Merlo Partido
Encyclopedia
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 the second, and permanent founding of Buenos Aires (1580). In 1730 an interim parish was founded near the estancia
(landholding) of Francisco de Merlo. In 1755 Merlo founded the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino, which was renamed later in his honour. For many years, the development of Merlo lagged behind the growth of nearby Morón
. In 1865 the region was officially declared a partido.
Merlo covers 170 km² (66 sq mi) and is bordered by the partidos of Morón
and Ituzaingó
(northeast), La Matanza
(southeast), Marcos Paz
(southwest), and Moreno
and the Reconquista River
(northwest). Besides the city of Merlo
, the significant localities are San Antonio de Padua
, Parque San Martín
, Libertad, Pontevedra and Mariano Acosta.
The city of Merlo was formerly important solely as a railroad junction and trade centre for the surrounding agricultural and pastoral lands.
About half of the partido now lies within the Greater Buenos Aires urban area, and the population density is less than that of most of the metropolitan partidos of Buenos Aires Province.
pagus, country district) of Las Conchas; the territory was traversed by the Reconquista River, known in those days as Río de las Conchas (literally River of Shells) from where the region took its name.
The region was largely inhabited by the taluhet people, part of the het nation, a hunter-gatherer
society better known by the exonym querandi
.
In 1636 the territory of today’s Merlo was divided into a few hacienda
s, given as land grants by Governor Pedro Esteban Dávila to a few and influential Buenos Aires neighbors.
Inside the haciendas the main economical activities were the agriculture and cattle
-raising. The fertile land —drained by Las Conchas/Reconquista River— was covered with wheat
fields and orchards.
The bigger hacienda was granted to the Company of Jesus and the resulting production provided the Jesuits the financial resources to maintain the schools they had in Buenos Aires.
The Jesuit priests Thomas Falkner
and Florian Paucke visited the region in the mid 18th century and described the area plenty of herds of feral cattle and horses roaming free on the plains and numerous packs of dogs that feed on them and sometimes attacked the unwarned and helpless travelers.
By the 18th century the Araucanian people were moving from the lap of the Andes Mountains to the Pampas, attracted by the numerous cattle and horses herds. The Araucanians looted and sacked the Spanish settlements around Buenos Aires, performing unexpected horse mounted attacks known in the Southern Cone
as malones (s. malón, from Mapudungun
malocán: “to make war”).
By those days the Spanish businessman Francisco de Merlo bought many lands in the region, establishing a big estancia.
The settlers scattered throughout the region took refuge around the fortified Merlo’s ranch-house, starting a little hamlet in his properties. It made Merlo petitioned King Philip V of Spain
authorization to found a town in his states. On October 28, 1755 Francisco de Merlo founds the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino.
After Merlo’s death the town became into an out-back town, isolated from the main commercial routes, remaining within the boundaries of the estancia belonged to the Mercedarian Order, expropriated in 1821 by the State of Buenos Aires and bought in 1852 by the Irish businessman Thomas Gibson Pearson. After his death the estancia was managed by his stepson Juan Dillon, key figure in the history of Merlo.
Juan Dillon y Calderón was born in Buenos Aires in 1819 and died in 1887. He was son of John Dillon, an Irish immigrant and his second wife, Manuela Calderón. Juan Dillon was a businessman, absentee landlord
and public official, member of the prosperous Irish community in Buenos Aires. He married Josefa Ballesteros (b.1824) and they had eight children. He was a prominent member of Adolfo Alsina
's Autonomist Party.
John Dillon, left Ireland
and emigrated to Spain
. In 1807 he settled in the River Plate
as a merchant and owner of a meat-curing
plant. He loaned his flotilla of boats to Argentina in the war for independence with Spain. He also started the first brewery
in the country.
John Dillon dies in 1826 and Manuela Calderón married Thomas Gibson Pearson.
After Rosas’
fall in 1852, Juan Dillon was appointed Juez de Paz (Justice of Peace) in Morón
(1855–1856) and military commander for the region. He also was elected Presidente de Municipalidad (Municipal President or Mayor
) of the same district (1857; 1864–1865).
