Bahía Blanca
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Bahía Blanca is a city located by the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, in the east of Argentina. It has an important sea port with a depth of 40 feet -kept constant upstream almost all along the length of the bay - actually an estuary - where the Naposta stream drains. Its name means "White Bay" in English, so-called because of the typical colour of the salt covering the soils surrounding the shores. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the last national census carried out in 2001. It is the head town of the department named after it, Bahía Blanca Partido. The bay was seen by Ferdinand Magellan during the first circumnavigation around the world on the orders of Charles I of Spain, in 1520, looking for a canal connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean all along the coasts of South America[1][2].
Foundation
The city was founded as a fortress on 11 April 1828 by Colonel Ramón Estomba under the orders of the Governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, being named Fortaleza Protectora Argentina ('Argentine Protective Fortress'), intended to protect dwellers and their cattle from native rustling and also intended to protect the coast from Brazil's navy which had landed in the area the previous year. The fortress was attacked by the malones (hordes of nomad natives mounted on horseback) several times, most notably in 1859 by 3,000 Calfucurá warriors. It became commercially important after the construction of a railroad by the British in 1885 linking the city of Buenos Aires to the town. In doing so, the trade of grains from the Pampas was much facillitated. The fast growth of the local economy, the remarkably benign Argentine laws towards immigration from Europe and the abundance of natural resources of the country attracted many immigrants, mainly from Spain and Italy and a remarkable amount from France who settled in Pigüé, about 125 km to the North of the city. They were visited in 1984 by the President of France, François Mitterrand alongside his host, President Dr Raúl Alfonsín. Another important foreign settlement close to the city was of Dutch settlers, in Tres Arroyos, located about 250 km north east. They were recently visited by HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, her heir HRH Prince Willem-Alexander and her daughter-in-law HRH Princess Máxima, née Máxima Zorreguieta, in Argentina, raised and educated in Buenos Aires.
European immigrants brought their uses and customs that combined and fused with the already existing social conceptions . There were at least five opera houses in Bahía Blanca at the beggining of XXth century and six cinemas by 1920.
Puerto Belgrano, located 29 km to the southwest, is Argentina's largest naval base. Its construction started with a secret decree signed by Argentine President José Evaristo Uriburu. It was designed and built by the turn of the XIXth century (1898-05-12 to 1902-03-08) by Engineer Luigi Luiggi, born in Genoa, Italy and carried out by a Dutch company named Dirks, Dates & Van Hattem detailed in the History of Puerto Belgrano.
Some present features
Bahía Blanca is an important trans-shipping and commercial center, handling the large export trade of grains and wool from the southern area of Buenos Aires Province, oil from Neuquén Province, and fruit from the Río Negro Valley. Its group of sea ports is one of the most important in the country as the only ones that are naturally 33 feet (10 metres) deep, although the depth of the main channel is kept at 40 feet (12.19 metres) by regular maintenance. Along the North East shore of the bay, these ports are Puerto Ingeniero White for grains & containers[3], and Puerto Galván, a smaller one specialising in sunflower and soy oil, and chemicals such as urea. One of the largest urea industrial producers in the world, Profertil, is located there. Between these two main ports, several industrial and chemical plants operate their own piers. The petrochemical pole of the region made the port a very convenient one. Competence between Puerto de Bahía Blanca and those located in the shores of Patagonia (subsidized by provincial governments through the National Treasury [4]) made it stronger and very well organized having received investments from the private sector like Cargill that upgraded facilities in the 1980's. The combination of a railroad network for grains linking Rosario (Santa Fe Province, by the shore of Paraná River) to Bahía Blanca, its trade potential, linking also Bahía Blanca to Zapala, very close to the border to Chile and then to the Pacific Ocean shores avoiding days of navigation through Ferrocarril Transandino del Sur, the availability of energy (natural gas and electricity) and human resources make the area quite an interesting one from the industrial and commercial perspectives. Some of these convenient features can be extensively explained on CREBBA reports.
CREBBA, standing for Centro Regional de Estudios Económicos de Bahía Blanca, is a private and independent non-governmental organization in the city, supported by Bolsa de Comercio de Bahía Blanca, that studies and publishes reports on the evolution of local and regional economical and financial aspects of relevance [5]. Their growing reputation, widely proven by the acceptance and accuracy of their reports, means a valuable and accurate source of information regarding the economy of the area. The Board of Directors and its staff members are indeed quite a remarkable team of experts.
