Argentina is located in the south of South America. The name Argentina derives from the Latin argentum (silver). It has a total area of 3,761,274 sq km, with 38 million inhabitants. It ranks second in land area in South America, and eighth in the world. It is a representative and federal republic. It is composed of 24 provinces and its capital city is the city of Buenos Aires.

www.argentina.gov.ar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina

Buenos Aires (Fair Winds) is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port. It is located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent.

Strongly influenced by European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the "Paris of the South" or "Paris of South America". It is one of the most sophisticated cities in Latin America, renowned for its architecture, night life, and cultural activities.  

www.bue.gov.ar

Porteño is the term used to call people who were born in Buenos Aires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porteño

Lunfardo is the slang language spoken in Buenos Aires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunfardo

Architecture.  Colón Teatre. It is the most important official teatre in Argentina. Its acoustics are perfect for opera and concerts. It also offers ballet performances. It is one of the most prestigious opera house in the world. Singers as Carusso, Maria Calas, Pavarotti, Placido Domingo sang here as well as the majority of the most prestigious figures of the lyrical scene. The corps of ballet of the Colón Theatre is the oldest in South America. www.teatrocolon.org.ar

Night Life. Corrientes Avenue or "The street that never sleeps" is one of the principal thoroughfares of Buenos Aires. The street is intimately tied to the tango and the porteño sense of identity. At night, the nights uncover movie theaters and theater, restaurants, pubs, stores, bingos and nightclubs. Like few cities in the world, Buenos Aires does not have schedules if you want to have fun. Its famous nocturnal life is very seductive and it extends of Monday to Monday until very entered the dawn.

Cultural Activities. Feria Internacional del Libro. The Fair of Book of Buenos Aires is one of the 5 more important publishing fairs of the world along with those of Frankfurt, London, Bologna and the Book Expo America. It is recognized and outstanding by his size, by the amount of visitors, the exhibitors and the cultural activities carried out by illustrious figures.

www.el-libro.com.ar

Typical Food

Empanada. Typical food which consists in a dough filled with different ingredients. The most traditional is the one stuffed with pieces of beef chopped in dices. The dough is closed with a fold called repulgue. Each province has a different variety. Other classic fillings are chicken, tuna, ham and cheese and onion. They can be backed o fried.     

www.recipeland.com/recipes/empanada/

Asado has two meanings in Argentina. One is to reference cuts of meat that are cooked on a grill while the other simply means BBQ, aka barbecue, like “let’s prepare an asado”.

The best asado is like any other BBQ party that is thrown in any other part of the world. A celebration of sorts with friends and family while feasting on large amounts of barbecued meats. Where the host is constantly eying guests to see if a glass needs to be refilled or another piece of meat needs to be slice. Great conversation is the final ingredient. Usually asados are best enjoyed on weekends or holidays when the weather is nice and/or everyone needs a break from the normal life. An asado is not to be rushed and can typically last at least three hours if it is a good one.

If you ever travel to Argentina or have an Argentinean friend and get invited to an asado, do not pass it up. Well, unless you hate barbecues and meat. Vegetarians beware! If the site of large quantities of meat does not put you into shock you will most likely end up unsatisfied. No soy or tofu burgers; that would be a sacrilege to the feast. The only vegetables you will most likely to find are simple salads and potatoes. Even those tend to go untouched for fear of one losing vital space in their stomach for the succulent meats that desire to be eaten.

Mate. It is the typical beverage of many countries from the Southern Cone. Yerba mate is added into a recipient and water is added. It is drunk with a bombilla (metal tube used to sip mate) and the recipient is shared with your “round mates”. Cebar (serve) a good mate is considered an art: yerba must flow naturally along the bombilla and it must keep its flavour. Meeting to have mate has to do with afternoon chats, nights of studying, being welcome to a home.

www.miyerbamate.com

Alfajores Havanna. Sweet snack original from Mar del Plata. For decades it was the customary souvenir everyone had to offer when they visit the city. Nowadays it is sold nationwide and exported to many places in the world.

www.havanna.com.ar

Flan con Dulce de Leche. Custard with dulce de leche (cream made with milk, vanilla, stick cinnamon and sugar). Typical dessert prepared with eggs and milk.

http://www.kls2.com/~karl/recipes/dessert/flan.html

Some Argentine Restaurant in Seattle, “Buenos Aires Grill” www.seattleweekly.com/food/0246/food-downey.php

Art and Sports

Tango

Originally, the tango is born by the end of century XIX of a mixture of several originating rates of the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It was associated from a principle with brothels and cabarets, scope of containment of a population net masculine immigrant. Because single prostitutes would accept this dance, in his beginnings it was common that was a pair of men danced tango.

