Buenos Aires

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Buenos Aires Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
The Nueve de Julio Avenue, named in honor of Argentine Independence Day (July 9, 1816)
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname: Reina del Plata
Buenos Aires Location in Argentina
Coordinates: 34°36′36.00″S 58°22′11.99″W / -34.61, -58.3699972
Established	1536, 1580
Government
- Chief of Government	Mauricio Macri
Area
- City	203 km² (78.5 sq mi)
- Land	203 km² (78.5 sq mi)
- Metro	4,758 km² (1,837.1 sq mi)
Population (2007 est.)
- City	3,034,161
- Density	14,946.6/km² (38,711.5/sq mi)
- Metro	13,044,800
HDI (2005)	0.923 – high
Website: http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/ (Spanish)

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent. Greater Buenos Aires, which includes the adjacent partidos or municipalities, constitutes the third largest conurbation in Latin America, with 13 million inhabitants.

After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province in 1880; its city limits were enlarged to include the former towns of Belgrano and Flores; both are now neighbourhoods in the city.

Contents 1 Names 2 History 3 Government and politics 3.1 Governmental structure 3.2 Recent political history 3.3 National representation 3.4 Barrios 4 Demographics 4.1 Census data 4.2 Origin 4.3 Religion 5 Climate 6 Economy 7 Culture 7.1 Language 7.2 Architecture 7.3 Tango 7.4 Cinema 8 People from Buenos Aires 9 Education 10 Tourism 11 Transportation 11.1 Public transport 11.2 Roadways 11.3 Commuter rail 11.4 Airports 12 Sports 13 Internet 14 Sister cities 15 See also 16 References 17 External links 17.1 Newspapers

[edit] Names

Main article: Names of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires (English: Fair Winds, pronounced [ˈbwe.nɔs ˈaj.ɾɛs]) was originally named after the sanctuary of "Nostra Signora di Bonaria" (Italian for "Our Lady of Good Air", also known as "Virgine de Bonaria") located in Cagliari, Sardinia.

Argentines sometimes refer to the city as Capital Federal to differentiate the city from the province of the same name. In the 1994 constitution, the city was given autonomy, hence its formal name: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

The abbreviations Bs. As. and Baires are sometimes used, the first one mostly in writing and the latter in everyday speech. The city is sometimes called La Reina del Plata, that is, "The Queen of the Plata" (a reference to the Plata river basin).

[edit] History

Seaman Juan Díaz de Solís, navigating in the name of Spain, was the first European to reach the Río de la Plata, in 1516, but his expedition was cut short by an attack in which he was killed by the native Charrúa tribe, in today's Uruguay.

The city was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre^[1] (literally "City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds") on February 2, 1536 by a Spanish expedition under Pedro de Mendoza. The location of Mendoza's city was in today's San Telmo district, south of the city center.

More attacks by the indigenous peoples forced the settlers away, and in 1541 the site was abandoned. A second (and permanent) settlement was established in 1580 by Juan de Garay, who arrived by sailing down the Paraná River from Asunción (now the capital of Paraguay).

From its earliest days, the success of Buenos Aires depended on trade. During most of the 17th and 18th centuries, Spain insisted that all trade to Europe pass through Lima, Peru so that taxes could be collected. This scheme frustrated the traders of Buenos Aires, and a thriving contraband industry developed. Unsurprisingly, this also instilled a deep resentment in porteños towards Spanish authorities.^[1]

Sensing these feelings, Charles III of Spain progressively eased the trade restrictions and finally declared Buenos Aires an open port in the late 1700s. The taking over of Porto Bello by British forces also fueled the need to foster commerce via the Atlantic route in detriment of Lima-based trade. Carlos III placating actions did not have the desired effect, and the porteños, some of them versed in the ideology of the French revolution, became even more desirous of independence from Spain.

During the British invasions of the Río de la Plata British forces invaded Buenos Aires twice in 1806–1807 but were repulsed by local militias. Ultimately, on May 25, 1810, while Spain endured the Peninsular War and after a week of mostly pacific deliberations, the criollo citizens of Buenos Aires successfully ousted the Spanish Viceroy and established a provisional government. May 25 is now celebrated as a national holiday (May Revolution Day). Formal independence from Spain was declared only in 1816.