There are two daily short-haul flights from Bahía Blanca (BHI) to the domestic flights airport at Buenos Aires (AEP) named "Aeroparque" during weekdays and once a day on Saturday and Sunday, whose carrier is just one: Aerolineas Argentinas. The local airport's runways belong to the Navy Aviation (BACE, standing for Base Aeronaval Comandante Espora). There is a civilian terminal supported by the City Council appart from the military one. The bus terminal of the city, in the process of being remodelled, services the whole country. The bus transportation system has a wider range of short, medium and long haul connections and destinations offering lots of overnight trips from Bahía Blanca to Buenos Aires, to hundreds of cities and towns throughout the country and also to neighbour countries such as Chile.
Culture and education
The city is a developed one including cultural and educational aspects. It has a permanent Symphony Orchestra, Classical Ballet (Ballet del Sur), a tertiary education institute: Instituto Superior Juan XXIII, probably linked to the future University Don Bosco), another tertiary institute of humanities Instituto Avanza and two National Universities. One is Facultad Regional Bahía Blanca Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, devoted mainly to exact sciences and intended for students who do have a job for making a living, with formal activities in the evening.
The other important national university is named Universidad Nacional del Sur (National University of the South), founded in January 1956. It has associated internationally-known institutes of research in biological, biochemical and technological sciences such as INIBIB and Instituto de Oceanografia, among others. One of its Directors, Dr Francisco Barrantes has been recently appointed as a member of the Executive Council of the Academy of Sciences of Latin America for the term 2006-2012. He is a reputed and well known scientist whose research on proteins of the Central Nervous System is considered as a reference for many of his international and national colleagues. Both national universities are free of tuiton fees for all students.
Nobel laureate César Milstein was raised in Bahía Blanca. He studied at the Colegio Nacional and graduated as "Bachiller" in 1944. Then he moved to Buenos Aires where he completed his education and university degree, starting his research in Biochemistry at Instituto Malbran, after which he moved to the United Kingdom, becoming Professor at Cambridge University, where he was awarded Nobel Prize for the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies for which he did not register any patent, which may otherwise have made him very rich. He thought his discovery was intellectual property of mankind and as such he left his intellectual legacy: of no financial but only scientific interest.
The educational system has been transformed by the Province of Buenos Aires through its Secretary of Education and it is still being modified. What used to be a system with primary (mandatory) and secondary (non-mandatory) education before continuing university studies (the 'French model') became Basic General Education (mandatory) and Polimodal Education (the 'Spanish-Catalan model') although nowadays it is being reviewed and likely to be modified again. Free education is granted by the state although there are semi-private and private schools.
There are reputed provincial Schools of Plastic Arts and Music, free of tuition fees. Foreign languages are taught at public schools at a rather basic level. However, there are local foreign language schools such as the Asociación Bahiense de Cultura Inglesa (English, also taught by many other institutions), the Alliance Française (French), the Dante Alighieri Society (Italian) and Goethe-Institut (German), all of them private although with a good amount of students. Portuguese is also taught. There used to be a school of Basque language at "Unión Vasca" also named "Euzkadi" with a much smaller group of students.
Overview of religions
The city has a neoclassical Cathedral which is the See of the Archdiocese of Bahía Blanca, head of the Ecclesiastical province of Bahía Blanca, encompassing the Dioceses of the whole Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, whose suffragant sees are: Diocese of Alto Valle del Río Negro, Diocese of Comodoro Rivadavia, Diocese of Río Gallegos, Diocese of San Carlos de Bariloche, Diocese of Santa Rosa and Diocese of Viedma. The Archbishop is, as of 2006, Monsignor Guillermo José Garlatti [6] whose Pallio was imposed by Pope John Paul II in a Formal Mass of Imposition at St Peter's Square on 28 June 2003 (St Peter's & St Paul's Day). His predecessor was HVRE Monsignor Rómulo García who passed away in 2005 and was successor of HVRE Monsignor Jorge Mayer, Archbishop Emeritus -still working for the Archdiocese-. Both -at their respective moments- resigned as Archbishops when they turned to be 80 years of age, as it has been ruled by The Pope. The ones before him were HVRE Monsignor Germiniano Esorto and HVRE Monsignor Leandro B Astelarra. The Archbishop is the natural president of Caritas Arquidiocesana, an organization in charge of social assistance to homeless, unemployed, feeding children and helping all those in need, within their possibilities. Caritas is self-supported for which it is needed the help of catholics, non catholics and non-governmental organizations. Most of the society trust Caritas as one of the best reputed and transparent organizations for social assistance in the country.