By those days Dillon took charge of his family's estate in Merlo, rebuilt the town and was appointed Juez de Paz of the newly created Partido of Merlo.
After his public life in Merlo, President Avellaneda
appointed Dillon as Chief Commissioner of Immigration in 1875. During his administration Argentina experienced the first massive European immigration to the country and Dillon received the first Welsh
immigrants, Volga Germans and Italians from Friuli
. After that, Dillon and his family moves to La Plata
when he was elected senator and served during three terms in the Buenos Aires legislature, in which he chaired the budget commission.
. The construction of the railway made land speculation a highly profitable activity. In order to reach Merlo the line had to pass through the land owned by the Pearson Family and Dillon saw the opportunity to make huge profits by selling out parts of the family’s estate.
Dillon established in Merlo and in 1859 he commissioned the famous architect and engineer Pedro Benoit to design the layout of the town, organizing it on a rectangular grid of streets and blocks. The town was enlarged and endowed with a municipal palace, avenue, train station, school and church.
The rail station was opened on August 11, 1859.
Dillon and others businessmen and prominent neighbors such as Manuel Rodríguez, Enrique Smith and Fernando Pearson (Juan Dillon’s step brother), petitioned to the Governor the erection of a new partido from the old Partido of Morón.
On October 11, 1864 the legislature of Buenos Aires sanctions the law 422 creating the Partido of Merlo. Until 1878 the new district included the today’s Partido of Marcos Paz
and comprehended 400 km² approx.
The election of the authorities took place in the same year and only sixty-four citizens voted; the first municipal government was integrated by Juan Dillon as Juez de Paz and Antonio Suárez, Francisco Sullivan, Fernando Pearson and Tomás Gahan as Municipales or Councilors.
Thousands of neighbors fled Buenos Aires to the countryside when a cholera
epidemic first, and a yellow fever
outbreak later, afflicted the city in 1867 and 1871 respectively. These events brought many Spaniard, Basque
, Italian
and French
immigrants to Merlo, contributing with a highly qualified working force.
There was also a small British
community constituted mainly by white collar workers, employed in the British railway companies.
By the late 19th century many rural settlements were dispersed throughout the countryside, thriving along the rail tracks. The railway prompted the accelerated development of Merlo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; San Antonio de Padua, Mariano Acosta, Libertad and even Merlo city grew as railway town
s.
Merlo was a countryside
district until the late 1940s. People from Buenos Aires spent their weekend and summer getaways in cottage
s, picnic
king at the Reconquista riverside, playing golf
at the Ituzaingó Golf Club and gliding
at the Club Albatros and Club Cóndor gliding clubs. The landscape was spattered with estancias
and farms.
During the first half of 20th century the two mayor political forces in the district were the Radical Civic Union
and the Conservative Party of Buenos Aires.
In the second half of the twenty century Merlo experienced an important influx of immigrants from the provinces. Between 1947 and 1960 the district quintuplicates its population, initiating a rapid process of urbanization and incorporating Merlo into the Greater Buenos Aires.
This period coincided with the rise of the Peronism
in Argentina and since then the district becomes a Peronist stronghold.
The partido has six cities.
The present mayor is Raúl Alfredo Othacehé, a lawyer and local peronist politician. He was elected mayor in 1991 and reelected in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. In María O'Donnell's non-fiction book El Aparato (The Political Machine
) an entire chapter is dedicated to Othacehé, portraying him as a corrupt politician.
The Council is controlled by the peronist party and its allies.
and Pirelli
have a cigarette plant and a tire plant —respectively— in the industrial park
, at the surroundings of Merlo railway station.
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles 10.32%; transport, storage and communication 5%; financial intermediation, real estate and renting 13.72%.
The agriculture and livestock industry only represented 0.15% of the economy. The main activities are dairy farming
, market gardening
(flower farming
and organic vegetavle farming
), poultry
and beekeeping
, organized in small and medium enterprise
s (SMEs).
Villa San Antonio del Camino started with 101 inhabitants grouped into twelve families, most of them Spaniard and Criollo
people.