Historically, Buenos Aires has been Argentina's main centre for liberal and free-trade ideas, while many of the provinces, especially to the Northwest, advocated a more conservative-Catholic approach to political and social issues. Many tensions within Argentine history, starting with the centralist-federalist conflicts of the 19th century, can be traced back to these contrasting views. In the months immediately following the May 25 Revolution, Buenos Aires sent a number of military envoys to the provinces, intended to obtain their approval: in many cases, the missions ended in violent clashes, and even those which were militarily successful fueled the tensions between the capital and the provinces.

In the 19th century the city suffered naval blockades on two occasions: by the French from 1838 to 1840, and a joint Anglo-French blockade from 1845 to 1848. Both blockades failed to surrender the city, and the foreign powers eventually desisted from their demands.

During most of the 19th century, the political status of the city remained a sensitive subject. It was already capital of Buenos Aires Province, and between 1853 and 1860 it was the capital of the seceded State of Buenos Aires. The issue was debated more than once on the battlefield, until the matter was finally settled in 1880 when the city was federalised and became the seat of government, with its Mayor appointed by the President. The Casa Rosada became the seat of the office of the President.

Railroad construction in the second half of the 19th century increased the economic power of Buenos Aires as raw materials flowed into its factories; Buenos Aires became a multicultural city that ranked itself with the major European capitals. The Colón Theater became one of the world's top opera venues. The city's main avenues were built in those years, and the dawn of the 20th century saw the construction of South America's then-tallest buildings and first subway network.

By the 1920s Buenos Aires was a favoured destination for immigrants from Europe, as well as from the poorer provinces and neighbouring countries. Large shanty towns (villas miseria) started growing around the city's industrial areas, leading to extensive social problems, which contrasted sharply with Argentina's image as a country of riches. Buenos Aires was the cradle of Peronism: the now-mythical demonstration of October 17, 1945 took place in Plaza de Mayo.^[2] Industrial workers of the Greater Buenos Aires industrial belt have been Peronism's main support base ever since, and Plaza de Mayo became the site for demonstrations and many of the country's political events.

On June 16, 1955, a splinter faction of the navy bombed the Plaza de Mayo area, killing 364 civilians (see Bombing of Plaza de Mayo). This was the only time the city was attacked from the air. This event was followed by a military uprising which eventually deposed President Perón three months later (see Revolución Libertadora).

In the 1970s, the city suffered from the fighting between left-wing revolutionary movements (Montoneros, E.R.P. and F.A.R.) and right-wing paramilitary group Triple A, supported by Isabel Perón, who became president of Argentina in 1974, after Juan Perón's death.

The military coup of 1976, led by Jorge Rafael Videla, only escalated this conflict; the "Dirty War" produced between 10,000 and 30,000 desaparecidos, people kidnapped and killed by the military during the years of the junta.^[3] The silent marches of their mothers (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) are a well-known image of Argentine suffering during those times.

The city was visited by Pope John Paul II twice: in 1982, due to the outbreak of the Falklands-Malvinas War, and a second visit in 1987, which gathered crowds never seen before in the city.

On March 17, 1992 a bomb exploded in the Israeli Embassy killing 29 and injuring 242. Another explosion, on July 18, 1994, destroyed a building housing several Jewish organizations killing 85 and injuring many more (see AMIA bombing).

On December 30, 2004, a fire at República Cromagnon concert hall killed almost 200 people, one of the greatest non-natural tragedies in Argentine history.

[edit] Government and politics

[edit] Governmental structure

The Executive branch of the city is led by the Jefe de Gobierno ("Chief of Government"), who is directly elected by city residents for a four-year term. Below him is the Vicejefe de Gobierno, elected along with the "Jefe de Gobierno". The Legislative branch of the city's government is the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires, composed of 60 deputies and presided over by the Vicejefe de Gobierno. Each deputy is elected for a four year term, and elections are held every two years for half of the legislature using the D'Hondt method. The Judicial branch is composed of the Supreme Court of Justice (Tribunal Superior de Justicia), the Magistrate's Council (Consejo de la Magistratura), the Public Ministry and various City Courts.

In legal terms, the city's organizational autonomy is less than any province in the country. The national Judiciary branch determines the autonomy of the city's judicial branch with regards to common law, whilst the national Executive branch controls the city’s police.

Beginning in 2007, the city is embarking on a new decentralization scheme, creating new comunas that will be governed by a seven-person committee.