The vast majority of the inhabitants of the city are Roman Catholics alhough there are Protestant churches and a Synagogue. There is no Mosque in Bahía Blanca although there are Muslims. There is religious tolerance with no signs of discrimination by religious belief, a common nationwide Argentinian feature.
Architecture
The city has the common features of all those founded by the Spanish and their descendants: a main square at the centre surrounded by main buldings. The City Hall and the Church are on opposite although facing sides. Buildings of administrative importance also surround the main square or are located nearby. The planning which took place before its foundation and during its early beginning conceived streets parallel to the sides of the main square. Almost all the blocks are then rectangular in shape. As the city developed the streets were extended and more rectangular blocks were added at the edges. The Administration of the City decided then to observe a plan of development probably about 1960's, when it might have been ruled that further developments would follow established criteria according to their purpose: permanent dwellers, public places, industries.
Most of the city has terraced houses although detached houses surrounded by extense gardens are well developed in some areas such as "barrio Palihue", with an adjacent golf course at Club de Golf Palihue. "Barrio Patagonia" and country clubs for permanent and also for week-end dwellers were designed and developed at the outskirts of the city.
The architecture of Bahía Blanca is notable as well. Public buildings such as the Banco de la Nación, Cámara de Comercio de Bahía Blanca (Chamber of Commerce, the stock exchange), the main Post Office, the former building of the local newspaper La Nueva Provincia,the City Hall, the Rectorate and academic departments of Universidad del Sur, its 'Casa de la Cultura', Teatro Municipal (Opera House of the city), Biblioteca Rivadavia and Club Argentino, amongst others, are well-considered pieces of architecture, most of them extremely well preserved. Some of them are of French Neoclassical influence (L'École des Beaux Arts, Paris).
There are excellent monuments and pieces of sculpture scattered all along the city: in the streets, main buildings and green spaces such as Caronti's bust, facing the City Hall, the Memorial to Bernardino Rivadavia, at the centre of the main square, Fuente de los Ingleses and Memorial of the Israeli community, in the same square. The statue of José de San Martín, in Parque de Mayo, the sculpture group of Lola Mora in the fountain at the front of Universidad del Sur, the memorial to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the statue of Isabel I of Castile in front of the bus station, donated by the Government of Spain (no such pieces are donated to non capital cities as it has been this case, enhancing the importance of the local Spanish descendants), the pieces which decorate the frontispieces of Banco de la Nación, Edificio Banco Provincia, to the side of the City Hall, Saint George and the Dragon of the former electrical power plant of Ingeniero White in the Port, the ones of the former building of La Nueva Provincia and those of the Cathedral are unique, as well as the modern art ones which form the group of Paseo de las Esculturas, indeed remarkable. Although not a sculpture, the mural mosaic of Colegio Don Bosco, on the corner of Vieytes and Moreno streets, by Aurelio Friedrich -a local plastic artist- is to be mentioned. All of them do enrich the architectural, artistic and cultural patrimony and heritage of the City.
General aspects, shopping, administration, museums, tourism in the area
Two shopping centres are located at the outskirts of the city and many shops in the centre itself are quite active and offer a variety of first line goods and products. On week-ends, mainly on Saturday there is a craftmanship fair in the street at Plaza Rivadavia, the main square, where all kind of hand made goods are available. There is also a variety of megastores, some of them locally and regionally developed competing with branches of international companies. Most of them are open even on Sundays, although this is now under review and local unions have lobbied for businesses and shops to close on Sundays. The interim City Mayor also seems to favour this initiative.
The interim Mayor is in office April 2006 due to a local political crisis from which the elected Mayor requested time-off leave which was allowed by the City Council on March 27 2006 at the time that a judiciary process has started -and continues being carried on by the Judiciary system-[7][8][9]. However, on August 24 2006 the City Council decided , for the first time in the institutional history of the city, that the former elected Mayor be dismissed. The interim Mayor and former President of the City Council will then complete the present term. Subsequently, from then onwards the interim Mayor became The Mayor [10][11].
There are several museums in the city which include the Port Museum, the History Museum, the Fine Arts Museum and the Contemporary Arts Museum, the last one headed by Betiana Gerardi.
