character is its coastline. The city recovered the shore of the Paraná not long ago, thanks to a reorganization of terrains formerly owned by the port and the national railroad system. Going from the center immediately north of the port, the coastline is occupied by parks: Parque Nacional a la Bandera, Parque de España, Parque de las Colectividades and Parque Sunchales.
[edit] Municipal statistics
The municipality of Rosario comprises 178.69 km², of which 117 km² are urbanized, in 6,306 housing blocks. Of this area, 9.37 km² (5.3%) is devoted to green spaces (parks, boulevards, plazas), which gives over 10 m² of green space per inhabitant.
Electric power is supplied to the whole urban area. Running water reaches 97% of the population (about 350,000 homes). Natural gas is provided to 227,152 homes. [3]
As of 2007, and since the beginning of the recovery of the national economy, the city is experiencing a real estate boom. In the period 2003–2006, the construction sector has added 2 million m², investing about $900 million. Despite this increased supply, prices have increased by 10% compared to the values during the 1990s, and rents have soared by 165%. Experts believe that this growth is propelled by the increased purchasing power of farmers around Rosario, helped by competitive exports, and the overall preference for safer investment options ("in bricks"). [4]
[edit] Climate and natural hazards
The Rosario area has a Pampean temperate climate, with average temperatures of 23.4 °C (maximum) and 11.6 °C (minimum), and an annual rainfall of 1,038 mm. Snow is almost unheard of (the last instance was in 1973); serious earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions are virtually impossible.
[edit] Transportation
The city has about 40 urban bus lines, and several short-distance lines that serve the whole metropolitan area. The urban buses charge a relatively small fee (owing to the national government's heavy subsidies on fuel for public transportation), pre-paid by means of a disposable paper card with a magnetic stripe which can be bought from post offices, automatic vending machines, and private businesses. For emergencies, a larger fee can be deposited in cash, using a coin machine in the bus unit. The interurban lines have differential fees and some allow payment in cash only.
The urban bus fleet was partially renewed during the recovery of the national economy, since 2003; as of 2005 the average age of the buses is 5 years and 11 months. The better economic context has also induced an increased use of public transportation, and comparatively less use of bicycles. According to the Rosario Transportation Office, in 2005 there were about 11 million bus trips per month. [5]
The Bus Terminal (Terminal de Ómnibus Mariano Moreno), from which long-distance buses depart, is placed in a central geographic location, some 25 blocks from the "town center", in front of the Patio de la Madera complex. A secondary node is located in the center, on Plaza Sarmiento. A bus trip from Rosario to Buenos Aires takes about four hours. In January 2006 the Terminal saw a daily average of 900 bus arrivals and departures (about 36,000 passengers).
Rosario has a medium-sized taxi fleet, with units painted black and outlined in yellow. Some belong to radio-taxi companies and can be reserved by telephone; others only in the streets. As the economy of Argentina recovers, the capacity of the taxi fleet has been strained by higher usage. In September 2005, the Deliberative Council approved a moderate rise in taxi fees and the compulsory installation of radio-call systems in all taxi units.
As a curiosity, Rosario has a large number of vehicles which run on natural gas, as it happens also in Argentina as a whole, and all gas stations provide it. Its price is quite low compared to the alternatives. The idea to transform all buses to this system did not prosper; most buses run on cheap (subsidized) diesel, and one line uses electricity from an aerial network.
Rosario is linked to the rest of the country by a number of roads: the Aramburu Highway (southeast, to Buenos Aires), National Route 9 (from Buenos Aires to Rosario and then north and west up to Jujuy and Bolivia), the Brigadier Estanislao López Highway (north, to Santa Fe City), National Route 11 (to the north of Santa Fe, Formosa and Paraguay), National Route 33 (to the southwest of Santa Fe and the province of Buenos Aires, and then through National Route 7 to San Luis, Mendoza and Chile), National Route 34 (north to Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Bolivia), and National Route 174 (east, to Entre Ríos, over the Rosario-Victoria Bridge).
The Rosario Airport is located far from the urbanized area, some 13 km away from the center, partly in the municipal jurisdiction of Funes. After decades of stagnation, in recent years it has expanded its technical capacities and can now service international flights.
The Port of Rosario, located on the shore of the southern part of the city, is dredged to a depth of 34 feet and can serve Panamax kind vessels. It is managed by an autonomous public entity that oversees a concession to a mixed Spanish-Argentine corporation. In 2003 its traffic amounted to 2.9 million tonnes.
The passenger train system was severely damaged by the privatization of most railway companies in the early 1990s, but is slowly recovering. The lines of the Nuevo Central Argentino railway company service most of the cargo. Additionally, two private passenger railway companies provide limited services to several major cities. Trenes de Buenos Aires runs weekly trains south to Retiro Station (Buenos Aires) and north to Santa Fe. The company Ferrocentral also operates weekly trains south to Buenos Aires and northwest to Córdoba and Tucumán.
There is an ongoing project to build a Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba high-speed railway, scheduled to be started in 2007. Once finished, in 2009 o 2010, a high-speed train will join Rosario to Buenos Aires in 90 minutes at 250/300 km/h, while a high-yield conventional diesel train will reach Córdoba in about 2½ hours.
[edit] Communications
Rosario is located at the center of Argentina's optical fiber ring. The main data transport companies offer all their services in the city, from public phones to mobile networks and broadband Internet access through DSL, cable modem and Wi-Fi, and including public Internet navigation centers (cybercafes).
About 86% of homes have a domestic telephone line, giving a total of 272,170 lines; cell phone usage has also become pervasive, as happened in Argentina as a whole since the beginning of the 21st century, reaching over 36% of the residents (330,000 mobile lines in July 2004). This demand, exacerbated by low prices and sale promotions, and coupled with restrictions on the installation of antennas and alleged lack of investment by the providers, sometimes degrades the quality of the service. Most notably, the mobile network collapsed almost completely in the celebrations of Christmas, New Year's Day and Friend's Day in 2004 and 2005.
