Merlo Partido

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Merlo
Official name	Partido de Merlo
Capital	Merlo
Country Province	Argentina Buenos Aires
Foundation Founder	August 28, 1755 Francisco Javier de Merlo y Barbosa
Population:
- Total	469,985
- Density	2,764.6 Inhabitants/km²
- Population change	+20.24% (1991-2001)
Demonym	merlense
Telephone code	0220
Post Code	B1722
Location
- Coordinates	34°40′S 58°43′W
Area	170km²
Distance:
- to Buenos Aires	32km
- to La Plata	70km
Patron	Nuestra Señora de la Merced
Mayor	Raúl Alfredo Othacehe, PJ
Web Site
IFAM Statistics	IFAM

Merlo is a partido of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Merlo is located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, west of the city of Buenos Aires. Its head town is the city of Merlo.

Contents 1 History 2 Cities 3 Government 4 Demographics 5 Transport 6 Sports 6.1 Sport Clubs 6.2 Golf Clubs 6.3 Auto Racing Tracks 7 Hydrography 8 Further reading 9 External links 9.1 Newspapers 9.2 Cities 9.3 Sport Clubs 9.4 Culture

[edit] History

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 the same year, Merlo founded the Villa de 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. It covers 66 square miles (170 square km) 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 Gran Buenos Aires urban area, and the population density is less than that of most of the metropolitan partidos of Buenos Aires Province.

[edit] Cities

City	Province law	Date
Merlo	422	October 24 1864
San Antonio de Padua	8212	September 11 1974
Parque San Martín	8558	December 4 1975
Libertad	10052	October 14 1983
Mariano Acosta	10208	October 18 1984
Pontevedra	11135	October 9 1991

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. As a district seat, Merlo is automatically a city. The partido has six cities.

Besides the mentioned cities, there are small towns like Merlo Norte, Villa Reconquista, Villa Pompeya and Barrio Zamoré; these towns are located mostly at the Reconquista riverside.

[edit] Government

The partido is administrated by a municipality. It is divided in an executive and a legislative branch: the mayor or intendente and the city council or consejo deliberante, respectively. The municipality is a strong mayor-council form of government.

The mayor is elected to four-year terms. The present mayor is Raúl Alfredo Othacehé, a lawyer and local peronist politician. He was elected mayor in 1991 and reelected in 1995, 1999 and 2003. In Pacho 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 Merlo City Council is The Honorable Consejo Deliberante de Merlo (The Merlo Honorable Deliberative Council) a unicameral body consisting of 24 Council members and one-half of the members are elected every two years to serve four-year term. The Council is controlled by the peronist party and its allies. The mayor and councilors can be reelected indefinitely.

The current composition of the city council is the following:

Affiliation	Members
Front for Victory	10
Justicialist Party (PJ)	8
Alternative for a Republic of Equals (ARI)	2
Alianza Frente Popular Bonaerense (FREPOBO)	2
Alianza Acción Federalista por Buenos Aires (AFEBA)	2
Total	24

[edit] Demographics

Partido of Merlo Population by year
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

Villa San Antonio del Camino started with twelve families in 1755. In the first decades of nineteen century the hamlet languished behind the dynamic Morón. At the mid nineteenth century an important Irish community lived in Merlo; many of them became in landholders, ranchers or estancieros, lawyers and priests, integrating the local upper-class. The community gave to Merlo two of its first intendentes: Alejandro Sullivan and Juan Dillon. Merlo was a countryside district until the late 1940’s. People from Buenos Aires spent their weekend and summer getaways in cottages, picnicking at the Reconquista riverside, playing golf at the Ituzaingó Golf Club, flying and parachuting at the Albatroz (Albatross) and Alemán (German) Aero Clubs. The landscape was spattered with estancias and farms.

The War World II restrained the commerce between Europe to Latin America and initiated an accelerated process of industrialization in Argentina. Looking for better jobs and well-paid salaries, people from the provinces and neighbor countries started to settle in Merlo in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. These people are from mestizo ascendancy and constitute - at the present days- the principal ethnic group in Merlo.

The estancias were subdivided and put on sale and the lack of utilities like water, sewerage, street lighting, public waste management, and pavement roads (besides the distance to Buenos Aires) made the properties cheaper and accessible to the working class. As Buenos Aires expanded, Merlo became integrated into the Buenos Aires Suburbs (Greater Buenos Aires).

Besides the population of spaniard and Italian origin, there is an important polish community which arrived after World War II and a small japanese community.

[edit] Transport

The principal arterial road 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 it's name changes to Presidente Perón Avenue. The journey to Buenos Aires downtown takes one and a half hours by bus. Merlo hasn’t a highway that links it to Buenos Aires and the head town connects with the Acceso Oeste Highway by an alternate route.

The Sarmiento Railway Line or Linea Sarmiento stretches 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 rails. 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 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.

[edit] Sports

[edit] Sport Clubs

• Club Atlético San Antonio de Padua
• Club Atlético Ferrocarril Midland
• Club Atlético Argentino de Merlo
• Club Social y Deportivo Merlo
• Club Ferrocarril Oeste de Merlo

[edit] Golf Clubs

• Ituzaingó Golf Club
• Libertad Golf Club

[edit] Auto Racing Tracks

• Circuito Ciudad de Merlo

[edit] Hydrography

The 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 drain in the Reconquista River: Gómez, Cañada de Smith, Torres and La Cañada del Molino; the following creeks drain in the Matanza River: Saladero, Las Víboras, del Pantano Grande, Cañada del Bajo Hondo and Cañada 11 de Octubre. Most of those water courses are highly contaminated. The Reconquista floods 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.

[edit] Further reading

• Pacho O'Donnell & Maria O'Donnell (2005). El Aparato: Los intendentes del Conurbano y las cajas negras de la política. Editorial Aguilar. ISBN ISBN 978-9870401629. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Newspapers

• (Spanish) Merlo Newspaper
• (Spanish) Mariano Acosta Newspaper

[edit] Cities

• (Spanish) City of San Antonio de Padua
• (Spanish) City of Libertad

[edit] Sport Clubs

• (Spanish) Club Atlético San Antonio de Padua
• (Spanish) Club Atlético Argentino de Merlo
• (Spanish) Club Atlético Ferrocarril Midland
• (Spanish) Club Social y Deportivo Merlo
• (Spanish) Ituzaingó Golf Club
• (Spanish) Libertad Golf Club

[edit] Culture

• (Spanish) Asociación Civil Arte y Cultura de Merlo