A very peculiar and quite interesting museum is the one organized by the Army at its local See Comando del V Cuerpo de Ejército at which a miniaturized recreation of the original Fortress is on display, made by César Puliafito, as well as a quite interesting collection of ancient maps, documents and pieces alongside one of the most important -and rather unknown- libraries of history in the region: this one and the one of the Salesians, at Inspectoría San Francisco Javier (Head of the Salesians of Don Bosco for the whole Patagonia) have fantastic collections with many priceless documents related to the conquest and civilization of Patagonia, almost completely carried out by the Army and the Salesians. The Army Museum of History of Bahía Blanca is open to the public with guided tours being available on appointment. All museums in the city have free admission.
Other libraries of the city are the main public one, whose building has been already named: Biblioteca Bernardino Rivadavia, one of the oldest of the area with a superb collection of about 160,000 books, some of them priceless, newspapers and magazines, the library of Universidad Nacional del Sur[[12]], also remarkable and open to the public, not only to the students, and smaller libraries in the different neighbourgs, most of them assisted and supported by the City Council.
Multiple green spaces have been created in the city: Plaza Rivadavia (its main square), Parque de Mayo, Paseo de las Esculturas, Parque Independencia, Plaza 9 de Julio, and Plaza Villa Mitre, are the most familiar ones. Cinemas, discos, a variety of restaurants and pubs are available, many of them overnight.
Bahía Blanca has also two zoos: a municipal one, with a variety of species and permanent veterinarians and personnel looking after the animals, and a private one in the outskirts of the town. Besides the usual areas included when the city is to be shown to somebody who is unfamiliar with it, other areas of interest include the Barrio Inglés ('English Quarter') where the British foremen and technicians who built the railways and ports lived, and Villa Harding Green, a suburb where the railway and port managers dwelled.
There are Non-Governmental Organizations such as The International Red Cross, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs and multiple cultural and community associations, some of them intended to group descendants of immigrants promoting their culture strengthening them with those already established.
At the shores close to the city there are recreational places such as "Balneario Maldonado" and "Colón" . The Estuary has been graded and listed as The Natural Reserve of Bahía Blanca, Bahía Falsa and Bahía Verde, including the Islands Zuraitas, Bermejo, Trinidad, Embudo, Wood and smaller ones accounting for a surface of about 30,000 hectares, by Provincial Law 12101 effective as of 1998[13]. Fishing sharks is becoming an attraction for an increasing amount of people, some of whom travel from all along the country to do it, in determined areas of the Estuary where it is permitted whether it be on boat or from small piers in the islands of the bay.
Those who are keen of pleasant beaches with sand and given the characteristics of the estuary -the soil is mud instead of sand or pebbles- must reach its south east limits located about 100 km (62 mi) away by road, where Pehuén-Có and Monte Hermoso are located. Both are popular beaches with warm water and available facilities for tourism, restaurants, hotels and properties to let during the summer.
People who prefer the mountains can easily travel to Sierra de la Ventana about 100 km (62 mi) to the North by road. The highest peak of this mountain range is Cerro Ventana of 1,134 metres (3720 ft) above the sea level. Parque Provincial Ernesto Tornquist[14], a natural reserve encompasses it. The area offers an interesting variety of touristic activities as well as restaurants, hotels and alpine-style cottages to let.
Weather
It is of continental type favoured by the location of the city by the ocean with warm superficial streams by the shores. Since the city is located in the limit between Pampas and Patagonia, it is warm and more humid to the North and varies rapidly to the South becoming dryer. Average temperatures are warm. Average rainfall is on the threshold of 550mm/year. There is no snow in winter. Summers are hot. March, September, October and November are when most of rainfall is expected. Autumn and winter tend to be windy. It should be kept in mind that the city is located in the southern (austral) hemisphere: summer starts on 21st December ending 21st March. Winter starts on 21st July ending on 21st September. Local GMT is not adjustued to the daylight according to the season, as it happens in most of the world. GMT -4 hours runs from March to October/ GMT -3 hours runs from October to March.
Sports
Facilities for playing football, tennis, rugby, golf, indoors swimming, indoors and outdors basketball and some other sports are easily available throughout the area. There are two large indoors basketball stadiums with about 3000 to 3500 seats each, three important football stadiums close to the city centre. There is one golf club with three courts of 9 holes each, driving range and putting green where courtesy for visitant players is observed. Two more golf courses are available in the area, one in a country club and the other in Puerto Belgrano. There is a variety of very good tennis courts and at least four rugby leagues. Swimmers can count on both ourdoors and indoors swimming pools, some of which have olympic dimensions being available the whole year. A variety of facilities for gymnastics, fitness, aerobics and other sports can be easily found.