Article 61 of the 1996 Constitution of the city of Buenos Aires states that "Suffrage is free, equal, secret, universal, compulsory and not accumulative. The foreign residents enjoy this right, with the correlative obligations, on equal terms with argentinian citizens registered in this district, in the terms established by the law." ^[4]

[edit] Recent political history

In 1996, under the 1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, the city gained autonomous status, and held its first mayoral elections (the mayor's title was changed to "Chief of Government"). The winner was Fernando de la Rúa, who would be President of Argentina in the period from 1999 to 2001.

Following the 2004 República Cromagnon nightclub fire, it was discovered that the club was owned by shell corporations. Ricardo Nissen, Inspector General of Justice for Buenos Aires, subsequently froze $20 million, and then banned offshore corporations from Buenos Aires which can not prove they have real activity in the city. Such a ban is the first to be implemented world-wide ^[5].

De la Rúa's successor, Aníbal Ibarra, won two popular elections, but was impeached (and ultimately deposed on March 6, 2006) as a result of the fire at República Cromagnon. Jorge Telerman, who had been the acting mayor, was invested with the office.

In the mayoral election of June 3, 2007, Mauricio Macri obtained a plurality of the vote, forcing a second round against Daniel Filmus on June 24, which Macri won with over 60% of the vote, and assumed office on December 9, 2007.

[edit] National representation

Buenos Aires is represented in the Argentine Senate by three senators (as of December 2007, María Eugenia Estenssoro, Samuel Cabanchik and Daniel Filmus).^[6] The people of Buenos Aires also elect 25 national deputies for the Argentine Chamber of Deputies.

[edit] Barrios

Main article: Barrios of Buenos Aires

The city is divided into 48 barrios (neighbourhoods) for administrative purposes.^[7] The division was originally based on Catholic parroquias (parishes), but has undergone a series of changes since the 1940s. A newer scheme has divided the city into 15 comunas (communes).^[8]

[edit] Demographics

See also: List of most common surnames#Argentina (Buenos_Aires)

As of the census of 2001, there are 12.4 million people residing in the city and residential zones, making Buenos Aires the most populated city in Argentina. The population density is 13,000 inhabitants per square kilometer (33,700/sq mi). The racial makeup of the city is 88.9 % White, 2% Black or of African descent, 7% Native American, and 2.1% Asian.^[9]

[edit] Census data

According to the census, the city proper has a population of 2,776,138, while the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area has more than 12.4 million inhabitants (2001 census [INDEC]). The population of the city has been stagnant since the 1950s, due to low birth rates and a slow emigration to suburbia.

[edit] Origin

See also: Asian Argentine

The majority of porteños have European origins, with Spanish and Italian descent being the most common, mainly from the Galician, Asturian, and Basque regions of Spain, and the Calabrian, Ligurian, Piedmont, Lombardy and Neapolitan regions of Italy.

Other European origins include German, Portuguese, Polish, Irish, French, Croatian, English and Welsh. In the 1990s, there was a small wave of immigration from Romania and Ukraine.

There is a minority of old criollo stock, dating back to the Spanish colonial days. Criollo and Spanish-aboriginal (mestizo) population in the city has increased mostly as a result of migration, both from the provinces and from nearby countries such as Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay, since the second half of the 20th century.

Important Arab (mostly Syrian-Lebanese) and Armenian communities have been significant in commerce and civic life since the beginning of the 20th century.

The Jewish community in Greater Buenos Aires numbers around 250,000, and is the largest in Latin America. Most are of Northern and Eastern European Ashkenazi origin, mostly German and Russian Jews; with a significant minority of Sephardic, mostly Syrian Jews.

The first major East Asian community in Buenos Aires was the Japanese, mainly from Okinawa. Traditionally, Japanese-Argentines were noted as flower growers; in the city proper, there was a Japanese near-monopoly in dry cleaning. Later generations have branched into all fields of activity. Ever since the 1970s there has been an important influx of immigration from China and Korea.

[edit] Religion

Most inhabitants are Roman Catholic. Buenos Aires is the seat of a Roman Catholic metropolitan archbishop (who is the prelate of Argentina), as well as several Eastern Orthodox and Anglican hierarchs.

Sizable Jewish and Muslim communities have existed in the city for over a century.