But the tango as dance was not limited the low zones or their near atmospheres. One also extended to the proletarian districts and began to gain acceptance "in the best families", coverall after the dance was successful in Europe.

Melody came from flute, violin and guitar. Later, flute was replaced by "bandoneón". The immigrants contributed adding airs of nostalgia to the songs and that way the tango went away developing and acquiring a unique flavor.

Carlos Gardel was the creator of the tango-song. Deceased in 1935 at 45 years old in a plane crash, was great the publishing one of the tango abroad. In the 60, however, tango was ignored outside Argentina. It resurged renewed by Astor Piazzolla, who gave it a new perspective, breaking with the schemes of the classic tango.

Today the tango is more alive than ever, not like the phenomenon of masses that generated it, but like unquestionable element that it determines the Buenos Aires soul.

Electronic tango www.bajofondotangoclub.com

Fileteado Porteño

Drawings used for decoration, especially on buses (Colectivos) and objects related to the city and tango.

www.fileteado.com.ar

Soccer (Futbol)

Soccer is a passion in Argentina. It’s the sport that attracts a lot of men, and there are many teams across the country. The most important teams are Boca Junior and River Plate. There are always important championships, both national and international. A large percentage of men are fanatic and they are proud to support their team. Furthermore, soccer is a sport that most men play, without concern of age. Soccer is an important issue in an informal or formal conversation; if they don’t play soccer then they can talk about it.

Diego Maradona. He is the best soccer player in the history of Argentina and probably of the world. He emerged when soccer was just played out of passion. He is one of the most beloved characters in Argentina.

www.diegomaradona.com

Some Famous People

  Jorge Luis Borges. His was the most important Argentine writer to these days. He was born in 1899 and died in the city of Geneva in 1986. His vast work consists of poetry, short stories, essays and articles. His conferences, of great interest, were later published. He was not only a great connoisseur of old languages but also of modern languages, especially English. He gradually went blind, but this did not prevent him from continuing writing and delivering his much beloved lectures. “Buenos Aires Fever”, “El hacedor” (Dreamtigers), “La Cifra”, “The Garden of Forking Paths”, “The Aleph”, “El idioma de los Argentinos”, “Doctor Brodie’s report” are some of his vast and prolific works.  www.libyrinth.com/borges/

“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library”. Jorge Luis Borges. You can find this sentence in a t-shirt of the library of Vancouver.

Evita or Eva Duarte de Peron.  She was the second wife of Juan Domingo Perón. She became one of the most important mythical figures in Argentina. She was a character full of controversies as she was always rejected by Argentine upper classes. When her husband became President of the country and she became the First Lady, she devoted her life to the building of power to improve the lives of working class people, and she sometimes achieved this through temporary and demagogic solutions. Anyway, history remembers her as “the standard-bearer of the poor” and many people have her in their hearts. She died at the age of 33, at the peak of power. Nobody has ever been able to equal her.

Evita Musical in Everett until Nov 22,2006 www.villagetheater.org

 The “Che” Guevara. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was an Argentine-born medical doctor best known as a Marxist, politician, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. As a young man studying medicine, Guevara traveled rough throughout Latin America, bringing him into direct contact with the impoverished conditions in which many people lived. Through these experiences he became convinced that only revolution could remedy the region's economic inequality. He was killed in the Bolivian jungle in 1967. He is now a worldwide symbol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che

www.motorcyclediariesmovie.com

 Adolfo Perez Esquivel. He was the founder of the Peace and Justice Service in Latin America in 1974. Founding member of the Argentine Commission for Human Rights. In 1980 he was awarded the Novel Peace Prize for his firm reports on the violation of human rights during the last military dictatorship in Argentina.

www.derechos.org/serpaj/

 Julio Bocca is one of the best dancers in the world and he is responsible for turning classical dance into a show for people from all social and popular classes in the country. Creator of the ballet company “Ballet Argentino”, which is permanently on tour around the world.  

www.juliobocca.com

 Astor Piazzolla. He was one of the most important musician, bandoneón player, composer and conductor of Argentine tango. Adiós Nonino, Libertango, Suite Troileana among his most famous works.   

www.piazzolla.org

Trivia on Argentina

• Argentina was the first independent nation state in the Southern Hemisphere.
• The Universidad Nacional de Córdoba is the second oldest university in South America.
• Five different Argentines have won the Nobel Prize (for Chemistry, Medicine and Peace)
• The city of La Plata was the first in Latin America with electric street illumination.
• The Buenos Aires Subway was the first built in the Southern Hemisphere.
• The city of Mendoza is one of the eight wine capitals of the world.
• Argentines have the highest consumption in the world of red meat.
• The first person to be born on the continent of Antarctica was Emilio Palma, an Argentine citizen, at Esperanza Base.