Since the 1950s, Bahía has been considered the lead city of Argentine basketball. Well internationally known players are Emanuel Ginóbili (NBA, San Antonio Spurs, Texas) and Juan Ignacio "Pepe" Sánchez (with a degree in History from Temple University, US, settled in Spain, -playing- at present). Both of them are Olympic Games winners (Athens, 2004) and members of the present National Team playing the FIBA World Championship in Japan whose coach, Sergio Hernández, is also from Bahía Blanca. Former players Alberto Cabrera (deceased) and Atilio Fruet (retired) are also well remembered at national and local levels. The city's main football (soccer) teams are Olimpo and Villa Mitre. The first one played in the Argentine first division until relegation in 2006. Argentina national football team coach Alfio Basile is also a bahiense.
Health and publications
The illiteracy rate of the city, as well as the neonatal and infantile mortality rates, are amongst the lowest in the country. Besides the national censuses -which take place every ten years-, the Ministry of Economy carries out periodical regional censuses sampling urban areas collecting data on economic and social indexes, such as Encuesta Permanente de Hogares by Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censosamong others.
There is one local and regional newspaper (already cited) and regularly published indexed scientific journals such as Revista Científica de la Asociación Médica de Bahía Blanca(Bahía Blanca Medical Association Scientific Journal) in Spanish with abstracts in both Spanish and English. EDIUNS, the publisher of Universidad Nacional del Sur, produces what Scientists, Professors and Lecturers edit facillitating them all the processes related to publishing including copyright procedures which is benefitial for both editors and readers. CREBBA publications (already cited) are indeed remarkable ones regarding financial and economical aspects of the city and its area of influence. They also comment on macroeconomic aspects of the Nation.
There are two big hospitals in the city: a provincial one named Hospital Dr José Penna and a municipal one named Hospital Municipal Dr Leónidas Lucero, both of them tertiary centres for assistance and referalls throughout the region. The health care system is free of charge to any legal resident of the Nation. Public Health is the responsibility of both the Province of Buenos Aires and the City, which have a network of public clinics throughout the city and the region taking care of people as primary health carers. There are also private health care institutions. There is one physician for every 266 inhabitants. Public health is coordinated between the Minister of Health of the Buenos Aires Province, who has a Delegate in Bahía Blanca (Zona Sanitaria I), and the City Administration under the supervision of the local Secretary of Health appointed directly by the city Mayor. Aspects of interest about the City and Council Administration can be found on its website in both Spanish and English [15].
Consulates
The city is the seat of several foreign consulates including the Spanish [16], Italian [17] and Chilean [18]. There are also Honorary Consulates of France [19] and The Netherlands.
References and external links
- Template:Es icon Academia Nacional de Historia: Nueva Historia de la Nación Argentina, Planeta, Buenos Aires, 2001
- Template:Es icon Comando del V Cuerpo de Ejército: El Fortinero
- Template:Es icon Rosati H, Palma D, Matte M, Rodríguez A: La Expansión Europea, Siglos XIV y XV [20]
- Template:En icon Construction of Puerto Belgrano
- Template:En icon Bahía Blanca Port
- Template:Es icon Desciption of Patagonia by Thomas Faulkner, 1835, translated into Spanish
- Template:Es icon Ferrocarril Transandino del Sur
- Template:Es icon Profertil, producer of urea
- Template:En icon Aerolineas Argentinas, air carrier
- Template:Es icon Airports of Argentina
- Template:Es icon Facultad Regional Bahía Blanca, UTN
- Template:Es icon Consulate of Spain at Bahía Blanca
- Template:Es icon Template:It icon General Consulate of Italy of Bahía Blanca
- Template:Es icon Honorary Consulate of France at Bahía Blanca
- Template:Es icon Chilean Consulate at Bahía Blanca
- Template:Es icon The Administration of the City
- Template:Es icon Ley de Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
- Template:Es icon Revista Científica de la Asociación Médica de Bahía Blanca
- Template:Es icon Club de Golf Palihue
- Template:En icon Dr Francisco Barrantes, UNESCO Chair of Biophysics & Molecular Neurobiology, and Institute of Biochemical Research Universidad Nacional del Sur CONICET Argentina
- Template:Es icon La Nueva Provincia
- Template:Es icon Biblioteca Rivadavia
- Template:Es icon Comando del V Cuerpo de Ejército
- Template:Es icon Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos
- Template:En icon "Bahía Blanca." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.[21].
- Template:Es icon Reserva Natural Bahía Blanca
- Template:Es icon Centro Regional de Estudios Económicos de Bahía Blanca-Argentina
- Template:Es icon Library, Universidad Nacional del Sur