Merlo, Buenos Aires
Encyclopedia
Merlo is the head town of the eponymous partido
of Merlo
and seat of the municipal government, located in the Greater Buenos Aires
urban area.
The city was founded by Francisco de Merlo in 1755 and rebuilt by Juan Dillon in 1859.
Merlo is divided in two distinctive regions: Merlo Centro, a middle class
district clustered around the train station; and the working class
barrio
s, most of them along the Reconquista River
.
The administrative and commercial center is around the main avenue, Avenida del Libertador General San Martín. This tree-covered avenue stretches seven blocks from the railway station to the historic district and has few buildings reaching over two storyes in height.
Merlo is bordered by Moreno City
and Paso del Rey
—both cities in Moreno Partido
— and the Reconquista River
(northwest), San Antonio de Padua
(north), Libertad and Parque San Martín (east) and Mariano Acosta (south).
Francisco Javier de Merlo y Barbosa was born in Seville
, Spain
, on August 11, 1693 and died in Buenos Aires
on April 4, 1758. Merlo arrives to Buenos Aires in the early 18th century and made a fortune and became part of the Buenos Aires upper class; Merlo served as notary public
in the municipal government or cabildo
of Buenos Aires. He also was a laity
member of the Third Order of
Our Lady of Mercy
. He married Francisca del Toro in 1713 and they had eleven children. After widowed he married María Teresa Gamiz de las Cuevas in 1748, who gave him a son.
In 1729 the notary public Francisco Sánchez Botija dies in Buenos Aires and his last will
was his fortune were gave to his compatriot, friend and compadre
Francisco de Merlo with the condition that a sanctuary were built to his memory and fifty masses
were celebrated every year for the absolution of his soul.
With that fortune Merlo bought many haciendas in the western countryside and by the middle of the 18th century he established a large state between the upper Reconquista
and upper Matanza
rivers, seven leagues
(35 km.) from Buenos Aires.
Merlo built his ranch-house on high ground overlooking the nearby Camino Real del Oeste
, a road that linked Buenos Aires with Lima
, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru
. At its side Merlo erected a private
oratory
, fulfilling the last will of his compadre and it was consecrated to saint Anthony of Padua
and the Immaculate Conception
.
For many years the oratory served as parish church of the huge and almost unpopulated Parish
of La Matanza.
He also established one of the first schools outside Buenos Aires in where the locals could learn to read and write; the school was entrusted to the mercedarian
friars.
authorization to found a village
on his estates and it was granted in 1755.
On August 28, 1755 Francisco de Merlo founds the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino, offering free land to anyone willing to settle in the new town.
Villa San Antonio del Camino was named after the before mentioned Portuguese saint
and it started with 111 inhabitants grouped in 24 families.
Merlo died on April 4, 1758 and the land was divided between his heirs and sold to different private investors.
The town remained within the bounds of the estancia donated by Merlo to the Mercedarian Order. In 1776 the mercedarian friars build a hospice
in order to take care of the poorer people of the rural area.
The town was isolated from the main transportation and communication routes when the nearby road Camino de los Gaona bypassed Merlo three kilometers north after the landlord Juan Marquez built a wooden bridge in his estates over the Reconquista River in 1773.
Few years later the parish-seat was moved to the neighboring town of Morón which was already the district seat of the homonymous Partido of Morón
, created in 1784.
By 1810 Merlo was an insignificant hamlet, forgotten in middle of the Pampas and where the criollos
illegally traded with the Indians
.
In 1857 the Argentine railway company Camino de Hierro de Buenos Aires al Oeste opens the first steam locomotive public railway in Argentina and few years later the company was planning to extend the line westward to Moreno
making land speculation a highly profitable activity. In order to reach Merlo the line would pass through the estancia
belonged to Manuela Calderón de Pearson and which was managed by her son Juan Dillon, who saw the opportunity to make huge profits by selling out parts of the family’s estate .
In 1859 Juan Dillon commissioned the famous architect and engineer Pedro Benoit
to design the layout of the new town, organizing it on a rectangular grid of streets and blocks. The town was enlarged and complemented by Benoit's designs for a town hall, avenue, train station, school and the Church of Our Lady of Mercy.
The train station was opened on August 11, 1859.
Merlo Centro is a middle class district clustered around the train station and comprehends the 1859 Juan Dillon's town.
The administrative and commercial center is around the main avenue, Avenida del Libertador General San Martín. This tree-covered avenue stretches seven blocks from the railway station to the historic district and has few buildings reaching over two storyes in height.
The oldest building still standing in Merlo is the railway station, opened in 1859 in land donated by Juan Dillon’s mother, Manuela Calderón.
The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercy) was consecrated in 1864 and it was built in the same spot where the old Merlo’s chapel stood. The building was also designed by Pedro Benoit —prominent neighbor of Merlo and recognized member of the Argentine freemasonry
— and built by the Spanish master builder Antonio Ayerbe.