[edit] Climate

The city has a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa" by Köppen classification) with average temperatures in the afternoon ranging from 30 °C (86 °F) in January to 15 °C (59 °F) in July. Rain can be expected at any time of year and hailstorms are not a strange phenomenon.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in central Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Central Observatory) was -5.4 °C (22.3 °F) on July 9, 1918^[10]. The highest temperature ever recorded was 43.3 °C (109.9 °F) on the January 29, 1957^[11].

Last Snowfall occurred recently on July 9, 2007. It was the first snowfall in the city for 89 years^[12] (since June 22, 1918^[13]).

Many locals leave Buenos Aires during the hot summer months (December, January and February) and head for seaside resorts on the Atlantic coast.

Weather averages for Buenos Aires, Argentina
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	30.4 (87)	28.7 (84)	26.4 (80)	22.7 (73)	19.0 (66)	15.6 (60)	14.9 (59)	17.3 (63)	18.9 (66)	22.5 (73)	25.3 (78)	28.1 (83)	22.4 (72)
Average low °C (°F)	20.4 (69)	19.4 (67)	17.0 (63)	13.7 (57)	10.3 (51)	7.6 (46)	7.4 (45)	8.9 (48)	9.9 (50)	13.0 (55)	15.9 (61)	18.4 (65)	13.5 (56)
Precipitation mm (inch)	119 (4.7)	118 (4.6)	134 (5.3)	97 (3.8)	74 (2.9)	63 (2.5)	66 (2.6)	70 (2.8)	73 (2.9)	119 (4.7)	109 (4.3)	105 (4.1)	1,147 (45.2)
Source: The World Meteorological Organization[14] Nov 2006

[edit] Economy

Buenos Aires is the financial, industrial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina. Its port is one of the busiest in South America. Tax collection related to it has caused many political problems in the past; navigable rivers by way of the Rio de la Plata connect the port to north-east Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. As a result, it serves as the distribution hub for a vast area of the south-eastern region of the South American continent. Buenos Aires Human Development Index was about 0.923 in 1998^[15].

To the west of Buenos Aires is the Pampa Húmeda, the most productive agricultural region of Argentina (as opposed to the dry southern Pampa, mostly used for cattle farming). Meat, dairy, grain, tobacco, wool and hide products are processed or manufactured in the Buenos Aires area. Other leading industries are automobile manufacturing, oil refining, metalworking, machine building, and the production of textiles, chemicals, clothing, and beverages.

[edit] Culture

Strongly influenced by European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the "Paris of South America".^[16][1]

Buenos Aires is the site of the Teatro Colón, one of the world's greatest opera houses.^[17] It is closed for renovations until at least 2010. There are several symphony orchestras and choral societies. The city has numerous museums related to history, fine arts, modern arts, decorative arts, popular arts, sacred art, arts and crafts, theatre and popular music, as well as the preserved homes of noted art collectors, writers, composers and artists. It harbours many public libraries and cultural associations as well as the largest concentration of active theatres in Latin America^{[citation needed]}. It has a world-famous zoo and Botanical Garden, a large number of landscaped parks and squares, as well as churches and places of worship of many denominations, many of which are architecturally noteworthy.^[17]

[edit] Language

Known as Rioplatense Spanish, Buenos Aires' Spanish (and also in other cities like Rosario and Montevideo, Uruguay) is characterised by voseo, yeísmo and aspiration or loss of syllable-final -s. It is heavily influenced by the dialects of Spanish spoken in Andalusia and Murcia. A phonetic study conducted by the Laboratory for Sensory Investigations of CONICET and the University of Toronto showed that the porteño accent is closer to the Neapolitan dialect of Italian than any other spoken language.

In the early 20th century, Argentina absorbed millions of immigrants, many of them Italians, who spoke mostly in their local dialects (mainly Neapolitan, Sicilian and Genoan). Their adoption of Spanish was gradual, creating a pidgin of Italian dialects and Spanish that was called cocoliche. Its usage declined around the 1950s, and today survives mostly as comic relief.

As many Spanish immigrants were from Galicia, to the extent that Spaniards are still generically called gallegos (Galicians), Galician language, cuisine and culture had a major presence in the city for most of the 20th century. In recent years, descendants of Galician immigrants have led a mini-boom in Celtic music (which also highlighted the Welsh traditions of Patagonia). Yiddish was commonly heard in Buenos Aires, especially in the Balvanera garment district and in Villa Crespo, until the 1960s. Korean and Chinese have become significant since the 1970s. Most of the newer immigrants learn Spanish quickly and assimilate into city life.

