[Amazing] 25 Cool Facts About Argentina
Argentina is a well-known South American nation with a relatively short history but a very rich and interesting culture. Its impressive, cosmopolitan capital, Buenos Aires, is centered on the sixteenth-century Plaza de Mayo, lined with stately buildings including the Casa Rosada, the iconic, balconied presidential palace. The country is widely known for the tango, elegant architecture, steak, wine, and soccer, while some of the most legendary figures of the twentieth century came from Argentina, including Eva Perón, Che Guevara, and Diego Armando Maradona. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), Argentina is one of the largest countries in the world, the second largest in Latin America behind Brazil, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. Even though the earliest recorded human presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates to the Paleolithic period, the nation has its roots in Spanish colonization during the sixteenth century. With massive waves of European immigration taking place during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, the country radically reshaped its cultural and demographic outlook and took the form it pretty much has today. If this intro is not enough for you, however, here follow 25 Cool Facts About Argentina that will enlighten you about this beautiful country.
The name Argentina comes from the Latin word for silver, argentum. The original European settlers believed the country was full of silver, but the rumor was never verified.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Statistically, Argentina has the largest white (of European ancestry) population of any nation in the Americas. According to the nation’s 2010 census, nearly ninety-seven percent of Argentina’s population (38 million out of 40) was found to be of European or mostly European descent.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
Lionel Messi is widely considered the greatest footballer in the world for this generation, but this is common knowledge among sports fans. What most don’t know, however, is that officials in Rosario, Messi’s hometown, have banned parents from naming their children “Messi” because they were afraid it would cause too much confusion for the locals.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
One of the most popular dances in the world, the tango originated in the slaughterhouse district of Buenos Aires around the end of the nineteenth century. Sometimes described as “making love in a vertical position,” it was thought to originally be a dance for men. However, in the port community of Buenos Aires, female prostitutes became the first official tango dancers in history to seduce their clients.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
Between 1974 and 1983, up to thirty thousand people went “missing” in Argentina. Most were killed by the military junta running the country. Also, during that dictatorship, opponents were pushed out of planes alive with weights attached to their feet so no bodies would be found as evidence.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
One of the most famous first ladies in history and the most admired and loved in Argentina, Eva Perón (portrayed by Madonna in the 1996 film Evita), became a global symbol of freedom and feminism for her political battles. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first elected female president of Argentina (2007–15), once stated that women of her generation owe a debt to Eva for “her example of passion and combativeness.”
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
To get an idea how much the Argentines loved Eva Perón, eight people were crushed to death and more than two thousand injured following her funeral procession.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
Argentina is the third-biggest producer of beef in the world. It produces around 2.8 to 3.5 million tons a year, while the Argentine steak is famous for being one of the biggest and tastiest in the world.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Aconcagua Mountain is not only the highest point in Argentina but also the tallest mountain in the Americas, measuring 22,841 feet (6,962 meters) high. Aconcagua means “stone guard” in an indigenous dialect.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Argentine Spanish is referred to as lunfardo, which is a type of slang that emerged in Buenos Aires around 1900. It is more similar to Italian than Mexican Spanish and may have originated as a form of criminal slang.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: flickr.com, Photo by Oscar
Contrary to popular belief, the most famous revolutionary of the twentieth century and symbol of the Cuban Revolution, Ernesto Che Guevara, was Argentine and not Cuban as many people falsely believe. Guevara was born on June 14, 1928, in Rosario (yep, Messi’s hometown), and was a full Argentine citizen.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
Argentina has been one of the world’s leading producers of wine since the sixteenth century and has approximately 1,800 wineries today. It is currently the world’s fifth-leading producer of wine.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: pexels.com
Abortion is still officially restricted in Argentina, except in cases of rape or where the life of the mother is in danger. However, at least 500,000 illegal abortions are performed there annually.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
Argentina has the world’s second-highest rate of anorexia behind Japan. The vast majority of the patients are women; only one out of eight patients being treated is male.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: flickr.com, Photo by Charlotte Astrid
Buenos Aires has more psychoanalysts and psychiatrists than any other city in the world. It even has its own psychoanalytic district called “Ville Freud.” It is estimated that there are 145 psychologists for every 100,000 residents in the city.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Pope Francis, the current and 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, is a native of Argentina and the first non-European to be chosen to serve in that office. He once worked as a bar bouncer in Buenos Aires.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Argentina was the first country in Latin or South America to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Argentina has the highest rates of movie viewing in the world per capita, and it is the only Latin American country to have won an Academy Award: in 1985 for La Historia Oficial, and in 2010 for El Secreto de Sus Ojos.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
“Poor Niagara!” These were the words Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed when she visited Iguazu Falls for the first time. The term Iguazú means “great waters” in the Guarani language and great waters they are. The falls were established as a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984. Iguazu Falls is one of the most frequented tourist sites in Argentina.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Quirino Cristiani was an Argentine animated film director and cartoonist, responsible for the world’s first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound. Tragically, the only copies of these films were lost in a fire. He is also the first person to create animation solely using cardboard cutouts.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
Argentina is home to arguably the greatest footballer who ever lived: Diego Maradona. The soccer legend is the only athlete worldwide who has his own religion and church created by his dedicated fans, where he’s worshiped as a god.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: commons.wikimedia.org
In 1977, Argentina sent a pregnant woman to Antarctica in order to claim a portion of the continent. Her baby boy, Emilio Palma, became the first human to be born in Antarctica. Argentina also held the first wedding on Antarctica, and both Chile and Argentina have issued passport stamps there.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Argentina is home to the southernmost city in the world. Ushuaia has long been described as the southernmost city in the world, even though Chile claims that Puerto Williams, a Chilean settlement of some two thousand residents, holds the honor. However, Ushuaia, with a population of nearly sixty thousand, has been a commercial and economic center for ages, and thus qualifies more as a city than Puerto Williams.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Argentina is the birthplace of the first child in the world to be legally recognized as having two fathers. Tobías was registered in 2012 to parents Carlos Dermgerd and Alejandro Grinblat, who married in 2011 under Argentina’s Equal Marriage Law.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
Argentina was the first country to use fingerprinting in order to determine if a person was guilty of a crime. The first known example of fingerprinting occurred in June 1892, when police used a bloody fingerprint left on a door to identify Francisca Rojas as the murderer of her two children.
Source: Argentina Facts and Culture - Country Reports, Image: Wikipedia
