Culture

Argentine culture has been primarily informed and influenced by its European roots. Buenos Aires, considered by many its cultural capital, is often said to be the most European city in South America, as a result both of the prevalence of people of European descent and of conscious imitation of European styles in architecture. The other big influence is the gauchos and their traditional country lifestyle of self-reliance. Finally, indigenous American traditions (like mate tea drinking) have been absorbed into the greater cultural realm.

Literature

Argentina has a rich history of world-renowned literature, including one of the twentieth century's most critically acclaimed writers, Jorge Luis Borges. The country has been a leader in Latin American literature since becoming a fully united entity in the 1850s, with a strong constitution and a defined nation-building plan. The struggle between the Federalists (who favored a loose confederation of provinces based on rural conservatism) and the Unitarians (pro-liberalism and advocates of a strong central government that would encourage European immigration), set the tone for Argentine literature of the time.
The ideological divide between gaucho epic Martín Fierro by José Hernández, and Facundo by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, is a great example. Hernández, although a federalist, opposed to the centralizing, modernizing, and Europeanizing tendencies. Sarmiento wrote immigration was the only way to save Argentina from becoming subject to the rule of a small number of dictatorial caudillo families, arguing such immigrants would make Argentina more modern and enlightened to Western European thought, and therefore a more prosperous society.
Argentine literature of that period was fiercely nationalist. It was followed by the modernist movement, which emerged in France in the late nineteenth century, and this period in turn was followed by vanguardism, with Ricardo Güiraldes as an important reference. Jorge Luis Borges, its most acclaimed writer, found new ways of looking at the modern world in metaphor and philosophical debate, and his influence has extended to writers all over the globe. Borges is most famous for his works in short stories such as Ficciones and The Aleph.
Argentina has produced many more internationally noted writers, poets, and intellectuals: Juan Bautista Alberdi, Roberto Arlt, Enrique Banchs, Adolfo Bioy Cásares, Eugenio Cambaceres, Julio Cortázar, Esteban Echeverría, Leopoldo Lugones, Eduardo Mallea, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Victoria Ocampo, Manuel Puig, Ernesto Sabato, Osvaldo Soriano, Alfonsina Storni, and María Elena Walsh. Quino (born Joaquin Salvador Lavado), has entertained readers the world over, while dipping into the events of modern times, with soup-hating Mafalda and her comic strip gang.

Film and theatre


Argentina is a major producer of motion pictures. The world's first animated feature films were made and released in Argentina, by cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, in 1917 and 1918. Argentine cinema enjoyed a 'golden age' in the 1930s through the 1950s with scores of productions, many now considered classics of Spanish-language film. The industry produced actors who became the first movie stars of Argentine cinema, often tango performers such as Libertad Lamarque, Floren Delbene, Tito Lusiardo, Tita Merello, Roberto Escalada, and Hugo del Carril.
More recent films from the "New Wave" of cinema since the 1980s have achieved worldwide recognition, such as The Official Story (La historia official), Nine Queens (Nueve reinas), Man Facing Southeast (Hombre mirando al sudeste), Son of the Bride (El hijo de la novia), The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta), or Iluminados por el fuego. Although rarely rivaling Hollywood-type movies in popularity, local films are released weekly and widely followed in Argentina and internationally. Even low-budget films have earned prizes in cinema festivals (such as Cannes). The city of Mar del Plata organizes its own film festival, while Buenos Aires has its independent cinema counterpart. The per capita number of screens is one of the highest in Latin America, and viewing per capita is the highest in the region. A new generation of Argentine directors has caught the attention of critics worldwide. Additionally, Argentina is a major center of cinema, it is compared to other European countries in terms of people who attend movie theaters. An example of this was Spider-Man 3 which took in 466,586 the first day a record in Argentina. In Italy it took in 400,000 and Germany 486,571, breaking all records for first day release.
Buenos Aires is one of the great capitals of theater. The Teatro Colon is a national landmark for opera and classical performances. Built at the ending of XIX century, Teatro Colon's acoustic is considered the best in the world in its kind. Currently is under a major maintenance program, in order to preserve its outstanding sound characteristics, the french-romantic style, the impressive Golden Room (a minor auditorium targeted to Chamber Music performances), and the museum at the entrance. Enrico Caruso, B.Gigli, Félix Weingartner, Artur Nikisch, Richard Strauss,Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, Camille Saint-Saëns, Manuel de Falla, Aaron Copland, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Tullio Serafin, Gino Marinuzzi, Albert Wolff, Víctor De Sabata, Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Karl Böhm, Fernando Previtali, Sir Thomas Beecham, Ferdinand Leitner, Lorin Maazel, Igor Markevitch, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta, Marek Janowsky, Aldo Ceccato, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Michel Corboz, Franz-Paul Decker, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, René Jacobs are among the artists, composers and conductors who performed in this opera house. Besides the Teatro Colón (one of the great opera houses of the world), with its program of national and international caliber, Calle Corrientes, or Corrientes Avenue, is synonymous with the art. It is dubbed 'the street that never sleeps', and sometimes referred to as the Broadway of Buenos Aires. Many great careers in acting, music, and film have begun in its many theaters. The Teatro General San Martín is one of the most prestigious along Corrientes Avenue; the Teatro Nacional Cervantes is designated the national theater of Argentina. Another important theater is the Independencia in Mendoza. Florencio Sanchez and Griselda Gambaro are famous Argentine playwrights. Julio Bocca is one of the great ballet dancers of the modern era.




