ARGENTINA, LA

born Sept. 4, 1890, Buenos Aires, Arg. died July 18, 1936, Bayonne, France byname of Antonia Merc Y Luque dancer who originated the Neoclassical style of Spanish dancing and helped establish the Spanish dance as a theatrical art. She studied ballet with her parents, both of whom were professional dancers of Spanish birth. At the age of 11 she became premiere danseuse at the Madrid Opera, but she resigned at 14 to study the native dances of Spain. For many years her style was not accepted for concert performance, and her dancing was limited mainly to cafs and music halls. After World War I she was acclaimed in Paris, where she danced at the Moulin Rouge, among other places. Her first successful solo concert was in 1927 at the Thtre des Champs-lyses in Paris, and, from that time until her death, she gave concerts and recitals in Europe, America, and the East, acclaimed as the finest Spanish dancer of the era. Her interpretation of El amor brujo (by Manuel de Falla), with its Ritual Fire Dance and Dance of Terror, was one of her most famous creations. Her choreography, derived rather than copied from traditional Hispanic dances, displayed the creative possibilities of Spanish dance. Although she eventually formed a small company, she is remembered primarily as a master of the solo. Her technique, particularly on the castanets, was outstanding. The economy Argentina's economy, which is one of the more powerful in the region, has been dominated by manufacturing and agriculture since the 19th century, but its service sector has grown increasingly important. Argentina produces more grain and raises more cattle than any nation in Latin America except Brazil, and its receipts from tourism are second in the region only to those of Mexico. Its gross national product (GNP), GNP per capita, and value added from manufacturing are also among the highest in the region. In the 60 years after the founding of the farming colony at Esperanza in 1856, the base of Argentine agriculture shifted from livestock to crops. The spread of wheat, corn (maize), and flax cultivation roughly conformed to that of the estancia region of the Pampas. Although agriculture there did not become as intensive as it did in North America, soils were good and land was abundant. Argentine industry became important when mostly foreign-dominated manufacturers began exporting processed foods. The growth trend continued well into the 20th century as Argentina became one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America. Meat and grain were exported to expanding markets in Europe in exchange for fuel and manufactured products. In the early decades of the 20th century, Argentina became the world's leading exporter of corn, flax, and meat. Prosperity was curtailed, however, by World War I and the Great Depression of the 1930s, which considerably damaged the Argentine economy by reducing foreign trade. Between 1930 and 1980 Argentina fell from being one of the wealthiest countries in the world to ranking with the developing (Third World) nations. In response to the Great Depression, successive governments from the 1930s to the '70s pursued a strategy of import substitution designed to transform Argentina into a country self-sufficient in industry as well as agriculture. This was accomplished mainly by imposing high tariffs on imports, thereby sheltering Argentine textile, leather, and home-appliance manufacturers from foreign competition. The government's encouragement of industrial growth, however, diverted investment from agriculture, and agricultural production fell dramatically. Fruits, vegetables, oilseed crops such as soybeans and sunflowers, and industrial crops such as sugarcane and cotton increased their share of total agricultural production at the expense of the dominant grain crops. Overall, however, Argentina remained one of the world's major agricultural producers. By 1960 manufacturing contributed more to the country's wealth than did agriculture. Argentina had become largely self-sufficient in consumer goods, but it depended more than ever on imported fuel and heavy machinery. In response, the government invested heavily in such basic industries as petroleum, natural gas, steel, petrochemicals, and transport; it also invited investment by foreign companies. By the mid-1970s Argentina was producing most of its own oil, steel, and automobiles and was also exporting a number of manufactured products. Manufacturing became the largest single component of the gross domestic product (GDP). The country had also become self-sufficient in fuel. The era of import substitution ended in 1976, when the Argentine government lowered import barriers, liberalized restrictions on foreign borrowing, and supported the peso (the Argentine currency) against foreign currencies. These measures were intended to control inflation and increase efficiency by forcing competition on the sheltered Argentine economy. Instead, the measures hurt many domestic manufacturers, whose products could not compete with comparatively inexpensive imports. Between 1975 and 1981 manufacturing's share of the GDP declined from about one-third to one-fourth, and this rapid change was followed by a slower decline over the next decade. At the same time, growing government spending, large wage raises, and inefficient production created a chronic inflation that rose through the 1980s, when it briefly exceeded an annual rate of 1,000 percent. Successive regimes tried to