At the dawn of 19th century more than fifty black African people lived in Merlo as slaves of the mercedarian friars. After his death Francisco de Merlo left five African slaves to the hospice.
Many Irish and Basque immigrants settled in Merlo around mid 19th century, the first ones after left Ireland because of the Great Irish Famine and British oppression, and the second ones fleeing from Spain’s Carlist Wars
.
Both communities lived basically in the surrounding estancias; the Irish-Argentine
community integrated Merlo's ruling class
and four of the five members of the first municipal government belonged to this national affiliation. The Basques worked basically as dairy farmers
.
More than half of the population can trace its origins from the Italian and Spaniard immigrants that arrived to Merlo from the late 19th century and continued well into the 20th century.
By the mid 20th century many market garden
s were run by members of the Japanese and Portuguese
communities.
Looking for better jobs and well-paid salaries, people from the provinces and neighbor countries started to settle in Merlo in the late 1940s and 1950s. These people are from mestizo
ascendancy and constitute - at the present days- the principal ethnic group in Merlo.
By the same time many Polish families arrived to Merlo at the end of World War II
.
In the present days −and as a curious note− many supermarkets in the district are run by Chinese
people.
469,985 (2001 census)
Median age:
total: 29.6 years
male: 28.7 years
female: 30.4 years
Urbanized Population: 99.7% (2001)
Population by origin: (2001)
born in Buenos Aires Province:
60.2%
born in the rest of Argentina:
34.6%
foreign-born population:
5.74%
Total fertility rate
:
2.1 children born/woman (2001)
Literacy
:
definition:
age 10 and over can read and write (2001)
total population:
98.19%
male:
98.27%
female:
98.11%
Educational level: (population 15 years and more, 2001)
Population that never attended school: 3.97%
Basic needs
poverty rate: 23.4% (2001)
Dependency ratio
: (2001)
total:
60.1%
population under 15 years:
48.9%
population over 65 years:
11.1%
Crime rate: 188 per 10,000 inhabitants (2005)
is the Rivadavia Avenue which was known in the colonial times as the Camino Real del Oeste or the Western Royal Road. Throughout the partido its name changes to Presidente Perón Avenue. The journey to Buenos Aires downtown takes one and a half hours by bus.
The head town connects with the Acceso Oeste Highway by an alternate route
, such as the Camino de la ribera which crosses along the Reconquista River.
The Sarmiento
Railway Line runs alongside the Rivadavia Avenue and transports the vast majority of commuters to and from Buenos Aires.
The Sarmiento line is managed by Trenes de Buenos Aires
(TBA). The mainline has two railway stations in the partido: Merlo and San Antonio de Padua. The journey takes 45 minutes to Estación Once
in Buenos Aires. The line uses electric locomotives which are powered by electricity picked up from third rail
s.
Merlo is the railway terminal station
of a branch line
that ends at Lobos
city. Its trains are powered by diesel engines, known as diesel locomotives.
The Belgrano Sur line, formerly the Buenos Aires Midland Railway
, is used by a reduced number of people. It’s commonly known as the “death’s train” and it stretches from Buenos Aires to the outskirts of the partido.
The line is managed by Transportes Metropolitanos it had not received investments in the past years and its trains and stations are practically abandoned. The petty robberies, rapes and assassinations are very commonly in this line. Its trains are powered by diesel engines.
Merlo’s creeks are both tributaries Reconquista
and Matanza
Rivers. The 54% of the territory belongs to the Reconquista drainage basin
and the following creeks or arroyos drain in the Reconquista River: Arroyo Gómez, Cañada de Smith, Arroyo Torres and Arroyo de La Cañada del Molino; the following creeks drain in the Matanza River: Arroyo Saladero, Aroyo de Las Víboras, Arroyo del Pantano Grande, Cañada del Bajo Hondo and Cañada 11 de Octubre. Most of those water courses are highly contaminated. The Reconquista flood
s were recurrent in the past, the biggest in recent years were in 1985 and 2000; these ones affected to the poorest population, established at its riverside.
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 Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. It is located in 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...
, Argentina, west of the city of 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...
. Its capital is the city of Merlo
Merlo, Buenos Aires
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....
