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Cordoba Province (Argentina)
Cordoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Its capital, Cordoba, is the second largest city in the country.
Neighboring provinces are (clockwise from the north): Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca.
Together with Santa Fe and Entre Rios, the province is part of the economico-political association known as the Center Region.
History
Before the Spanish conquest a few different tribes lived in the region now called Cordoba Province, most notably the Comechingones and Sanavirones.
Once settled in Alto Peru, the Spaniards searched for a route to the Rio de la Plata port in the Atlantic Ocean to transport the Peruvian gold and silver to Europe.
Cordoba de la Nueva Andalucia (nowadays Cordoba) was founded as a middle point on that route on July 6, 1573 by Jeronimo Luis de Cabrera.
The Colegio Convictorio de Nuestra Senora de Monserrat, founded by the Jesuits in 1599, became the National University of Cordoba in 1622, being the first one in Argentina. The city continued growing as an important cultural center supported by the traffic of precious metals from Peru. In 1761 a printing press was installed in the University.
In 1783, seven years after the consolidation of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, the Intendency of Cordoba became the capital of what now includes the La Rioja, Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis Province, dividing the former Tucuman Intendency in two. Rafael de Sobremonte was its first governor, when Cordoba City had 38,800 inhabitants.
After the May Revolution in 1810, governor Gutierrez de la Concha joined a meeting that decided to ignore the authority of the Buenos Aires Junta. Ortiz de Ocampo attacked the city and executed the leaders of the opposition, among whom was Santiago de Liniers, leader of the resistance during the British invasions of the Rio de la Plata.
Under the hand of Juan Bautista Bustos, and especially after 1820, Cordoba and Buenos Aires started a struggle for the organization of the Nation that had, by that time, neither legislative nor executive branches.
Cordoba pleaded for a federal organization of the provinces while Rivadavia pretended a centralised government in Buenos Aires.
For 15 years the province was submerged in internal revolts that started to stabilize in 1868 under the provisional government of Felix de la Pena.
During the presidency of Sarmiento an astronomic observatory (1871) and the Faculty of Physic Sciences and Mathematics (1873) were inaugurated.
Cordoba had a second population growth due to the immigration attracted by the arrival of the railways. From 1887 on, several agricultural colonies emerged, while former rest-point Fraile Muerto (Bell Ville), Ferreira (Villa Maria) and Los Luceros (Rio Segundo), on the route to Buenos Aires, became agricultural, commercial and industrial centers respectively.
The University Reform movement, which originated in Cordoba in 1918, not only influenced the rest of the country but the rest of South America. Modernization of the curricular contents and the improvement of the students' rights were the main achievements of the movement.
After World War II, many foreign workers and workers from other provinces in Argentina were seduced by Cordoba's industrial development, which grew thanks to the expansion of the car industry and its deviates. During Arturo Frondizi's presidency (19581962), most car industry installations where settled in Cordoba City and its surroundings.
As in the rest of the country, Peronist groups emerged in 1955 after the coup that took Juan Peron out of office. These Peronist groups, together with other socialist and anarchist groups, started opposing the many military governments of the 1960. Worker and student participation of politics grew due to the popular discontent, resulting in the popular revolt known as the Cordobazo. This revolt, mirrored by the Rosariazo and others in several parts of the country, undermined the power of dictator Ongania and ultimately caused him to be driven out of office by other military factions.
Economy
Agriculture and livestock provide 25% of the province's income. The agriculture is centered in soybeans, wheat and maize, and other cereals. Cattle and sheep enjoy the grass of Cordoba's green hills. The province provides 15% of the national cattle production. The food industry around oil, milk and cereal derivatives is also very important, the candy factory Arcor being one of the most important.
The installation of the Fabrica Militar de Aviones in 1927, and other state-owned industries placed Cordoba among the most important industrial points in Argentina. In the second half of the 20th century, the industry centered on manufacturing cars and agricultural machinery. Industry represents 20% of the province's income, and the energy production that supports it is based mainly in 15 hydroelectric dams , and the Embalse nuclear power plant (600 MWe).
Mining includes many different minerals, and construction material such as marble and lime. Uranium is also extracted to feed the three Argentine atomic plants.
Tourism, as in the rest of Argentina, is a growing industry favored by the mild weather, a number of small rivers, and low height green hills. Around 3 million tourists from the rest of Argentina and other countries visit Cordoba every year. The province has 500,000 beds within hotels, hostels, farms for tourists and other types of accommodation. Important festivities include the Cosquin National Folk Music, and Jesus Maria Folk and Taming Festivals.
Cordoba is connected by rail with Buenos Aires, Rosario, Mendoza and Tucuman. The Ingeniero Ambrosio L.V. Taravella International Airport, known as Pajas Blancas, handles international and domestic air traffic, while the Las Higueras Rio Cuarto Airport handles only domestic flights.
Government
Cordoba has a unicameral legislature elected by universal suffrage. Until December 2001, the legislature was bicameral (a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate), but following the 2001 constitutional reform, this division was abolished. The unified legislature is made up of 70 members: 26 elected to represent each of the provincial departments, and 44 elected by the people of the province as a whole and assigned by a proportional system.
The head of government is the governor, accompanied by a vice-governor who presides the legislature and may fill the governor's place in certain cases. Like the legislators, the governor and vice-governor are elected for a four-year term, and can be re-elected for one consecutive term.
Cordoba has long been a bastion of the left-center Radical Civic Union, but in 1999 the Justicialist Jose Manuel de la Sota was elected governor, succeeded by fellow Peronist Juan Schiaretti in 2007.
Political division
The province is divided in 26 departments here listed with their head towns.
External links
Official Executive Power Site (Spanish)
Official Legislative Power Site (Spanish)
Official Judicial Power Site (Spanish)
La Voz del Interior daily Newspaper (Spanish)
La Manana de Cordoba daily Newspaper (Spanish)
El Diario del Sur de Cordoba daily Newspaper edited in Villa Maria (Spanish)
Capillas y Templos de la Provincia de Cordoba - Argentina
Tanti, en el corazon de Cordoba - Argentina
Tourism in Cordoba Argentina. (Spanish)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Cordoba Province (Argentina)
