- Argentina - Portal público de noticias de la República Argentina.
Surrounded by Paraná and Uruguay rivers, this versatile province offers not only beaches, palm trees and fishing, but also historic circuits and hot springs. It holds the most famous carnival in the country and it is an important agricultural center.
Entre Ríos province is located in the Mesopotamic region in Argentina. It borders the province of Corrientes (North), Santa Fe (West and Southwest), Buenos Aires (South) and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (East). Its natural borders are the Paraná river (West and South) and the Uruguay river (East), we can also find the Guayquiraró and Mocoretá rivers (North) and their tributaries: the Basualdo stream and Tunas stream respectively. And this is where its name comes from: “Entre Ríos”-“among rivers”. Paraná is its capital city.
It is a versatile province: apart from its plentiful natural resources, there is a great number of historic places and amazing circuits for sport hunting and fishing. It has busy beaches and healing waters, where many of the most recognized hot spring centres can be found. Moreover, the best well-known carnival in Argentina takes place in the city of Gualeguaychú every summer.
Entre Ríos is widely known as the province of leaders (“caudillos”) since many outstanding representatives of Argentine history were born there. Its places, buildings and monuments tell us about its leading role in the course of historic events. We should also consider the cultural aspect of its population, highly modified by the contribution of several communities, which immigrated and settled down in the province (Germans, Israelis and Swiss colonists).
It has a national university, the National University of Entre Ríos, which offers more than 20 majors, short-term and postgraduate courses. What´s more, the Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos has recently been built with the aim to join and rank all terciary careers and teacher training courses offered by the provincial administration. By the way, the National Technical University (Universidad Tecnológica Nacional) owns three branches in Concordia, Paraná and Concepción del Uruguay.
Geography
It is surrounded by two huge rivers: the Paraná and the Uruguay rivers; both of them are Guaraní terms, that mean Sea Relative (Pariente del Mar) and Birds River (Río de los Pájaros) respectively. These two natural borders give the region its frame and character with magnificent riverbank landscapes, abundant fauna and flora and an exceptional climate.
Despite the significant presence of rivers in the area, Entre Ríos was able to stay linked to the other provinces and its neighbouring country, Uruguay, through an outstanding infrastructure activity: the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel, a major link with Santa Fe province; the road and railway complex, Zárate Brazo Largo, which links Entre Ríos with Buenos Aires; José Gervasio Artigas and Libertador General San Martín international bridges and the Salto Grande dam, a bond with the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
A mild and generous sort of climate is a characteristic of the area and favours the diversity of several fauna and flora species as well as the development of agricultural and cattle farming activities.
History and population
In the pre-Columbian period, the province was inhabited by indigenous communities, such as Charrúas, Chanás and Guaraníes. After the Spanish Colonization, several European peoples began to settle down from 16th century onwards.
Entre Ríos witnessed the emergence of well-known characters of Argentine history and a succession of military and political events, thus becoming the birth place of relevant leaders (“caudillos”), who played an active role in the national unity process during the first half of the 19th century. Among them, we can find General Justo José de Urquiza, general and politician, who became the first constitutional president of the Argentine Republic in 1854.
On the other hand, Entre Ríos received a huge number of immigrants since the first colonists began to arrive in 1866. Among the several groups of newcomers, we can find people from: Switzerland and France, originally settled in San José Colony (Colón); Volga-Germans or Russia-Germans, located in villages like San Rafael, Crespo and Santa María -they were actual pioneers in poultry farming and agriculture; Israelis settled down in the Villaguay, Gualeguaychú, Uruguay, Colón and Concordia Departments and were devoted to agriculture, livestock production, dairy and poultry farming. Other people also came from Spain, Italy, Syria and Lebanon.
Economy
Agriculture and livestock production are the core foundations of the region´s economy. The main crops are: cotton, rice, oats, sunflower, lemon, linen, maize, tangerine, orange, grapefruit, soya, sorghum and wheat. Wheat, maize and flax have helped develop other industries. Entre Ríos is the principal rice producer and exporter in the whole country. It also has the greatest production and exports of citrus fruit (oranges, grapefruits, tangerines and lemons), which are destined to the European Union and the largest urban centres of the country. Besides the citrus industry creates other small and medium businesses connected to the juice production.
It has around 4 million heads of cattle scattered around the North and South of its territory. Its livestock production is exported to the European Union, the US and the South of Brazil. The poultry activity is also widely developed.
Several areas of the province, such as Concordia, Paraná, Rosario del Tala, Victoria and Gualeguaychú work in honey production and its derivatives.