The lunfardo argot originated within the prison population, and in time it spread to all porteños. Lunfardo uses words from Italian dialects, from Brazilian Portuguese, from African and Caribbean origin and even from English; and employs humorous tricks such as inverting the syllables within a word (vesre). Today, lunfardo is mostly heard on tango lyrics; the slang of the younger generations has been evolving away from it.

See also: Belgranodeutsch.

[edit] Architecture

Buenos Aires architecture is characterized by its individuality and uniqueness, it resembles Barcelona, Paris and Rome altogether, its distinctiveness contributes to the cultural identity of its people.

Main article: Architecture of Argentina

[edit] Tango

Main article: Tango music

See also: History of Tango

Tango music was born in the suburbs, notably in the brothels of the Junín y Lavalle district and in the arrabales (poorer suburbs). Its sensual dance moves were not seen as respectable until adopted by the Parisian high society in the 1920s, and then all over the world. In Buenos Aires, tango-dancing schools (known as academias) were usually men-only establishments.

[edit] Cinema

Main article: Cinema of Argentina

See also: Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema

In 1896 cinema was premiered in Buenos Aires. The city has been the centre of the Argentine cinema industry in Argentina for over 100 years since French camera operator Eugene Py directed the pioneering film La Bandera Argentina in 1897. Since then, over 2000 films have been directed and produced within the city, many of them referring to the city in their titles, such as Buenos Aires Plateada, and Buenos Aires a la vista. The culture of tango music has been incorporated into many films produced in the city, especially since the 1930s. Many films have starred tango performers such as Hugo del Carril, Tita Merello, Carlos Gardel and Edmundo Rivero.

[edit] People from Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires was home to Argentine writers Roberto Arlt, Leopoldo Lugones, Jorge Luis Borges, Andrés Rivera, Paul Groussac, Manuel Mujica Laínez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Ernesto Sábato, Leopoldo Marechal, Tomas Eloy Martinez, Victoria Ocampo, and Julio Cortázar. International figures who lived in Buenos Aires include René Goscinny, Marcel Duchamp, Witold Gombrowicz, Jerry Masucci, Pablo Neruda, Ruben Dario, Romola Nijinska, Rosa Chacel, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Hugo Pratt and Eugene O' Neill, as well as businesspeople John S. Reed, Aristotle Onassis and advertising greats Gino Boccasile and Lucien-Achille Mauzan, who was considered to be Argentina's “father of the advertising poster”. During the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, Buenos Aires provided refuge for many, including philosopher José Ortega y Gasset and composer Manuel de Falla, who later moved to Córdoba. Luca Prodan arrived from England in the 1980s and became an icon of Argentine rock. Dee Dee Ramone lived for some time in a suburb of Buenos Aires with his Argentine girlfriend Barbara after leaving the Ramones.

[edit] Education

The University of Buenos Aires, one of the top learning institutions in South America, has produced five Nobel Prize winners and provides free education for students from all around the globe.

Buenos Aires is a major center for psychoanalysis, particularly the Lacanian school.

[edit] Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Buenos Aires

The city has many museums, historical buildings, shopping centres, and hotels. The main tourist attractions are around the downtown area, including Plaza de Mayo, Florida Street, San Telmo and Puerto Madero. The city also plays host to musical festivals, the most important of which is Quilmes Rock.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Public transport

A majority of residents in Buenos Aires and its suburbs use public transportation.

The Buenos Aires Metro (locally known as el subte, from "subterráneo" meaning "underground") is a compact, high yield system providing access to various parts of the city. Opened in 1913, it is the oldest subway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in the Spanish-speaking world.[2] The system has six lines, named A to E, and the last one: the H. 84 stations, and 46 km (29 mi) of track. An expansion program is underway to enlarge existing lines deeper into the outer neighborhoods and add a new north-south line. Track length is expected to reach 89 km (55 mi) by the year 2011.

Buenos Aires had an extensive tramway network with over 857 km (535 mi) of track, which was dismantled during the 1960s in favor of bus transportation.