The first parish priest was the Irish catholic priest Patrick Joseph Dillon
, Juan Dillon’s first cousin. He was appointed as chaplain for the Irish community in Merlo and years later he was elected senator in the legislature of Buenos Aires and founder of the newspaper The Southern Cross, which continues in print to this day.
Barrio
Partido
A partido is an administrative subdivision of the . They are formally considered to be a single municipality, and usually contain one or more population centers...
of Merlo
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....
and seat of the municipal government, located in the Greater Buenos Aires
Greater Buenos Aires
Greater Buenos Aires is the generic denomination to refer to the megalopolis comprising the autonomous city of Buenos Aires and the conurbation around it, over the province of Buenos Aires—namely the adjacent 24 partidos or municipalities—which nonetheless do not constitute a single administrative...
urban area.
The city was founded by Francisco de Merlo in 1755 and rebuilt by Juan Dillon in 1859.
Merlo is divided in two distinctive regions: Merlo Centro, a middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
district clustered around the train station; and the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
barrio
Barrio
Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...
s, most of them along the Reconquista River
Reconquista River
The Reconquista River is a small river in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Together with the Riachuelo, it is one of the most contaminated watercourses in the country....
.
The administrative and commercial center is around the main avenue, Avenida del Libertador General San Martín. This tree-covered avenue stretches seven blocks from the railway station to the historic district and has few buildings reaching over two storyes in height.
Merlo is bordered by Moreno City
Moreno, Buenos Aires
Moreno is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the head town of Moreno Partido. It forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation and is located around to the west of the autonomous city of Buenos Aires....
and Paso del Rey
Paso del Rey
Paso del Rey is a city located 35,5 km from Buenos Aires, in Moreno, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.Paso del Rey takes its name from the estancia owned by Senator Amancio Jacinto Alcorta: Estancia Paso del Rey....
—both cities in Moreno Partido
Moreno Partido
Moreno Partido is a partido of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, within the Gran Buenos Aires urban agglomerate. It has an area of 186 square kilometres, and a population of 462,242...
— and the Reconquista River
Reconquista River
The Reconquista River is a small river in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Together with the Riachuelo, it is one of the most contaminated watercourses in the country....
(northwest), San Antonio de Padua
San Antonio de Padua
San Antonio de Padua, or plainly Padua, is a city in the Greater Buenos Aires, in Argentina. It is located in Merlo . The city has an area of and a population of around 38,000....
(north), Libertad and Parque San Martín (east) and Mariano Acosta (south).
History
The origin of Merlo goes back to the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino, a hamlet clustered around a ranch-house belonged to the Spanish landlord Francisco de Merlo and which had been founded as a result of the recurrent Araucanian raids throughout the eighteen century.Francisco de Merlo
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, on August 11, 1693 and died in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
on April 4, 1758. Merlo arrives to Buenos Aires in the early 18th century and made a fortune and became part of the Buenos Aires upper class; Merlo served as notary public
Notary public
A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
in the municipal government or cabildo
Cabildo (council)
For a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of...
of Buenos Aires. He also was a laity
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
member of the Third Order of
Third order
The term Third Order designates persons who live according to the Third Rule of a Roman Catholic religious order, an Anglican religious order, or a Lutheran religious order. Their members, known as Tertiaries, are generally lay members of religious orders, i.e...
Our Lady of Mercy
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives also known as Our Lady of Ransom is a Roman Catholic religious order established in 1218 by St...
. He married Francisca del Toro in 1713 and they had eleven children. After widowed he married María Teresa Gamiz de las Cuevas in 1748, who gave him a son.
In 1729 the notary public Francisco Sánchez Botija dies in Buenos Aires and his last will
Last Will
Last Will is a 2011 mystery drama film starring Tatum O'Neal and Tom Berenger. It was shot in Kansas City, Missouri on a modest budget.-Plot:A woman named Hayden is framed for the murder of her wealthy husband Frank...
was his fortune were gave to his compatriot, friend and compadre
Compadre
The compadre relationship between the parents and godparents of a child is an important bond which originates when a child is baptized in Hispanic families...
Francisco de Merlo with the condition that a sanctuary were built to his memory and fifty masses
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
were celebrated every year for the absolution of his soul.
With that fortune Merlo bought many haciendas in the western countryside and by the middle of the 18th century he established a large state between the upper Reconquista
Reconquista River
The Reconquista River is a small river in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Together with the Riachuelo, it is one of the most contaminated watercourses in the country....
and upper Matanza
Matanza River
The Matanza River is known by several names, including, in Spanish, Río de la Matanza , Río Matanza , Río Mataderos , Río de la Manzana , El Riachuelo , or simply Riachuelo...
rivers, seven leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
(35 km.) from Buenos Aires.
Merlo built his ranch-house on high ground overlooking the nearby Camino Real del Oeste
Inca road system
The Inca road system was the most extensive and advanced transportation system in pre-Columbian South America. The network was based on two north-south roads with numerous branches. The best known portion of the road system is the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu...
, a road that linked Buenos Aires with Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru
Viceroyalty of Peru
Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima...
