Argentina--part: Buenos Aires¹ Province and Federal District²

How is the land laid out?

The roundish province is all pampas--flat, treeless, grasslands--and city. In the northeast is the shared estuary, Rio de la Plata,³ of the Uruguay and Paraná Rivers. In the southeast is Bahía Blanca⁴ and the mouth of the Colorado⁵ River. Between them the land rises above 1,200 meters.

Map

Who lives there?

Almost 17 million people live here. More than three in four speak Spanish as their first language, and most of the rest learn it. Less than one in ten speak Italian and about one in 20 speak Levantine Spoken Arabic. The overwhelming majority are Christians, mostly Roman Catholic.

The dominant city is Buenos Aires. The area's only UNESCO World Heritage 'Site' is in the city; it honors the tango. Within the metropolitan area is Ezeiza. Beyond it are La Plata, Bahía Blanca and San Nicolás de los Arroyos.

Who was there before?

Before the Spanish this area was inhabited by the Querandi, who lived in huts covered by animal skins and hunted with bows and arrows. I do not know their spiritual beliefs, but they are likely to have included belief in the presence of spirits inhabiting both non-human animate objects and natural places, and their participation in causality.

The Spanish brought both their language and the Roman Catholic Christian religion. The Italians and Levantine Arabs came later, in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century.

Around the Area

north
east and southeast
northeast, across the head of the Rio de la Plata
northwest
west

Footnotes

1. Translates from Spanish as Good Winds.
2. Distrito Federal in Spanish.
3. Translates from Spanish as River of Silver.
4. Translates from Spanish as White Bay or Harbor.
5. Translates from Spanish as Colored (literally, as in the sense of blushing) or Red (figuratively).