Buenos Aires is one of Latin America’s most important ports and most populous cities. Buenos Aires is usually the first point of entry into Argentina, its capital and largest City. This grandiose city with wide avenues and a vibrant cosmopolitan flair is more generally European than Latin American in character. Having little colonial architecture and few landmark buildings, Buenos Aires is chiefly a city of distinctive neighbourhoods that have their own meeting places, generally coffeehouses or bars.

Early in the twentieth century, Buenos Aires, the city of fair winds, became one of the world’s great cities. Fuelled by the great agricultural wealth that came from the heart-land of the nation, great new buildings and monuments. The city’s residents, known as Porteños, or people of the port, were confident and brash. To the people of neighbouring countries, the Porteños were arrogant and aloof. Economists and historians are still trying to figure out what went wrong in Argentina. Once the seventh-wealthiest country in the world, it quickly dropped to seventy-seventh by the 1960s. Yet, despite all its problems, Buenos Aires retains much of its old charm. Some of its neighbourhoods have not changed at all in the past 100 years and remain a living example of the city’s golden age. Millions of people visit Buenos Aires each year.

Most Porteños are the descendants of immigrants from Spain and Italy who came to Argentina in large numbers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Many other Europeans have settled in Buenos Aires, including Germans, British, and Jews from central and Eastern Europe. Virtually no descendants of Africans or of mixed European and African ancestry remain in the city. In the early 19th century about one-third of the population was black, mainly living in San Telmo. By the end of the century, black residents accounted for only a tiny percentage of Buenos Aires’s population. Researchers suggest that many blacks were killed fighting in the War of the Triple Alliance in the 1860s or perished in the yellow fever epidemic of 1871 that devastated much of the population in San Telmo. Others believe that the population intermixed with the already mixed-ethnic porteños and was no longer distinguishable.

Porteños are among the best-educated people in the world, with high literacy rates and school completion rates. The world-renowned University of Buenos Aires (1821) had more than 180,000 students enrolled in 1997. The Roman Catholic Church also operates many private institutions, including two universities: Salvador University and Roman Catholic University.

The city has many parks and plazas, and they are quite busy on weekends when Porteños traditionally go out for a stroll. One of the city’s largest parks is in Palermo. Within its grounds you can find a horse racing arena, polo fields, tennis courts, and bicycle and pedestrian paths.

Buenos Aires is a popular tourist destination, with more than ten million visitors annually. Most visitors are from Argentina and neighbouring countries, but large numbers of visitors come from the United States and Europe.

Buenos Aires neighbourhoods are small and highly individualized, each with its own characteristic colors and forms. In the San Telmo district, the city’s multinational heritage is embodied in a Buenos Aires – La Boca varied and cosmopolitan architecture – Spanish Colonial design couples with Italian detailing and graceful French Classicism. La Boca’s pressed tin houses are painted a rainbow of colors, and muralists have turned the district’s side-streets into avenues of color. Other distinctive neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires include Montserrat and Puerto Madero.

·         January
Año Nuevo (New Year’s Day, January 1)
·         March-April
Viernes Santo (Good Friday)
·         May
Día del Trabajador (Labor Day, May 1)
Revolución de Mayo (May Revolution, May 25)
·         June
·         Día de las Malvinas (Day of the Falkland Islands, June 10)
Día de la Bandera (Flag Day, June 20)
·         July
Independence Day (July 9)
·         August
Día de San Martín (commemoration of San Martín’s death)
·         October
Día de la Raza (Columbus Day, Oct. 12)
Famous Citizens
·         Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), one of the most important writers in Latin American and world literature.
·         Manuel Puig (1932–90), novelist, internationally known for his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976).
·         Former President Juan Domingo Perón (1895–1974), and his first wife, Eva Perón (1919–1952), both considered to be political and cultural icons of the nation.
Tango singer and actor Carlos Gardel (1890–1935).