control inflation through wage and price controls, cuts in public spending, and restriction of the money supply. With the peso quickly losing value to inflation, a new peso was introduced in 1983 (with 10,000 old pesos exchanged for each new peso), only to be replaced by the austral in 1985, which was in turn replaced by another new peso in 1992. The measures enacted in 1976 also produced a huge foreign debt. By the late 1980s borrowing from foreign creditors for many state and private-sector industrial schemes had quintupled Argentina's foreign debt, which became equivalent to three-fourths of the GNP. Hyperinflation and unemployment spiraled upward, and the overvalued currency made exports expensive, so that export earnings could not keep pace with the growing debt. Even as the government dismantled parts of the 1976 program, it had to address fundamental defects in Argentina's economy. In terms of percentage of GDP, the country's agricultural and industrial sectors were similar to those of developed countries, but they were considerably less efficient. And, despite a high standard of living by South American standards, Argentina had a foreign debt ratio comparable to that of Third World countries. In the early 1990s the government enacted a program of economic austerity, reined in inflation, and privatized numerous state-run companies, using part of the proceeds from their sale to reduce the national debt. The resulting influx of foreign capital and increased industrial productivity helped to revitalize the economy. In 1995, however, a sudden devaluation of the Mexico peso threatened the economies of many Latin American nations. Argentines feared that investors who had lost money in Mexico would also lose confidence in the Argentine financial system. To avert that threat, the government quickly adopted further austerity measures, which produced a short recession followed by modest growth at the end of the decade. Resources Argentine industry is well served by the country's abundance of energy resources. By the late 20th century the country was self-sufficient in fossil fuels and hydroelectric generation, and it had become a petroleum exporter. Oil deposits are scattered throughout the country. The basin around the Patagonian port of Comodoro Rivadavia is estimated to hold some two-thirds of the country's onshore reserves. Other deposits are located in Jujuy and Salta provinces, in Mendoza and Neuqun provinces, and at the tip of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The main natural gas fields are in the Northwest, near Campo Durn (Salta province) and Mendoza, and in Patagonia, near Neuqun and Comodoro Rivadavia. Prior to the development of these fields in the 1980s, Argentina had imported gas from Bolivia. Argentina mines some coal, but most of its needs are met by imports; the chief coal deposits are in southern Patagonia. With the exception of oil and natural gas, exploitable mineral reserves are generally small and widely scattered. Deposits of iron ore, uranium, lead, zinc, silver, copper, manganese, and tungsten are worked. A wide range of nonmetallic minerals is found throughout the country. Salt deposits are located on the western and southwestern edges of the Pampas, and materials such as clay, limestone, granite, and marble supply the construction industries. Electrical power in Argentina is mainly generated through hydroelectric stations, the total capacity of which has increased exponentially since the early 1970s. The huge Yacyret dam on the lower Paran River, brought on line in 199498, gave the nation a surplus of generating capacity. Argentina, with several nuclear plants, is one of Latin America's main producers of nuclear power. The land Argentina's varied geography can be grouped into four major regions: the Andes, the North, the Pampas, and Patagonia. The Andean region extends some 2,300 miles (3,700 km) along the western edge of the country from Bolivia to southern Patagonia, forming most of the natural boundary with Chile. It is commonly subdivided into two parts: the Northwest and the Patagonian Andes, the latter of which is discussed below under Patagonia. The North is commonly described in terms of its two main divisions: the Gran Chaco, or Chaco, comprising the dry lowlands between the Andes and the Paran River, and Mesopotamia, an area between the Paran and Uruguay rivers. The centrally located plains, or Pampas, are grasslands subdivided into arid western and more humid eastern parts called, respectively, the Dry Pampa and the Humid Pampa. Patagonia is the cold, parched, windy region that extends some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) south of the Pampas, from the Colorado River to Tierra del Fuego. Relief The Northwest This part of the Andes region includes the northern half of the main mountain mass in Argentina and the transitional terrain, or piedmont, merging with the eastern lowlands. The region's southern border is the upper Colorado River. Within the region, the Andean system of north-south-trending mountain ranges varies in elevation from 16,000 to 22,000 feet (4,900 to 6,700 metres) and is interrupted by high plateaus (punas) and basins ranging in elevation from about 10,000 to 13,400 feet (3,000 to 4,080 metres). The mountains gradually decrease in size and elevation southward from Bolivia. South America's highest mountain, Aconcagua (22,831 feet [6,959 metres]), lies in the Northwest, together with a number of other peaks that reach