Painting and sculpture
Perhaps one of the most enigmatic figures of Argentine culture is Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari, aka Xul Solar, whose watercolor style and unorthodox painting media draws large crowds at museums worldwide; he also 'invented' two imaginary languages. The works of Candido Lopez (in Naïve art style), Emilio Pettoruti (cubist), Antonio Berni (neo-figurative style), Fernando Fader, and Guillermo Kuitca are appreciated internationally.
Benito Quinquela Martín is considered to be the quintesennial 'port' painter, to which the city of Buenos Aires and particularly the working class and immigrant-bound La Boca neighborhood, was excellently suited for. Lucio Fontana and Leon Ferrari are acclaimed sculptors and conceptual artists. Ciruelo is a world-wide famous fantasy artist and sculptor.

Food and drink

Argentine food is influenced by cuisine from Spain, Italy, Germany, France and other European countries, and many foods from those countries such as pasta, sausages, and desserts are common in the nation's diet. Argentina has a wide variety of staple foods, which include empanadas, a stuffed pastry; locro, a mixture of corn, beans, meat, bacon, onion, and gourd; and chorizo, a meat-based spicy sausage.


The Argentine barbecue, asado, is one of the most famous in the world and includes various types of meats, among them chorizo, sweetbread, chitterlings, and morcilla (blood sausage). Thin sandwiches, sandwiches de miga, are also popular. Since 1992 Argentina has invested over 650 million dollars to modernize the winery industry. The country is an important wine producer, rated fifth in the world, with the yearly per capita consumption of wine amongst the highest worldwide. (Malbec has become a representative variety from Argentina). Malbec grape, a discardable varietal in France (country of origin), has found in Province of Mendoza an ideal environment to successfully develop and turn itself into world's best Malbec. Currently, it is widely acknowledged that Argentinian Malbecs are among the finest wines in the world (if not the finest) and Mendoza earns 70% of the country total production (all varietals considered). "Wine tourism" is significant in the Province of Mendoza, with the impressive landscape of Cordillera de Los Andes and the highest peak in America, Mount Aconcagua, 6952 meters high, providing a very desirable destination for international tourism. The route that connects Mendoza City (a modern, very cosmopolitan city) with the Redemptor Christ statue (located on the border with Republic of Chile) offers an outstanding set of incredible landscapes, unparalleled in all continental America, and reaching 4000 metres. Also, a common custom among Argentines is drinking mate.Dulce de Leche is a famous sweet caramel spread made milk and sugar.

Sports

Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Argentina, whose national team is twice FIFA World Cup Champion and one-time Olympic Gold medalist (also fourteen-time Copa América winners).
Also widespread are volleyball and basketball; a number of basketball players participate in the NBA and European leagues. Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Carlos Delfino, and Fabricio Oberto are a few, and the national team won Olympic Gold in the Athens Olympics. Argentina has an important rugby union team, "Los Pumas" (see Argentina national rugby union team), with many of its players playing in Europe. Argentine tennis is very competitive on the world stage, with dozens of players, male and female, in active tour.
Other popular sports include field hockey (the top female sport, see Las Leonas), golf, and sailing. Argentina has the highest number of highly-ranked polo players in the world and the national squad has been the uninterrupted world champion ever since 1949. The Open Polo Championship of Buenos Aires is the most important polo-related event in the world. Cricket is growing in popularity due to the National Team's recent successes where they came as the underdogs and finished runner's up of the Inaugural World Cricket League Division 3. Baseball is played in a most limited fashion, as well as the Gridiron.
Motorsports are well represented in Argentina, with Turismo Carretera and TC 2000 being the most popular car racing formats. People all over the country enjoy the races, but it is most fervently followed in small towns and rural Argentina, attracting a rather similar demographic as NASCAR in the United States. The Rally Argentina is part of the World Rally Championship (currently held in Córdoba Province). In Formula 1 racing, the country produced one world champion (Juan Manuel Fangio, five times) and two runners-up (Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann, once each).
The official national sport of the country is pato, played with a six-handle ball on horseback.
Argentina beat France in the Rugby World Cup 2007, placing them third in the competition. They beat France 34 - 10.