[edit] Culture
Rosario is characterized by an intense cultural activity in many art disciplines, with a national and international reach. The city has given Argentina important characters in the fields of music, painting, philosophical and political thought, poetry and prose, medicine, and law.
[edit] Notable people from Rosario
See People from Rosario. This list is not exhaustive.
- Artists and educators Leticia Cossetini and Olga Cossetini
- Artists Antonio Berni, Gustavo Cochet and Julio Vanzo
- Painter and sculptor Lucio Fontana
- Sculptors Erminio Blotta and Guillermo Gianinnazzi
- Writer Roberto Fontanarrosa and Jorge Riestra
- Revolutionary and guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara
- Singer and actress Libertad Lamarque
- Actors Alberto Olmedo, Darío Grandinetti and Luis Machín
- Singers and composers Juan Carlos Baglietto, Fito Páez, Liliana Herrero (Herrero is from Villaguay, Entre Ríos, but moved to Rosario at 18), Leandro Gato Barbieri, Lalo De Los Santos and Litto Nebbia
- Opera singers José Cura and Felipe Romito
- Chess grandmaster Gerardo Barbero
- Politicians Lisandro de la Torre, Guillermo Estévez Boero, Rafael Bielsa and María Eugenia Bielsa
- Football (soccer) coach Marcelo Bielsa
- Football (soccer) players Javier Mascherano and Lionel Messi
- Paleontologist José Bonaparte
- Science fiction author Angélica Gorodischer (born in Buenos Aires, but residing in Rosario since childhood)
- Pianist Daniel Rivera
[edit] Language
Rosario is one of the main urban centers of the Rioplatense Spanish dialect. The intra-dialectal differences with Buenos Aires and other cities in the same area are minimal, though rosarinos aspirate and suppress their final -s more than porteños, and there are also minor lexical variants.
The city has a local language game, sometimes employed as slang, called Rosarigasino (related to jeringonza).
[edit] Holidays
- June 20: Día de la Bandera Nacional (National Flag Day). Commemoration of General Manuel Belgrano's death. National holiday. Military and civic parade at the National Flag Memorial, including the world's longest flag (more than 10 km long), which is carried by citizens along the National Flag Park.
- July 20: Día del Amigo (Friend's Day). This celebration of friendship is common throughout Argentina, but especially popular as a mass phenomenon in Rosario, as in other large cities in the country.
- 21 September: Spring Day and Student's Day. National informal holiday for students and young people in general. Even though the precise time of the astronomical spring equinox is variable, seasons in Argentina are conventionally deemed to begin on the 21st day of the corresponding month. People from Rosario usually gather at the city's parks, travel to nearby towns (notably Funes) or cross the Paraná River to visit the island resorts.
- October 7: Día de la Virgen del Rosario (Day of the Virgin of the Rosary, patron of the city). This is a local public holiday and a free day for schools and university students, municipal employees, and employees of the provincial state residing in Rosario. The patron's feast is marked by Catholic celebrations and a procession.
See also: Public holidays in Argentina.
In addition to these official holidays, high school students in the 2000s created a humorous observance, self-styled "holiday", called Día de la Chupina ("Hooky Day"), which is celebrated on the last Friday of April by skipping class altogether and loitering in the downtown.
[edit] Events
- Festival Latinoamericano de Video Rosario (Rosario Latin American Video Festival). Annual event (September), starting in 1994.
- Encuentro Internacional de Escultura en Madera-Piedra-Hierro de Rosario (International Meeting of Wood-Stone-Iron Sculpture in Rosario). Annual event (September/October), since 1993.
- Encuentro y Fiesta Nacional de Colectividades (Communities Meeting and National Celebration). Annual event, starting in 1985, showcasing music, song, dance, cuisine and customs of foreign communities in Argentina, in the ample room provided by the Parque Nacional a la Bandera (National Flag Park). Usually held in November; in 2004 it was postponed to the beginning of December in order to avoid overlap with the Third International Congress of the Spanish Language.
- Festival Internacional de Poesía de Rosario (International Poetry Festival). Annual event since 1993 (November).
- Festival Iberoamericano de Cine de Rosario (Ibero-American Film Festival). Annual event since 2003 (November).
- Leyendas ("Legends"). A cartoon, role-playing and science fiction convention. Annually since 1999, usually in autumn (April/May), sometimes in spring (November).
[edit] Sister cities
Rosario has a number of sister cities around the world. Sisterhood agreements are intended to foster solidarity and collaboration between cities and regions that share characteristics, historical links or common problems. See list of twin towns and sister cities in Argentina.
[edit] Sources
- (Spanish) Municipalidad de Rosario - Historia
- (Spanish) Municipalidad de Rosario - Información geográfica
- (Spanish) Municipal information — Municipal Affairs Federal Institute (IFAM), Municipal Affairs Secretariat, Ministry of Interior, Argentina.
- (Spanish) Inforama — Municipal information at the official website of the Santa Fe provincial government.
[edit] External links
Most links are in Spanish; some provide English-language versions.
- Municipality of Rosario (official website)
- RosarioCity Website of Rosario city and its region
- Rosario.com.ar, commercial guide to Greater Rosario
- Ente de Turismo Rosario (tourism office, also English-language summary)
- National University of Rosario
- La Capital (newspaper)
- El Ciudadano & la Región (newspaper)
- Night life and entertainment
- Rosario Alternativo
- Administrative Entity of the Port of Rosario (ENAPRO) (also in English)
- Bolsa de Comercio de Rosario (Rosario Board of Trade)
