San Vicente is a town and administrative centre of
San Vicente Partido, in the
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
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 ...
, Argentina. The southernmost town in the
Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, San Vicente is from downtown Buenos Aires, and can be accessed from
Constitución Station by bus via Line 79 or a 20-minute drive by Provincial Route 58 from
Ezeiza International Airport
Ministro Pistarini International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional Ministro Pistarini) , also known as Ezeiza International Airport owing to its location in the Ezeiza Partido in Greater Buenos Aires, is an international airport s ...
. The city has about 21,000 inhabitants per the .
History
Named in honor of the 14th century
Dominican friar Saint
Vincent Ferrer
Vincent Ferrer, OP ( ca-valencia, Sant Vicent Ferrer , es, San Vicente Ferrer, it, San Vincenzo Ferreri, german: Sankt Vinzenz Ferrer, nl, Sint-Vincent Ferrer, french: Saint Vincent Ferrier; 23 January 1350 – 5 April 1419) was a Kingdom of V ...
, the site was first settled as an
Indian Reduction in 1618 by
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
conquistadores and was initially known as ''Laguna de la Reducción''. Luis Pessoa y Figueroa, a landowner from
Magdalena and member of the
Buenos Aires Cabildo
The Cabildo of Buenos Aires ( es, Cabildo de Buenos Aires) is the public building in Buenos Aires that was used as seat of the town council during the colonial era and the government house of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Today the bu ...
, bought much of the land south of the San Vicente Lagoon (then known as ''Laguna del Ojo'') in 1696, and his son, Juan Bautista Pessoa, established a small settlement in 1734. A fort, ''Fortín El Zajón'', was built here by the Blandengues cavalry corps in 1750. Luis Pessoa's grandson, Friar Vicente Pessoa, established the area's first Catholic
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
in 1781 and on 30 December 1784, the county of Magdalena was formally divided into among two other towns, San Vicente.
The village was made a county seat by the establishment of one of the province's first
Justice of the Peace courts in 1822. Governor
Juan José Viamonte
Juan José Viamonte González (February 9, 1774 – March 31, 1843) was an Argentine general in the early 19th century.
Life and Politics
Viamonte was born in Buenos Aires and entered the army in his youth following in his father's footstep ...
founded the area's first large
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 ...
, ''La Martiniana'', in 1824, and the subsequent establishment of numerous
English Argentine
English Argentines (also known as Anglo-Argentines) are citizens of Argentina or the children of Argentine citizens brought up in Argentina, who can claim ancestry originating in England. The English settlement in Argentina (the arrival of Eng ...
settlers made San Vicente the provincial capital of
sheep farming
Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat (lamb and mutton), milk (sheep's milk), and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin an ...
by 1854, with over 558,000 head. Recurrent flooding from surrounding swampland led provincial authorities to propose relocating the town. Local residents rejected the proposal, however, and on 27 January 1856, the Municipality of San Vicente was formally established.
[
The town grew slowly but steadily, and in 1896 a ]tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
service was inaugurated. This era of growth was interrupted by World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the coinciding collapse of the wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
market; but the inaugural in 1928 of a Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway
The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) ( es, Ferrocarril del Sud) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company was founded by Edward Lumb in 1862 ...
rail link to Buenos Aires brought renewed growth to San Vicente. The Ramón Carrillo
Ramón Carrillo (7 March 1906 – 20 December 1956) was an Argentine neurosurgeon, neurobiologist, physician, academic, public health advocate, and from 1949 to 1954 the nation's first Minister of Public Health.
Early life and education
Car ...
Hospital, the town's first, was inaugurated in 1949. The local rail station was closed amid budget cuts in 1978.[ San Vicente is also slated to house the National Cattle Ranchers' Market, although the 2001 Buenos Aires municipal ordinance mandating its relocation from the ]Mataderos
Mataderos (Spanish for "slaughterhouses") is a ''barrio'' (neighbourhood) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is one of the three ''barrios'' that make up the Comuna 9, alongside Liniers and Parque Avellaneda. Located in the south-west end of the city, ...
borough to San Vicente has been repeatedly postponed due to cattle vendor objections to the cost of relocation.
San Vicente became a bedroom community
A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
in later decades of the 20th century, and numerous well-known figures in Argentine sports, history, and culture have resided there. These included Emilie Schindler
Emilie Schindler (née Pelzl; ; 22 October 1907 – 5 October 2001) was a Sudeten German-born woman who, with her husband Oskar Schindler, helped to save the lives of 1,200 Jews during World War II by employing them in his enamelware and muniti ...
; writer Rodolfo Walsh
Rodolfo Jorge Walsh (January 9, 1927 – March 25, 1977) was an Argentine writer and journalist of Irish descent, considered the founder of investigative journalism. He is most famous for his '' Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta'', w ...
; comics artist Dante Quinterno
Dante Quinterno (Buenos Aires City, October 26, 1909Buenos Aires City, May 14, 2003) was an Argentine comics artist, agricultural producer, and prolific editorial businessman, famous for being the creator of the Patoruzú, Isidoro Cañones and ...
; former Argentina national football team captain Jorge Brown
Jorge Gibson Brown (3 April 1880 – 3 January 1936) was an Argentine footballer of Scottish ancestry, who was one of the most important figures in the early years of the sport in that country.[Alejandro Korn
Alejandro Korn (3 May 1860 – 9 October 1936) was an Argentine psychiatrist, philosopher, reformist and politician. For eighteen years, he was the director of the psychiatry hospital in Melchor Romero (a locality of La Plata in Buenos Aires) ...]
(after whom a neighboring town is named); and arguably the town's most famous residents, populist leaders Evita Evita may refer to:
Arts
* Evita (1996 film), ''Evita'' (1996 film), a 1996 American musical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name
* Evita (2008 film), ''Evita'' (2008 film), a documentary about Eva Péron
* Evita (album), ''E ...
and Juan Perón, who purchased a weekend home in San Vicente in 1947.[ This is today the site of the 17 de Octubre Museum, to which Juan Perón's remains were relocated from ]La Chacarita Cemetery
Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is known as the National Cemetery and is the largest in Argentina.
Location
The cemetery is in the barrio or district of Chacarita, in the western part of Buenos Aires. Its main entrance i ...
(Buenos Aires) on 17 October 2006.
External links
*
Web San Vicente
References
{{reflist
San Vicente Partido
Populated places in Buenos Aires Province
Populated places established in 1784