Music

Tango, the music and lyrics (often sung in a form of slang called lunfardo), is Argentina's musical symbol. The Milonga dance was a predecessor, slowly evolving into modern tango. By the 1930s, tango had changed from a dance focused music to one of lyric and poetry, with singers like Carlos Gardel, Roberto Goyeneche, Hugo del Carril, Tita Merello, and Edmundo Rivero. 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, and Juan D'Arienzo. After 1955 tango turned more intellectual and listener-oriented, led by Astor Piazzolla. Today tango has worldwide popularity, and the rise of neo-tango is a global phenomenon with groups like Tanghetto, Bajofondo and Gotan Project.
Argentine rock, called rock nacional, is the most popular music among youth. Arguably the most listened form of Spanish-language rock, its influence and success internationally owes to a rich, uninterrupted evolution. Bands such as Soda Stereo or Sumo, and composers like Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta, and Fito Páez are referents of national culture. Mid 1960s Buenos Aires and Rosario were cradles of the music, and by 1970 Argentine rock was established among middle class youth (see Almendra, Sui Generis, Pappo, Crucis). Seru Giran bridged the gap into the 1980s, when Argentine bands became popular across Latin America and elsewhere (Enanitos Verdes, Fabulosos Cadillacs, Virus, Andres Calamaro). There are many sub-genres: underground, pop oriented, and some associated with the working class (La Renga, Attaque 77, Divididos, Los Redonditos). Current popular bands include: Babasonicos, Rata Blanca, El Otro Yo, Attaque 77, Bersuit, Los Piojos, Intoxicados, Catupecu Machu, and Miranda!.
European classical music is well represented in Argentina. Buenos Aires is home to the world-renowned Colón Theater. Classical musicians, such as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, Eduardo Delgado, Lalo Schiffrin, and classical composers such as Alberto Ginastera, are internationally acclaimed. All major cities in Argentina have impressive theaters or opera houses, and provincial or city orchestras. Some cities have annual events and important classical music festivals like Semana Musical Llao Llao in San Carlos de Bariloche and the multitudinous Amadeus in Buenos Aires.
Argentine folk music is uniquely vast. Beyond dozens of regional dances, a national folk style emerged in the 1930s. Perón's Argentina would give rise to Nueva Canción, as artists began expressing in their music objections to political themes. Atahualpa Yupanqui, the greatest Argentine folk musician, and Mercedes Sosa would be defining figures in shaping Nueva Canción, gaining worldwide popularity in the process. The style found a huge reception in Chile, where it took off in the 1970s and went on to influence the entirety of Latin American music. Today, Chango Spasiuk and Soledad Pastorutti have brought folk back to younger generations. Leon Gieco's folk-rock bridged the gap between argentine folklore and argentine rock introducing both styles to millions overseas in successive tours.
Other notable musicians include Gato Barbieri with his seductive saxophone and free jazz compositions, and Jaime Torres and his spacious andean music.

Religion



Argentines are predominantly religious. Around 93% declare themselves Roman Catholic according to different surveys; the Church estimates an affiliation of 70%. According to the Constitution, the Argentine government should support Roman Catholicism. However, this does not imply that it is the official religion of the Argentine Republic, nor does it imply that people working in the government should have this faith.
Evangelical churches have gained a foothold in Argentina since the 1980s, and their followers now number more than 3.5 million, about 10% of the total population. Traditional Protestant communities are present in most communities.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) number over 330,300, the seventh-largest concentration in the world, are also present.
The country also hosts the largest Jewish population in all of Latin America, about 2 percent of the population.
Islam in Argentina constitutes approximately 1.5% of the population, or an estimated 500,000-600,000 (93% Sunni). Argentina is also home to one of the largest mosques in Latin America, serving Argentina's Muslim community.
Approximately 7% of Argentines can be considered non-religious or secular.