.
The region of the present-day partido was colonized shortly after the second, and permanent founding of Buenos Aires (1580). In 1730 an interim parish was founded near 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....
(landholding) of Francisco de Merlo. In 1755 Merlo founded the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino, which was renamed later in his honour. For many years, the development of Merlo lagged behind the growth of nearby Morón
Morón, Buenos Aires
Morón is a city in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires, capital of the Morón Partido, located in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, at...
. In 1865 the region was officially declared a partido.
Geography
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....
and Ituzaingó
Ituzaingó Partido
Ituzaingó is a partido in the Gran Buenos Aires urban area, Argentina, 10 kilometres west of Buenos Aires city. It has an area of and a population of 168,419 . Its capital, the city of Ituzaingó, and the other districts currently in Ituzaingó Partido were part of the Morón Partido until...
(northeast), La Matanza
La Matanza Partido
La Matanza is a partido located in the Greater Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires Province in Argentina....
(southeast), Marcos Paz
Marcos Paz Partido
Marcos Paz is a partido in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. Its capital city is Marcos Paz.Established on 25 October 1878 , Marcos Paz is located at the eastern border of the Greater Buenos Aires with the rest of the province, although on an administrative sense, it is not considered part of...
(southwest), and Moreno
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). Besides the city of Merlo
Merlo, Buenos Aires
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....
, the significant localities are 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....
, Parque San Martín
Parque San Martín, Buenos Aires Province
Parque San Martín is a city located in Merlo Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.Parque San Martín was founded around 1948 by real estate promoters, in the estates belonging to the Etcheverry family....
, Libertad, Pontevedra and Mariano Acosta.
The city of Merlo was formerly important solely as a railroad junction and trade centre for the surrounding agricultural and pastoral lands.
About half of the partido now lies within the Greater Buenos Aires urban area, and the population density is less than that of most of the metropolitan partidos of Buenos Aires Province.
1755: Francisco de Merlo and Villa San Antonio del Camino
In the early 17th century the present-day partido was part of the Pago (from the LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
pagus, country district) of Las Conchas; the territory was traversed by the Reconquista River, known in those days as Río de las Conchas (literally River of Shells) from where the region took its name.
The region was largely inhabited by the taluhet people, part of the het nation, a hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
society better known by the exonym querandi
Querandí
The Querandí were one of the Het peoples, indigenous South Americans who lived in the Pampas area of Argentina; specifically, they were the eastern Didiuhet. The name Querandí was given by the Guaraní people, as they would consume animal fat in their daily diet. Thus, Querandí means "men with...
.
In 1636 the territory of today’s Merlo was divided into a few hacienda
Hacienda
Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...
s, given as land grants by Governor Pedro Esteban Dávila to a few and influential Buenos Aires neighbors.
Inside the haciendas the main economical activities were the agriculture and cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
-raising. The fertile land —drained by Las Conchas/Reconquista River— was covered with wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
fields and orchards.
The bigger hacienda was granted to the Company of Jesus and the resulting production provided the Jesuits the financial resources to maintain the schools they had in Buenos Aires.
The Jesuit priests Thomas Falkner
Thomas Falkner
Thomas Falkner was an English Jesuit missionary, active in Patagonia.-Life:He was the son of Thomas Falkner, a Manchester apothecary, and obtained his education at the Manchester grammar school. Later on, having studied medicine under Dr...
and Florian Paucke visited the region in the mid 18th century and described the area plenty of herds of feral cattle and horses roaming free on the plains and numerous packs of dogs that feed on them and sometimes attacked the unwarned and helpless travelers.
By the 18th century the Araucanian people were moving from the lap of the Andes Mountains to the Pampas, attracted by the numerous cattle and horses herds. The Araucanians looted and sacked the Spanish settlements around Buenos Aires, performing unexpected horse mounted attacks known in the Southern Cone
Southern Cone
Southern Cone is a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of South America, south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Although geographically this includes part of Southern and Southeast of Brazil, in terms of political geography the Southern cone has traditionally comprised Argentina,...
as malones (s. malón, from Mapudungun
Mapudungun
The Mapuche language, Mapudungun is a language isolate spoken in south-central Chile and west central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It is also spelled Mapuzugun and sometimes called Mapudungu or Araucanian...
malocán: “to make war”).
