Corrientes (Spanish pronunciation: [koˈrjentes], lit. ‘currents’ or ‘streams’; Guarani: Taragui), officially the Province of Corrientes (Spanish: Provincia de Corrientes; Guarani: Taragui Tetãmini) is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by (from the north, clockwise): Paraguay, Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.
Resistencia (pronounced [resisˈtensja] ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Chaco in north-eastern Argentina. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city proper was 291,720 inhabitants. It is the anchor of a larger metropolitan area, Greater Resistencia, which comprises at least three more municipalities for a total population of 387,340 as of 2010. This conurbation is the largest in the province, and the eleventh most populous in the country. It is located along the Negro River, a tributary of the much larger Paraná River, opposite the city of Corrientes, Corrientes Province.
The area was originally inhabited by Guaycuru aboriginals such as the Tobas. Their resistance to evangelisation postponed substantial European settlement until the late 19th century. Not until 1865 was a proper settlement established, and on January 27, 1878, Resistencia was formally established as the territorial capital. The national government supported immigration, and in 1878 the first Italian immigrants arrived. The first City Council was made up entirely of members originating from that country.
Paraguayan Guarani, or simply Guarani (avañe'ẽ), is a language of South America that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani branch of the Tupian language family. It is one of the two official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and where half of the rural population are monolingual speakers of the language.
Variants of the language are spoken by communities in neighboring countries including parts of northeastern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil. It is a second official language of the Argentine province of Corrientes since 2004 and the Brazilian city of Tacuru since 2010. Guarani is also one of the three official languages of Mercosur, alongside Spanish and Portuguese.
The Uruguay River (Spanish: Río Uruguay [ˈri.o wɾuˈɣwaj]; Portuguese: Rio Uruguai [ˈʁi.u uɾuˈɡwaj]) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries. It passes between the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil; forms the eastern border of the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes and Entre Ríos in Argentina; and makes up the western borders of the departments of Artigas, Salto, Paysandú, Río Negro, Soriano and Colonia in Uruguay.
San La Muerte (Saint Death) is a skeletal folk saint that is venerated in Paraguay, Argentina (mainly in the province of Corrientes but also in Misiones, Chaco and Formosa) and southern Brazil (specifically in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul). As a result of internal migration in Argentina since the 1960s, the veneration of San La Muerte has spread to Greater Buenos Aires and to the national prison system as well.
Saint Death is depicted as a male skeleton figure, usually holding a scythe. Although the Catholic Church has rebuked the devotion of Saint Death as a tradition that mixes paganism with Christianity and is contrary to the belief of Resurrection of Jesus defeating death, many devotees view the veneration of San La Muerte as part of their Catholic faith.
Rio Grande do Sul (UK: /ˌriːuː ˌɡrændi duː ˈsʊl/, US: /- ˌɡrɑːndi duː ˈsuːl/; Portuguese: [ˈʁi.u ˈɡɾɐ̃dʒ(i) du ˈsuw] ; lit. "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most populous state and the ninth-largest by area and it is divided into 497 municipalities. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is bordered clockwise by Santa Catarina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Uruguayan departments of Rocha, Treinta y Tres, Cerro Largo, Rivera, and Artigas to the south and southwest, and the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones to the west and northwest. The capital and largest city is Porto Alegre. The state has the highest life expectancy in Brazil, and the crime rate is relatively low compared to the Brazilian national average. The state has 5.4% of the Brazilian population and it is responsible for 6.6% of the Brazilian GDP.
The state shares a gaucho culture with its neighbors Argentina and Uruguay. Before the arrival of Portuguese and Spanish settlers, it was inhabited mostly by the Guarani and Kaingang peoples (with smaller populations of Charrúa and Minuane). The first Europeans there were Jesuits, followed by settlers from the Azores. In the 19th century it was the scene of conflicts including the Ragamuffin War and the Paraguayan War. Large waves of German and Italian migration have shaped the state as well.
The Argentina–Uruguay border is a line of 579 km marked by the Uruguay River, and is the border between Argentina and Uruguay. It starts in a triple border Argentina-Uruguay-Brazil, at the mouth of the Quaraí River in the Uruguay. The course follows the Uruguay river, passing west of the Uruguayan departments of Artigas, Salto, Paysandu, Rio Negro, Soriano and Colonia and the Argentine provinces of Corrientes, Entre Rios and Buenos Aires, until the confluence of the Uruguay and the Paraná rivers into the Rio de la Plata.
Corrientes (Spanish pronunciation: [koˈrjentes] ; Guaraní: Taragui, literally: "Currents") is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about 1,000 km (621 mi) from Buenos Aires and 300 km (186 mi) from Posadas, on National Route 12. It has a population of 346,334 according to the 2010 Census. It lies opposite its twin city, Resistencia, Chaco.
Corrientes has a mix of colonial and modern architecture, several churches and a number of lapacho, ceibo, jacaranda and orange trees. It is also home to one of Argentina's biggest carnival and chamamé celebrations.
The Mesopotamia or Región Mesopotámica is the humid and verdant area of northeast Argentina, comprising the provinces of Misiones, Entre Ríos, and Corrientes. The landscape and its characteristics are dominated by two rivers: the Paraná and the Uruguay.
When Spanish settlers came to the area, the two parallel rivers and the lush area between them drew comparisons to Mesopotamia (Greek: Μεσοποταμία "land between rivers") in modern-day Iraq, and it was decided that the Argentine region be named after the Iraqi region. The region shares many of its ecological features with neighboring regions of Argentina and with parts of Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.