Parque San Martín is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

located 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 aft ...

, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Parque San Martín was founded around 1948 by real estate promoters, in the estates belonging to the Etcheverry family. Like many others places in Argentina, the city was named after the Argentine independence hero General

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 177817 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín () or '' the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru'', was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and centr ...

. The city status was conferred by the provincial legislature of

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 ...

on 17 November 1975, in the administration of Francisco Tomeo, last Radical ''Intendente'' (

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

) of

. Parque San Martín is bordered by the cities of Merlo (north and west), Libertad (east) and

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 wh ...

and Mariano Acosta (south).

History

The present-day territory of Parque San Martín was

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

until the 1950s. In the 17th and 18th centuries the land was part of a Jesuit

Estancia An estancia is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the ''pampas'', have historically been estates used to raise livestock, such as cattle or sheep. In Pu ...

and after the suppression of the Order it was confiscated as

public land In all modern states, a portion of land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land, state land, or Crown land (Australia, and Canada). The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countrie ...

. The land was leased to different private investors and by the mid 19th century it was bought by John Wyatt Smith who established one of the finest farms in Buenos Aires. By the turn of the century the estancia was sold to Roberto Cano who built a petit French-like mansion in his estate, still stood as a neighborhood landmark. The building is known as ''Palacio Cano'' (Cano House) as well as the ''Casco de Estancia de los Etcheverry'' (the Etcheverry Family Ranch House) after the last owners of the estancia.

Demographics

According to the , the population was 89,073 people, and although the 2001 census results are not available, it could be around 100,000. The majority of the population belong to the lower middle and working classes and the district suffers from high rates of poverty and unemployment.

Sports

The city is the home of the football club entitled

Deportivo Merlo Club Social y Deportivo Merlo (usually known simply as Deportivo Merlo) is a argentinean football club located in Merlo, Buenos Aires. The team currently plays in Primera B Metropolitana, the third division of the Argentine football league syste ...

History

Demographics

Sports

See also