By those days the Spanish businessman Francisco de Merlo bought many lands in the region, establishing a big estancia.
The settlers scattered throughout the region took refuge around the fortified Merlo’s ranch-house, starting a little hamlet in his properties. It made Merlo petitioned King Philip V of Spain
Philip 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 town in his states. On October 28, 1755 Francisco de Merlo founds the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino.
After Merlo’s death the town became into an out-back town, isolated from the main commercial routes, remaining within the boundaries of the estancia belonged to the Mercedarian Order, expropriated in 1821 by the State of Buenos Aires and bought in 1852 by the Irish businessman Thomas Gibson Pearson. After his death the estancia was managed by his stepson Juan Dillon, key figure in the history of Merlo.
Juan Dillon
Absentee landlord
Absentee landlord is an economic term for a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. This practice is problematic for that region because absentee landlords drain local wealth into their home country, particularly that...
and public official, member of the prosperous Irish community in Buenos Aires. He married Josefa Ballesteros (b.1824) and they had eight children. He was a prominent member of Adolfo Alsina
Adolfo Alsina
Adolfo Alsina Maza was an Argentine lawyer and Unitarian politician, and one of the founders of the Partido Autonomista and the National Autonomist Party.-Biography:...
's Autonomist Party.
John Dillon, left Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and emigrated to 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...
. In 1807 he settled in the River Plate
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
as a merchant and owner of a meat-curing
Salt-cured meat
Salt-cured meat or salted meat, for example bacon and kippered herring, is meat or fish preserved or cured with salt. Salting, either with dry salt or brine, was the only widely available method of preserving meat until the 19th century...
plant. He loaned his flotilla of boats to Argentina in the war for independence with Spain. He also started the first brewery
Brewery
A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....
in the country.
John Dillon dies in 1826 and Manuela Calderón married Thomas Gibson Pearson.
After Rosas’
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...
fall in 1852, Juan Dillon was appointed Juez de Paz (Justice of Peace) in Morón
Morón, Buenos Aires
Morón is a city in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires, capital of the Morón Partido, located in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, at...
(1855–1856) and military commander for the region. He also was elected Presidente de Municipalidad (Municipal President or Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
) of the same district (1857; 1864–1865).
By those days Dillon took charge of his family's estate in Merlo, rebuilt the town and was appointed Juez de Paz of the newly created Partido of Merlo.
After his public life in Merlo, President Avellaneda
Nicolás Avellaneda
Nicolás Remigio Aurelio Avellaneda Silva was an Argentine politician and journalist, and president of Argentina from 1874 to 1880. Avellaneda's main projects while in office were banking and education reform, leading to Argentina's economic growth...
appointed Dillon as Chief Commissioner of Immigration in 1875. During his administration Argentina experienced the first massive European immigration to the country and Dillon received the first Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
immigrants, Volga Germans and Italians from Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
. After that, Dillon and his family moves to La Plata
La Plata
La Plata is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of La Plata partido. According to the , the city proper has a population of 574,369 and its metropolitan area has 694,253 inhabitants....
when he was elected senator and served during three terms in the Buenos Aires legislature, in which he chaired the budget commission.
1864: Merlo obtains its autonomy
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 MorenoMoreno, 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....
. The construction of the railway made land speculation a highly profitable activity. In order to reach Merlo the line had to pass through the land owned by the Pearson Family and Dillon saw the opportunity to make huge profits by selling out parts of the family’s estate.
Dillon established in Merlo and in 1859 he commissioned the famous architect and engineer Pedro Benoit to design the layout of the town, organizing it on a rectangular grid of streets and blocks. The town was enlarged and endowed with a municipal palace, avenue, train station, school and church.
The rail station was opened on August 11, 1859.
Dillon and others businessmen and prominent neighbors such as Manuel Rodríguez, Enrique Smith and Fernando Pearson (Juan Dillon’s step brother), petitioned to the Governor the erection of a new partido from the old Partido of Morón.