Language
See also: Languages of Argentina and List of indigenous languages in Argentina
The official language of Argentina is Spanish, usually called "Castellano" (Castilian) by Argentines.
A phonetic study conducted by the Laboratory for Sensory Investigations of CON and the University of Toronto showed that the accent of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires (known as porteños) is closer to the Neapolitan dialect of Italian than any other spoken language. Italian immigration and other European immigrations influenced Lunfardo, the slang spoken in the Río de la Plata region, permeating the vernacular vocabulary of other regions as well.
Argentines are the largest Spanish-speaking society that universally employs what is known as voseo (the use of the pronoun vos instead of tú (you), which occasions the use of alternate verb forms as well). The most prevalent dialect is Rioplatense, whose speakers are primarily located in the basin of the Río de la Plata.
Standard German is spoken by between 400,000 and 500,000 Argentines of German ancestry, though it has also been stated that the there could be as much as 1,800,000. German today, is the third or fourth most spoken language in Argentina.
According to a survey, there are around 1,500,000 Italian speakers (which makes it the second most spoken language in the country) and 1,000,000 speakers of Levantine Arabic, but these numbers are probably no longer current, as the newer generations mostly switch to Spanish and do not speak the ancestral language in the home. The same phenomenon applies to the Galician language that was used by many Spanish immigrants, Yiddish, and Japanese. The usage of these languages is in decline, as the respective immigration waves ended in the first half of the 20th century.
Some indigenous communities have retained their original languages. Guaraní is spoken by some in the northeast, especially in Corrientes (where it enjoys official status) and Misiones. Quichua is spoken by some in the northwest, and has a local variant in Santiago del Estero. Aymara is spoken by members of the Bolivian community who migrated to Argentina from Bolivia.
In Patagonia there are several Welsh-speaking communities.
More recent immigrants have brought Chinese and Korean, mostly to Buenos Aires. English, Brazilian Portuguese and French are also spoken to a lesser extent. English is commonly taught at schools, with Portuguese and French behind.

Education
After independence, Argentina constructed a national public education system in comparison to other nations, placing the country high up in the global rankings of literacy. Today the country has a literacy rate of 97% (2003 Est.)


School attendance is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 17. The Argentine school system consists of a primary or lower school level lasting six or seven years, and a secondary or high school level lasting between five to six years. In the 1990s, the system was split into different types of high school instruction, called Educacion Secundaria and the Polimodal. Some provinces adopted the Polimodal while others did not. A project in the Executive to repeal this measure and return to a more traditional secondary level system was approved in 2006. President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento is overwhelmingly credited in pushing and implementing a free, modern education system in Argentina. The 1918 University reform shaped the current tripartite representation of most public universities.
Education is funded by tax payers at all levels except for the majority of graduate studies. There are many private school institutions in the primary, secondary and university levels. Around 11.1 million people were enrolled in formal education of some kind:
9,551,728 people attended either kindergarten, primary (lower school), or secondary (high school) establishments
494,461 people attended non-university level establishments (such as training or technical schools)
1,125,257 people attended colleges or universities
Education in public schools (primary, secondary and tertiary) is free. Public education, which was perceived to be of the best quality during the mid 20th century, is now often perceived to be bad and in continuous decline because of lack of funding. This has helped private education to flourish, albeit it has also caused an imbalance in terms of who can afford it (usually middle and upper classes), as often private schools have no scholarship systems in place.
There are thirty-five public universities across the country, as well as several private. The Universities of Buenos Aires (the largest one, has 300,000 students), Córdoba (110,000 students), Rosario (75,000 students), La Plata (75,000 students) and UTN (National Technological University, 70,000 students) are among the most important. Public universities faced cutbacks in spending during the 1980s and 1990s, which led to a decline in overall quality.

Holidays

Public holidays include most of the Catholic holidays, though holidays of other faiths are respected. The main historic holidays include the anniversaries of the May Revolution (May 25), the Independence Day (July 9), National Flag day (June 20), and the death of national hero José de San Martín (August 17).
On Christmas Eve, the extended family gathers at 9 p.m. for dinner, music, and often dancing. Candies are served just before midnight, when fireworks displays begin. The evening also includes opening gifts from Papá Noel (Santa Claus). New Year's Day is marked with fireworks as well. Other holidays include Good Friday and Easter; Labor Day (1 May); Anniversary of the May Revolution (25 May); Malvinas Day (2 April); Flag Day (20 June); Independence Da