Barrio Sur is a ''

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...

'' (neighbourhood or district) of

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. It borders

Ciudad Vieja Ciudad Vieja () is a town and municipality in the Guatemalan Departments of Guatemala, department of Sacatepéquez. According to the 2018 census, the town has a population of 32,802 central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

to the north,

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

to the east and the coastline to the south. Politically located in the Municipality B, along with

, it is the place where most of the

Uruguayan Carnival Carnival in Uruguay is a festival that takes place every year in Uruguay from mid January to late February. It is considered to be the longest carnival in the world. The Carnival draws root from candombe, Murga and tablados, which are forms of e ...

festivities take place. In the first half of the 20th century, the neighbourhood became a

melting pot A melting pot is a Monoculturalism, monocultural metaphor for a wiktionary:heterogeneous, heterogeneous society becoming more wiktionary:homogeneous, homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" with a common culture; an alternative bei ...

of different cultures, due to the immigrants who settled in the area.

History

The neighborhood emerged in the first half of the 19th century, when the city walls were demolished, and a part of the population –mainly

Afro-Uruguayans Afro-Uruguayans (), also known as Black Uruguayans (), are Uruguayans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. Afro-Uruguayans are generally considered the second-largest ethnic group in the country, although ...

, who had been freed after the abolition of slavery in 1842– began to settle in the southern area of the city, living in

tenements A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

called ''conventillos'', such as the ''Mediomundo.'' The first inhabitants of the neighborhood maintained some of the rituals of their countries of origin. From these rituals the

Candombe ''Candombe'' is a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves. In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed ''candombe'' in its Rep ...

was born. Starting at the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century, the area was inhabited by thousands of European immigrants. Due to this, the neighborhood became a

of Afro-Uruguayan,

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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, and

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

cultures. The southwest area of the neighborhood was part of ''El Bajo'', an urban area that also included part of the south of Ciudad Vieja, and which contained a large number of cabarets and brothels. It was demolished in the 1930s due to the construction of the south rambla.

Culture

Barrio Sur remains connected to Afro-Uruguay culture to this day. It is central to the

Carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

festivities and ''

'' is regularly played during the weekends. In 2022, the mayor of Montevideo,

Carolina Cosse Ana Carolina Cosse Garrido (born 25 December 1961) is a Uruguayan engineer and politician who is serving as the Vice President of Uruguay since 2025, after winning the 2024 Uruguayan general election, 2024 general election. She has been Intendant ...

, proposed renaming a street in Barrio Sur to honor the LGBT rights activist and travesti,

Gloria Meneses Gloria Meneses (1910 – 1996) was a Uruguayan performer and activist who lived openly as travesti from 1950 until her death. Highly unusual in Latin America at the time, Meneses' life has been widely honoured in films and exhibitions. Life ...

Places of worship

* Synagogue of the Israelite Community of Uruguay (

)

References

External links

Intendencia de Montevideo / Useful data / Barrio Sur

Intendencia de Montevideo / Historia del Sur y Palermo

Barrios of Montevideo {{Montevideo-stub

History

Culture

Places of worship

See also

References

External links