over 21,000 feet (6,400 metres). Some of these mountains are volcanic in origin. To the southeast, where the parallel to subparallel ranges become lower and form isolated, compact units trending north-south, the flat valleys between are called bolsones (basins). This southeastern section of the Northwest is often called the Pampean Sierras, a complex that has been compared to the Basin and Range region of the western United States. It is characterized by west-facing escarpments and gentler east-facing backslopes, particularly those of the spectacular Sierra de Crdoba. The Pampean Sierras have variable elevations, beginning at 2,300 feet (700 metres) in the Sierra de Mogotes in the east and rising to 20,500 feet (6,250 metres) in the Sierra de Famatina in the west. The people Demographic trends The population of Argentina has increased 20-fold since 1869, when 1.8 million people were recorded there by the first census. Population growth was rapid through the early part of the 20th century, but it declined thereafter as both the birth rate and immigration began to drop off; the proportion of young people also declined. Argentina's rates of birth and population growth are now among South America's lowest. The nation's population density is also among the continent's lowest, although certain areas are quite heavily populated, including the Humid Pampa, Mesopotamia, and parts of the eastern Northwest. The population is growing faster in urban areasespecially Buenos Airesthan in the rest of the country. Nearly nine-tenths of the people live in urban areas, about a third in greater Buenos Aires alone. Immigration and ethnicity Heavy immigration, particularly from Spain and Italy, has produced in Argentina a people who are almost all of European ancestry. In the colonial period, though, the Spanish explorers and settlers encountered a number of native peoples. Among these were the Diaguita tribes of the Andean Northwest, a town-dwelling, agricultural people who were forced into labour after they had been conquered. They were divided by the Spanish into small groups and were sent to work in Peru and the Ro de la Plata area. In the Mesopotamian region the semiagricultural Guaran also were forced into labour. Most other Argentine Indians were hunters and gatherers who fought the Spanish tenaciously but were eventually exterminated or driven away. In the Gran Chaco were the Guaycuruan-speaking peoples, among others. The Araucanian Indians came over the mountains from Chile and raided Spanish settlements in the southern Pampas until the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s. Another Pampas Indian tribe was the Querand, who inhabited the region of Buenos Aires. In Patagonia the largest group was the Tehuelche, and on Tierra del Fuego the Ona. Population estimates of the colonial period suggest that by 1810 Argentina had more than 400,000 people. Of these perhaps 30 percent were Indian, their numbers drastically depleted from a pre-Columbian regional population estimated at 300,000. Ten percent of the total were black or mulatto, either slaves or descendants of slaves who had been smuggled into the country through Buenos Aires, and there was a large element of mestizos (European and Indian mixture). European descendants were in the minority. A great wave of European immigration after the mid-1800s molded the present-day ethnic character of Argentina. The Indians and mestizos were pushed aside (mainly to the Andean provinces) or absorbed, and the blacks and mulattos disappeared, apparently also absorbed into the dominant population. Since that time, mestizos from Chile, Bolivia, and Paraguay have grown numerous in bordering regions, but only since the late 20th century has there been substantial immigration from Paraguay and Uruguay into the urban areas of Argentina. Almost half of the European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were Italian, and about one-third were Spanish. Substantial numbers also came from France, Poland, Russia, Germany, and Great Britain. In 1869 the foreign-born made up 12 percent of the population; this grew to about one-third by 1914, and in large cities foreigners outnumbered natives by as much as 2 to 1. As immigration slowed later in the 20th century, the proportion of foreign-born Argentines dropped. The Italian influence on Argentine culture became the most important of any immigrant group, and Italian is still widely spoken in Buenos Aires. Other major foreign influences have come from Spanish and Polish immigrants. Smaller groups have also made notable contributions, however. British capital and management, in particular, built railroads and created the meat-processing industry; the British also left a relatively small but influential community. The Germans established farm settlements and cooperatives, the French contributed their viticultural expertise, and the Japanese invested in business, as did the Syrians and Lebanese. The children of immigrants were quick to identify themselves as Argentines, so the people were not divided into antagonistic ethnic groups. But Argentine society developed a serious division between the rural interior and the urban coast. Many rural people grew to resent the wealth, political power, and cultural affectations of the porteos, the people of the port in the Buenos Aires region, and many porteos looked upon residents of the interior as ignorant peasants. These divisions became deeply rooted in the politics of the country.