Veinte de Junio is a town located 35 km from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, in

La Matanza ''La Matanza'' (Spanish for "The Massacre") refers to a communist-indigenous rebellion in El Salvador that took place between 22 and 25 January 1932. It was succeeded by large-scale government killings in western El Salvador, which resulted ...

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

, Argentina. Veinte de Junio is an outback sleepy rural town, relatively isolated from the rest of the

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires ( es, Gran Buenos Aires, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area ( es, Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the adjac ...

. The town and railway station, ''Estación 20 de Junio'', were named after Argentina’s

Nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

al Flag Day: June 20. According to the , the population was 828. The town is bordered by

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the ''Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality whi ...

(north),

González Catán González Catán is a city located in La Matanza Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The city is the second-largest by area in the county (52 km²), and the second most-populous. The city is located near the southwestern end of the Gr ...

(east),

Marcos Paz Marcos Paz (1813 – January 2, 1868) was Governor of Córdoba and Tucumán Provinces, an Argentine Senator, and Vice President of Argentina from October 12, 1862, until his death in 1868. Biography Marcos Paz was born to a prominent Tu ...

(southwest) and

Virrey del Pino Virrey del Pino is a city in La Matanza Partido, in the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina. With a total of 117 km², it is the most extensive city in the La Matanza Partido. It is crossed by the RN 3 between kilometers 34 and 48. In this ...

(southeast). ''Alejo Castex'' is the only paved street and it is lined with tall trees and weekend-houses; only can be heard the

bird songs Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by func ...

of thousands of

rufous-bellied thrush The rufous-bellied thrush (''Turdus rufiventris'') is a songbird of the thrush family (Turdidae). It occurs in most of east and southeast Brazil from Maranhão south to Rio Grande do Sul states, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and central regions of A ...

es,

chalk-browed mockingbird The chalk-browed mockingbird (''Mimus saturninus'') is a bird in the family mimidae. It is found in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Suriname, and Uruguay. Taxonomy and systematics The chalk-browed mockingbird has four subspecies, the n ...

rufous hornero The rufous hornero (''Furnarius rufus'') is a medium-sized ovenbird in the family Furnariidae. It occurs in eastern South America, and is the national bird of Argentina. Also known as the red ovenbird, it is common in savannas, second-growth scr ...

s and the far-away roar of

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

s working on the

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

s. Veinte de Junio only counts with a general store, a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

, and a

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

and

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

public school; for almost everything the town depends from the nearby city of

, in

Merlo Partido Merlo is a '' partido'' of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, west of the city of Buenos Aires. Its capital is the city of Merlo. The region of the present-day partido was colonized shortly after ...

. For many residents the isolation is the cause of the lack of development of the town; for many others it’s a blessing because the remoteness makes Veinte de Junio a safe place to live, a place where crime and delinquency are very rare. The town grew around a railway station built in the first decade of the 20th century by the French–owned company ''Compagnie Générale de Chemins de Fer dans la Province de Buenos Aires'', 4 km from Pontevedra. In fact, by those days the station was known as ''Estación Pontevedra''. The land around the station was urbanized forty years later, in 1947, and it was known as ''Parque Ibáñez–Estación Pontevedra'', but its name changed in 1949 when the partidos boundaries of Merlo and La Matanza were established. The railway station was left within the jurisdiction of La Matanza, while Pontevedra then came within the jurisdiction of Merlo. During

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...

’s administration, the state-run railway system was privatized and thousands of kilometers of tracks were closed; ''Estación 20 de Junio'' was closed on March 13, 1993. The train station seems to be frozen in time; during the weekends, groups of bikers spend leisure time in

bicycle touring Bicycle touring is the taking of self-contained cycling trips for pleasure, adventure or autonomy rather than sport, commuting or exercise. Bicycle touring can range from single-day trips to extended travels spanning weeks or months. Tours may be ...

, following the dead rail tracks, and it is very common to see them stopping by Estación 20 de Junio. The residents, organized in a non-government association, had been working in order to reestablished the train service between González Catán and Veinte de Junio. At the entrance of the town a narrow creek flows slowly meandering through the farms; the creek is called ''Arroyo de la Cañada Pantanosa''. The creek drains to

La Matanza River The River The Matanza River is known by several names, including, in Spanish, Río de la Matanza ("the slaughter river" in English), Río Matanza ("slaughter river"), Río Mataderos ("slaughterhouses river"), Río de la Manzana ("the apple rive ...

and during springtime the countryside blooms with wild flowers alongside the creek, evoking bucolic scenes.

Population

In 1991 the population of Veinte de Junio was 102 and ten years later it grew to 828. According to the Provincial Office of Statistics, the figures for 2001 are as follow: *The percentage of households with unsatisfied basic needs was 13.83%. *The literacy rate was 97.61%. *People in Veinte de Junio obtain water from

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...

s and

rainwater tank A rainwater tank (sometimes called a rain barrel in North America in reference to smaller tanks, or a water butt in the UK) is a water tank used to collect and store rain water runoff, typically from rooftops via pipes. Rainwater tanks are devices ...

s and the percentage of households with water supplied by pipe was 1.19%; there is no sewerage system.

Images of ''Estación 20 de Junio''

Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 01.jpg Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 03.jpg Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 04.jpg Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 05.jpg Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 06.jpg Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 07.jpg Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 08.jpg Image:Veinte de Junio Railway Station 09.jpg

External links

Municipality of La Matanza

* ttp://diarionco.com/a3307/nota8.html The day when the last whistle was heard in 20 de Junio. {{DEFAULTSORT:Veinte De Junio La Matanza Partido Populated places in Buenos Aires Province