. At its side Merlo erected a private
oratory
Oratory (worship)
An oratory is a Christian room for prayer, from the Latin orare, to pray.-Catholic church:In the Roman Catholic Church, an oratory is a structure other than a parish church, set aside by ecclesiastical authority for prayer and the celebration of Mass...
, fulfilling the last will of his compadre and it was consecrated to saint Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...
and the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
.
For many years the oratory served as parish church of the huge and almost unpopulated Parish
Parish (Catholic Church)
In the Roman Catholic Church, a parish is the lowest ecclesiastical geographical subdivision: from ecclesiastical province to diocese to deanery to parish.-Requirements:A parish needs two things under common law to become a parish...
of La Matanza.
He also established one of the first schools outside Buenos Aires in where the locals could learn to read and write; the school was entrusted to the mercedarian
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy
The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives also known as Our Lady of Ransom is a Roman Catholic religious order established in 1218 by St...
friars.
San Antonio del Camino
In 1742 Francisco de Merlo petitioned king Philip V of SpainPhilip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
authorization to found a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
on his estates and it was granted in 1755.
On August 28, 1755 Francisco de Merlo founds the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino, offering free land to anyone willing to settle in the new town.
Villa San Antonio del Camino was named after the before mentioned Portuguese saint
Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...
and it started with 111 inhabitants grouped in 24 families.
Merlo died on April 4, 1758 and the land was divided between his heirs and sold to different private investors.
The town remained within the bounds of the estancia donated by Merlo to the Mercedarian Order. In 1776 the mercedarian friars build a hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...
in order to take care of the poorer people of the rural area.
The town was isolated from the main transportation and communication routes when the nearby road Camino de los Gaona bypassed Merlo three kilometers north after the landlord Juan Marquez built a wooden bridge in his estates over the Reconquista River in 1773.
Few years later the parish-seat was moved to the neighboring town of Morón which was already the district seat of the homonymous Partido of Morón
Morón Partido
Morón is a partido of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Located in the Greater Buenos Aires urban area, its head town is Morón which is located around 17 km from Buenos Aires....
, created in 1784.
By 1810 Merlo was an insignificant hamlet, forgotten in middle of the Pampas and where the criollos
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
illegally traded with the Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
.
The railway
Moreno, Buenos Aires
Moreno is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the head town of Moreno Partido. It forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation and is located around to the west of the autonomous city of Buenos Aires....
making land speculation a highly profitable activity. In order to reach Merlo the line would pass through the estancia
Estância
Estância is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Sergipe. Its population was 62,218 and its area is 642 km². The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Estância....
belonged to Manuela Calderón de Pearson and which was managed by her son Juan Dillon, who saw the opportunity to make huge profits by selling out parts of the family’s estate .
In 1859 Juan Dillon commissioned the famous architect and engineer Pedro Benoit
Pedro Benoit
Pedro Benoit was an Argentine architect, engineer and urbanist best known for designing the layout of the city of La Plata.-Life and times:...
to design the layout of the new town, organizing it on a rectangular grid of streets and blocks. The town was enlarged and complemented by Benoit's designs for a town hall, avenue, train station, school and the Church of Our Lady of Mercy.
The train station was opened on August 11, 1859.
Merlo in the second half of XX century
In the second half of the twenty century Merlo experienced an important influx of immigrants from the provinces and the old town sprawled over the countrisyde and the farms were replaced by housing for residents with a lower range of incomes.Merlo Centro
The administrative and commercial center is around the main avenue, Avenida del Libertador General San Martín. This tree-covered avenue stretches seven blocks from the railway station to the historic district and has few buildings reaching over two storyes in height.
Historic buildings
Nothing remains from Francisco de Merlo's town and hospice.The oldest building still standing in Merlo is the railway station, opened in 1859 in land donated by Juan Dillon’s mother, Manuela Calderón.
The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercy) was consecrated in 1864 and it was built in the same spot where the old Merlo’s chapel stood. The building was also designed by Pedro Benoit —prominent neighbor of Merlo and recognized member of the Argentine freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
— and built by the Spanish master builder Antonio Ayerbe.
The first parish priest was the Irish catholic priest Patrick Joseph Dillon
Patrick Joseph Dillon
Rev Patrick Joseph Dillon was an Irish Catholic priest, missionary in Argentina, politician and founder of The Southern Cross newspaper.In 1871 he succeeded Father Fahy as Irish Chaplain of Buenos Aires....
, Juan Dillon’s first cousin. He was appointed as chaplain for the Irish community in Merlo and years later he was elected senator in the legislature of Buenos Aires and founder of the newspaper The Southern Cross, which continues in print to this day.
BarrioBarrioBarrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...
s
- Merlo Norte
- Pompeya
- Argentino
- Lago del Bosque
- Las Violetas
- Amandi
- Reconquista
- Loma Florida
- San Eduardo
- Arco Iris
- Albatros
- Parque El Sol
- El Mirador
See also
- Merlo PartidoMerlo PartidoMerlo 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....