On October 11, 1864 the legislature of Buenos Aires sanctions the law 422 creating the Partido of Merlo. Until 1878 the new district included the today’s Partido of Marcos Paz
Marcos Paz Partido
Marcos Paz is a partido in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. Its capital city is Marcos Paz.Established on 25 October 1878 , Marcos Paz is located at the eastern border of the Greater Buenos Aires with the rest of the province, although on an administrative sense, it is not considered part of...
and comprehended 400 km² approx.
The election of the authorities took place in the same year and only sixty-four citizens voted; the first municipal government was integrated by Juan Dillon as Juez de Paz and Antonio Suárez, Francisco Sullivan, Fernando Pearson and Tomás Gahan as Municipales or Councilors.
Thousands of neighbors fled Buenos Aires to the countryside when a cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic first, and a yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
outbreak later, afflicted the city in 1867 and 1871 respectively. These events brought many Spaniard, Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
, Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
and French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
immigrants to Merlo, contributing with a highly qualified working force.
There was also a small British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
community constituted mainly by white collar workers, employed in the British railway companies.
By the late 19th century many rural settlements were dispersed throughout the countryside, thriving along the rail tracks. The railway prompted the accelerated development of Merlo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; San Antonio de Padua, Mariano Acosta, Libertad and even Merlo city grew as railway town
Railway town
A railway town is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site.In Victorian Britain, the spread of railways greatly affected the fate of many small towns...
s.
Merlo was a countryside
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
district until the late 1940s. People from Buenos Aires spent their weekend and summer getaways in cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
s, picnic
Picnic
In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...
king at the Reconquista riverside, playing golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
at the Ituzaingó Golf Club and gliding
Gliding
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...
at the Club Albatros and Club Cóndor gliding clubs. The landscape was spattered with estancias
Estancias
Estancia or Estância is a Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese term describing a large rural estate with similarities to the English term ranch. The term is used in Argentina, Uruguay and southern Chile...
and farms.
During the first half of 20th century the two mayor political forces in the district were the Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
and the Conservative Party of Buenos Aires.
Merlo becomes part of Greater Buenos Aires
This period coincided with the rise of the Peronism
Peronism
Peronism , or Justicialism , is an Argentine political movement based on the programmes associated with former President Juan Perón and his second wife, Eva Perón...
in Argentina and since then the district becomes a Peronist stronghold.
Cities
According to the legislation of Buenos Aires, the status of city should be declared by law. The town must have a minimal population and a determinated infrastructure.The partido has six cities.
| City | Province law | Promulgated on |
|---|---|---|
| Merlo Merlo, Buenos Aires 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.... |
5830 | August 19, 1955 |
| 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.... |
8212 | September 11, 1974 |
| Parque San Martín | 8558 | December 4, 1975 |
| Libertad | 10052 | October 14, 1983 |
| Mariano Acosta Mariano Acosta, Buenos Aires Province Mariano Acosta is a city located in Merlo Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.Mariano Acosta was founded by the landholder and businessman Juan Posse in the earliest 20th century, and for years the town was known as Villa Posse. Villa Posse changed its name to Mariano Acosta when the... |
10208 | October 18, 1984 |
| Pontevedra | 11135 | October 9, 1991 |
Government
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...
) an entire chapter is dedicated to Othacehé, portraying him as a corrupt politician.
The Council is controlled by the peronist party and its allies.
Economy
According the 1993 National Economic Census the manufacture industry represented 50.2% of the local economy. The transnational groups Philip MorrisAltria Group
Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...
and Pirelli
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...
have a cigarette plant and a tire plant —respectively— in the industrial park
Industrial park
An industrial park is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development...
, at the surroundings of Merlo railway station.
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles 10.32%; transport, storage and communication 5%; financial intermediation, real estate and renting 13.72%.
The agriculture and livestock industry only represented 0.15% of the economy. The main activities are dairy farming
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
, market gardening
Market gardening
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...
(flower farming
Floriculture
Floriculture, or flower farming, is a discipline of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for gardens and for floristry, comprising the floral industry...
and organic vegetavle farming
Organic farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...
), poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
and beekeeping
Beekeeping
Beekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and other products of the hive , to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers...
, organized in small and medium enterprise
Small and medium enterprise
Small and medium enterprises or small and medium-sized enterprises are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.The abbreviation "SME" occurs commonly...
s (SMEs).
Demographics
| Partido of Merlo Population by year |
|
|---|---|
| 1866 | 1,904 |
| 1869 | 2,469 |
| 1895 | 3,595 |
| 1914 | 6,990 |
| 1947 | 19,865 |
| 1960 | 100,146 |
| 1970 | 188,868 |
| 1980 | 292,587 |
| 1991 | 390,858 |
| 2001 | 469,985 |
| 2007 | 520,391 |
Villa San Antonio del Camino started with 101 inhabitants grouped into twelve families, most of them Spaniard and Criollo
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...
people.
At the dawn of 19th century more than fifty black African people lived in Merlo as slaves of the mercedarian friars. After his death Francisco de Merlo left five African slaves to the hospice.
Many Irish and Basque immigrants settled in Merlo around mid 19th century, the first ones after left Ireland because of the Great Irish Famine and British oppression, and the second ones fleeing from Spain’s Carlist Wars
Carlist Wars
The Carlist Wars in Spain were the last major European civil wars in which contenders fought to establish their claim to a throne. Several times during the period from 1833 to 1876 the Carlists — followers of Infante Carlos and his descendants — rallied to the cry of "God, Country, and King" and...
.
Both communities lived basically in the surrounding estancias; the Irish-Argentine
Irish settlement in Argentina
Irish settlement in Argentina is part of the story of immigration in Argentina and the Irish diaspora. Irish emigrants from the Midlands, Wexford and many counties of Ireland arrived in Argentina mainly from 1830 to 1930, with the largest wave taking place in 1850-1870...
community integrated Merlo's ruling class
Ruling class
The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society....
and four of the five members of the first municipal government belonged to this national affiliation. The Basques worked basically as dairy farmers
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
.
More than half of the population can trace its origins from the Italian and Spaniard immigrants that arrived to Merlo from the late 19th century and continued well into the 20th century.
By the mid 20th century many market garden
Market gardening
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...
s were run by members of the Japanese and Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
communities.
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
ascendancy and constitute - at the present days- the principal ethnic group in Merlo.
By the same time many Polish families arrived to Merlo at the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In the present days −and as a curious note− many supermarkets in the district are run by Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
people.
Demographic data
Population:469,985 (2001 census)
Median age:
total: 29.6 years
male: 28.7 years
female: 30.4 years
Urbanized Population: 99.7% (2001)
Population by origin: (2001)
born in Buenos Aires Province:
60.2%
born in the rest of Argentina:
34.6%
foreign-born population:
5.74%
Total fertility rate
Total Fertility Rate
The total fertility rate of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime, and she...
:
2.1 children born/woman (2001)
Literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
:
definition:
age 10 and over can read and write (2001)
total population:
98.19%
male:
98.27%
female:
98.11%
Educational level: (population 15 years and more, 2001)
Population that never attended school: 3.97%
| Education Level | Incomplete | Complete |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Education Primary education A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,... |
14.07% | 36.23% |
| Secondary Education Secondary education Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university... |
24.27% | 13.24% |
| Higher Higher education Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology... non-university |
1.89% | 2.48% |
| University University A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education... |
2.71% | 1.13% |
Basic needs
Basic needs
The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of absolute poverty. It attempts to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of consumption goods. The poverty line is then defined as the amount of income...
poverty rate: 23.4% (2001)
Dependency ratio
Dependency ratio
In economics and geography the dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force and those typically in the labor force...
: (2001)
total:
60.1%
population under 15 years:
48.9%
population over 65 years:
11.1%
Crime rate: 188 per 10,000 inhabitants (2005)
Public services
According 2001 National Census 95.22% of the population had access to the electric grid and only 55.2% had access to pipeline-supplied gas. The water supply and sanitation conditions were appalling: 49.54% of the population was supplied with potable water and only 21.85% was connected to the public sewerage system.Transport
The principal arterial roadArterial road
An arterial road, or arterial thoroughfare, is a high-capacity urban road. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible. As such, many arteries are limited-access roads, or feature...
is the Rivadavia Avenue which was known in the colonial times as the Camino Real del Oeste or the Western Royal Road. Throughout the partido its name changes to Presidente Perón Avenue. The journey to Buenos Aires downtown takes one and a half hours by bus.
