ARGENTINA: PART 2Jean Lowry

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CULTURE… Argentine culture has significant

European influences. Buenos Aires, its cultural capital, is largely characterized by both the prevalence of people of European descent, and of conscious imitation of European styles in architecture

Argentina has a rich literary history, as well as one of the region's most active publishing industries

The struggle between the Federalists and the Unitarians set the tone for Argentine literature of the time

Argentine literature of that period was fiercely nationalist

It was followed by the modernist movement, which emerged in France in the late 19th century, and this period in turn was followed by vanguardism, with Ricardo Güiraldes as an important reference

Numerous Argentine architects have enriched their own country's cityscapes and, in recent decades, those around the world

The Argentine film industry creates around 80 full-length motion pictures annually

CULTURE… CONT’D The Teatro Colón is a national

landmark for opera and classical performances; its acoustics are considered the best in the world.

Tango, the music and lyrics (often sung in a form of slang called lunfardo), is Argentina's musical symbol

The golden age of tango(1930 to mid-1950s) mirrored that of Jazz and Swing in the United States, featuring large orchestral groups too, like the bands of Osvaldo Pugliese, Anibal Troilo, Francisco Canaro, Julio de Caro and Juan D'Arienzo

European classical music is well represented in Argentina

The Argentine television industry is large and diverse, widely viewed in Latin America, and its productions seen around the world

Argentines enjoy the highest availability of cable and satellite television in Latin America, similar to percentages in North America

CULTURE… CONT’D The official national sport of Argentina is

pato, played with a six-handle ball on horseback, but the most popular sport is association football

Basketball is the second most popular sport; a number of basketball players play in the U.S. National Basketball Association and European leagues

The Vamos vamos Argentina chant is a trademark of Argentine fans during sporting events

Besides many of the pasta, sausage and dessert dishes common to continental Europe, Argentines enjoy a wide variety of Indigenous and Criollo creations, which include empanadas (a stuffed pastry), locro (a mixture of corn, beans, meat, bacon, onion, and gourd), humitas and yerba mate, all originally indigenous Amerindian staples, the latter considered Argentina's national beverage

The Argentine wine industry, long among the largest outside Europe

SOURCE…

"Argentina." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 July 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina>.