Today, there are over 150 city bus lines called Colectivos, and each one managed by an individual company which makes them very effective as they compete with each other, and their frequency makes them equal to the subway systems of other cities, but on wheels, however, buses cover a far wider area than the subway system. Colectivos in Buenos Aires do not have a fixed timetable, but run from 4 to several per hour, depending on the bus line and time of the day. With very affordable ticket prices and extensive routes, usually not further than four blocks from folks residences, the colectivo is by far the preferred mode of transportation around the city.

A new 2 km (1,25 miles) tramway (LRT), "Tranvía del Este" in the Puerto Madero district is now operating. Extensions planned will link the Retiro and Constitución terminal train stations, other routes are also being studied.

[edit] Roadways

Buenos Aires used to be relatively congestion-free for a city of its size. Toll motorways opened in the late 1970s by then-mayor Osvaldo Cacciatore provided fast access to the city centre, increasing the number of cars coming into the city. During Cacciatore's tenure, the streets of the financial district (roughly one square kilometre (250 acres) in size) were declared off-limits to private cars during daytime. Main avenues of the city include the 140-metre (459 ft)-wide 9 de Julio Avenue, the over-35 km (22 mi)-long Rivadavia Avenue,^[18] and Corrientes Avenue, the main thoroughfare of culture and entertainment. Avenida General Paz is a motorway that surrounds Buenos Aires thus separating the city from Buenos Aires Province.

Following the economic mini-boom of the 1990s, more people started commuting by car, and congestion increased. Most major avenues are gridlocked at peak hours. Another source of congestion is the flight of many people to the country on weekends.

Black-and-yellow taxis roam the streets at all hours. Some of these are unlicensed (controls are not fully enforced), so visitors are advised to phone a reputable radio-link company (Radio Taxi). Low-fare limo services, known as remises, have become more popular in recent years.

[edit] Commuter rail

Argentina's extensive railway network converges on Buenos Aires. The three principal stations for both long-distance passenger services and commuter trains are Estación Retiro, Estación Constitución, and Estación Once. Some lines use Diesel power; and several commuter lines switched to electric power during the 1980s and 1990s ^[17]. There is a project to build a Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba high-speed railway, which would join the three largest cities in Argentina. Bids were opened in mid-2006; the only proposal standing as of June 2007 is by French firm Alstom. Financing is a major stumbling block for the project, whose start has been delayed several times.

[edit] Airports

The Buenos Aires international airport, Ministro Pistarini International Airport, is located in the suburb of Ezeiza and is often called simply "Ezeiza". The Aeroparque Jorge Newbery airport, located in the Palermo district next to the riverbank, serves mostly domestic traffic.

[edit] Sports

Football is a passion for Argentines. Buenos Aires has the highest concentration of football teams of any city in the world (featuring no less than 24 professional football teams),^[19] with many of its teams playing in the major league. The best-known rivalry is the one between Boca Juniors and River Plate; a match between these two teams was named as one of the "50 sporting things you must do before you die" by The Observer.^[19] Other major clubs include San Lorenzo de Almagro, Vélez Sársfield and Huracán.

Diego Armando Maradona, born in Villa Fiorito, a villa miseria in the Lomas de Zamora Partido (then part of Lanús Partido) of Greater Buenos Aires, is widely hailed as one of the greatest football players of all time. Maradona started his career with Argentinos Juniors, later playing for Boca Juniors, the Argentina national football team and others (most notably FC Barcelona in Spain and SSC Napoli in Italy).

Buenos Aires has been a candidate city for the Summer Olympic Games on three occasions: for the 1956 Games, lost by a single vote to Melbourne; for the 1968 Summer Olympics, which were held in Mexico City (to this date, the only Games held in Latin America); and in 2004, when the games were awarded to Athens.

However, Buenos Aires hosted the 1951 Pan American Games - the first,^[17] and was also host city to several World Championship events: the 1950 and 1990 Basketball World Championships, the 1982 and 2002 Men's Volleyball World Championships and, most remembered, the 1978 FIFA World Cup, won by Argentina on June 25, 1978 when it defeated the Netherlands by 3–1.

The Buenos Aires Oscar Gálvez car-racing track hosted 20 editions of the Formula One Argentine Grand Prix between 1953 and 1998; its discontinuation was due to financial reasons. The track features local categories on most weekends.