The head town connects with the Acceso Oeste Highway by an alternate route
Alternate route
An official alternate route is a special route in the United States that provides an alternate alignment for a highway. They are loop roads and found in many road systems in the United States including the U.S. Route system and various state route systems...
, such as the Camino de la ribera which crosses along the Reconquista River.
Ferrocarril Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
The Ferrocarril Domingo Faustino Sarmiento , named after the former Argentine president, statesman, educator, and author Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, was one of the six state-owned Argentine railway companies formed after President Juan Perón's nationalisation of the Argentine railway network in 1948...
Railway Line runs alongside the Rivadavia Avenue and transports the vast majority of commuters to and from Buenos Aires.
The Sarmiento line is managed by Trenes de Buenos Aires
Trenes de Buenos Aires
Trenes de Buenos Aires is a privately-owned company which, on 27 May 1995, took over the concession, granted by the Argentine government as part of railway privatisation during the presidency of Carlos Menem, for the operation of commuter rail services in Buenos Aires, Argentina over the broad...
(TBA). The mainline has two railway stations in the partido: Merlo and San Antonio de Padua. The journey takes 45 minutes to Estación Once
Estación Once
Once railway station is a large railway terminus in central Buenos Aires, Argentina.The station, inaugurated on December 20, 1882, is located in the barrio of Balvanera immediately north of Plaza Miserere, a large public square...
in Buenos Aires. The line uses electric locomotives which are powered by electricity picked up from third rail
Third rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
s.
Merlo is the railway terminal station
Terminal Station
Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...
of a branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
that ends at Lobos
Lobos
Lobos is the head city of the Lobos Partido in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, founded on June 2, 1802 by José Salgado.-Background:Located 100 km from Buenos Aires, Lobos is currently a fertile agricultural area known mainly because of the dairy activity and dairy-related products.Lobos...
city. Its trains are powered by diesel engines, known as diesel locomotives.
Buenos Aires Midland Railway
The Buenos Aires Midland Railway was a British-owned railway company which operated in Argentina where it was known as Ferrocarril Midland de Buenos Aires. The company built and operated the line between Estación Puente Alsina and Carhué in Buenos Aires Province...
, is used by a reduced number of people. It’s commonly known as the “death’s train” and it stretches from Buenos Aires to the outskirts of the partido.
The line is managed by Transportes Metropolitanos it had not received investments in the past years and its trains and stations are practically abandoned. The petty robberies, rapes and assassinations are very commonly in this line. Its trains are powered by diesel engines.
Sport Clubs
- Club Atlético San Antonio de Padua
- Club Atlético Ferrocarril MidlandClub Ferrocarril MidlandClub Atlético Ferrocarril Midland is an Argentine Football club, from Merlo in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The team currently plays in the regionalised 4th level of Argentine football Primera C Metropolitana....
- Club Atlético Argentino de Merlo
- Club Social y Deportivo MerloClub Social y Deportivo MerloClub Social y Deportivo Merlo is a football club from Parque San Martín, Merlo, Buenos Aires in Argentina...
- Club Ferrocarril Oeste de Merlo
Hydrography
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 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. The 54% of the territory belongs to the Reconquista drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
and the following creeks or arroyos drain in the Reconquista River: Arroyo Gómez, Cañada de Smith, Arroyo Torres and Arroyo de La Cañada del Molino; the following creeks drain in the Matanza River: Arroyo Saladero, Aroyo de Las Víboras, Arroyo del Pantano Grande, Cañada del Bajo Hondo and Cañada 11 de Octubre. Most of those water courses are highly contaminated. The Reconquista flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
s were recurrent in the past, the biggest in recent years were in 1985 and 2000; these ones affected to the poorest population, established at its riverside.