World Travels with Ron Brown

World Travels with Ron Brown: Buenos Aires: The Paris of Latin America
HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

Latin America emerged from Spanish colonial rule in the early 1800s and rapidly fell into a cycle of prosperity, fame, revolution, ruin, and again prosperity. Since 1536, Buenos (Good) Aires (Air) has proudly claimed that it has purest air of any city in the world. The Spanish founded the city on the Rio de la Plata (River of Silver) and named the country Argentina (The land of Silver) to exploit the rich silver mines of the interior of South America. The city grew in importance, suffered its share of revolutions, but by the early 1900s it was one of the richest and most beautiful cities in the world. Hotels, palaces, cathedrals, museums, grand boulevards, opera houses, and stylish restaurants and bars were modeled after Paris, The City of Light. But alas, Latin American revolutions, dictators, and decline afflicted this still beautiful city.