Argentines' love for horses can be experienced in several ways: horse racing at the Hipódromo Argentino de Palermo racetrack, polo in the Campo Argentino de Polo (located just across Libertador Avenue from the Hipódromo), and pato, a kind of basketball played on horseback that was declared the national game in 1953.

Buenos Aires native Guillermo Vilas (who was raised in Mar del Plata) was one of the great tennis players of the 1970s and 1980s,^[17] and popularized tennis in all of Argentina.He won the ATP Buenos Aires.

Other popular sports in Buenos Aires are golf, basketball, rugby, and field hockey.

[edit] Internet

Buenos Aires ISPs provide dial-up, cable, satellite-based and ADSL connections to the Internet. The Internet boom in the early 2000s gave birth to cibercafés. There is a growing number of wi-fi hotspots, mostly around the downtown area and now in all "Subte" lines, except for the A line, which is in process.

[edit] Sister cities

[edit] See also

• List of Mayors and Chiefs of Government of Buenos Aires
• List of cities
• List of national capitals
• List of twin towns and sister cities of Buenos Aires
• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
• List of metropolitan areas by population
• Megacity

[edit] References

• Encyclopædia Britannica
• Microsoft Encarta
• General Information
• (Spanish) Patricia Moglia, Fabián Sislián and Mónica Alabart, Pensar la historia Argentina desde una historia de América Latina, Buenos Aires:Plus Ultra

[edit] External links

• Buenos Aires (city) travel guide from Wikitravel

• (Spanish) Official government website
• Official tourism website
• (Spanish) Tourism Website of Buenos Aires

[edit] Newspapers

• (English) The Argentimes
• (English) Buenos Aires Herald
• (Spanish) Clarín
• (Spanish) La Nación
• (Spanish) Página 12
• (Spanish) Perfil
• (Spanish) Infobae
• (Spanish) Edición Nacional
• (Spanish) La Prensa
• (German) Argentinisches Tageblatt

v • d • e Barrios of Buenos Aires

Agronomía  · Almagro  · Balvanera  · Barracas  · Belgrano  · Boedo  · Caballito  · Chacarita  · Coghlan  · Colegiales  · Constitución  · Flores  · Floresta  · La Boca  · La Paternal  · Liniers  · Mataderos  · Monte Castro  · Montserrat  · Nueva Pompeya  · Núñez  · Palermo  · Parque Avellaneda  · Parque Chacabuco  · Parque Chas  · Parque Patricios  · Puerto Madero  · Recoleta  · Retiro  · Saavedra  · San Cristóbal  · San Nicolás  · San Telmo  · Vélez Sársfield  · Versalles  · Villa Crespo  · Villa del Parque  · Villa Devoto  · Villa Lugano  · Villa Luro  · Villa Mitre  · Villa Ortúzar  · Villa Pueyrredón  · Villa Real  · Villa Riachuelo  · Villa Santa Rita  · Villa Soldati  · Villa Urquiza

v • d • e Political divisions of Argentina
Provinces	Buenos Aires  · Catamarca  · Chaco  · Chubut  · Córdoba  · Corrientes  · Entre Ríos  · Formosa  · Jujuy  · La Pampa  · La Rioja  · Mendoza  · Misiones  · Neuquén  · Río Negro  · Salta  · San Juan  · San Luis  · Santa Cruz  · Santa Fe  · Santiago del Estero  · Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and South Atlantic Islands  · Tucumán
Autonomous cities	Buenos Aires City (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires)

v • d • e Pan American Games host cities
1951: Buenos Aires • 1955: Mexico City • 1959: Chicago • 1963: São Paulo • 1967: Winnipeg • 1971: Cali • 1975: Mexico City • 1979: San Juan • 1983: Caracas • 1987: Indianapolis • 1991: Havana • 1995: Mar del Plata • 1999: Winnipeg • 2003: Santo Domingo • 2007: Rio de Janeiro • 2011: Guadalajara

v • d • e Capitals of South America
Asunción, Paraguay · Bogotá, Colombia · Brasília, Brazil · Buenos Aires, Argentina · Caracas, Venezuela · Cayenne, French Guiana · Georgetown, Guyana · Grytviken, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands · La Paz / Sucre Bolivia · Lima, Peru · Montevideo, Uruguay · Paramaribo, Suriname · Quito, Ecuador · Santiago, Chile · Stanley, Falkland Islands

Coordinates: 34°36′13″S, 58°22′54″W