MundoAndino Home : Andes Argentina Guide at MundoAndino
Corrientes Province
Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil,Uruguay,and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.
History
Before the arrival of the Spanish conquest, the Guarani lived in a big area that also covered most of the current province of Corrientes. The city of Corrientes was founded on April 3, 1588 by Juan Torres de Vera y Aragon as a mid-stop between Asuncion and Buenos Aires; the city flourished thanks to the traffic from the route. Jesuits erected missions in the north of the province, where they dedicated themselves to the expansion of the faith.
In the wars of independence from Spain, Corrientes joined Artigas' Liga de los Pueblos Libres . The attack of Paraguayan forces on the province in 1865 marked the start of the War of the Triple Alliance.
In 1819 the Universidad Nacional del Litoral was founded, which in 1956 became the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste.
Culture
Corrientes is the home of chamame, a danceable music style with European roots, which uses the accordion as its main instrument. The other main genres are rasguido doble, which shows black influence, and chamarrita, also common in Entre Rios and the Uruguayan and Brazilian villages across the border.
Since the 1980s, chamame has become a mainstay of Argentine music, cross-breeding with rock, candombe, Brazilian rhythms from across the border, chacarera from Santiago del Estero and most notably cumbia, to produce the tropical genre, much in vogue in all of the country. Even the Correntino term for "dance party", bailanta, has spread to all of Argentina.
Corrientes is the only place in Argentina in which a significant black population and culture can be found. Rasguido doble is a more rhythmic version of chamame. Blacks were called camba (Guarani for "black") and had their own neighborhoods, notably Camba-cua ("Black man's cave") in Corrientes city. The black influence shows in Corrientes's carnival celebrations, the most colorful in all of Argentina.
Tourist destinations in the Corrientes Province include the Ibera Wetlands and the Mburucuya National Park.
On 28 September 2004, provincial Law No. 5598 declared Guarani to be an official language of Corrientes, alongside Spanish.
Geography and climate
As part of the subtropical area of Mesopotamia, the province has heavy rains and high temperatures with little daily and seasonal variation specially in the North, and no dry season. The Southern part of the province presents some signs of the neighbouring more temperate weather of the Pampas.
Corrientes is surrounded by two rivers, the Uruguay River to the east, and the Parana River to the northwest, that contour the shape of the province. The low shore of the Parana produces frequent floodings. After the specially destructive one in 1982, a protective system has been started with the construction of barriers.
The province is for the most part a plain, with the highest points in the east. To the west, a series of descending platforms go down to the Parana River. The Ibera Wetlands, an area of lagoons and swamps, is a vast depression from volcanic flow, covered later with fluvial and eolic sediments.
Economy
Agriculture is one of the main activities in the province, centred in citrus, tobacco, rice, yerba mate, tea and cotton. The timber industry uses 1,400 km of pine and eucalyptus forests.
Bovine cattle has problems standing the heat and the low quality of the grass specially in the north of the province. For that reason, the Brangus breed is the most common in the area. In the south, different breeds can be found. 70,000 km of the province's land are used for more than 4 million heads of cattle.
Of the province net production, tobacco represents 45% of the gross income, food and derivates 30% and textiles 16%.
On the Parana River, near the city of Ituzaingo, the Yacireta dam provides energy not only to the province, but to both Argentina and Paraguay.
Tourism is becoming to grow in Corrientes Province due to the relavance that Esteros del Ibera are having with all nature, conservation and birdwatching travelers.
Political division
The province is divided into 25 departments (departamentos):
Department (Capital)
Bella Vista Department (Bella Vista)
Beron de Astrada Department (Beron de Astrada)
Capital Department (Corrientes)
Concepcion Department (Concepcion)
Curuzu Cuatia Department (Curuzu Cuatia)
Empedrado Department (Empedrado)
Esquina Department (Esquina)
General Alvear Department (Alvear)
General Paz Department (Nuestra Senora del Rosario de Caa Cati)
Goya Department (Goya)
Itati Department (Itati)
Ituzaingo Department (Ituzaingo)
Lavalle Department (Lavalle)
Mburucuya Department (Mburucuya)
Mercedes Department (Mercedes)
Monte Caseros Department (Monte Caseros)
Paso de los Libres Department (Paso de los Libres)
Saladas Department (Saladas)
San Cosme Department (San Cosme)
San Luis del Palmar Department (San Luis del Palmar)
San Martin Department (La Cruz)
San Miguel Department (San Miguel)
San Roque Department (San Roque)
Santo Tome Department (Santo Tome)
Sauce Department (Sauce)
External links
Official site
History
Esteros del Ibera (in English and Spanish)
Corrientes Info
Pictures of Corrientes
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Provinces of Argentina or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Corrientes Province
