Porteño (Argentina)

For other uses, see Porteño.

Porteño (feminine: Porteña; lit. 'port city person' in Spanish) is the gentilic used for people from the city (but not the province) of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

History

During the wave of European migration to Argentina peaking in the 1880s, the Río de la Plata area became heavily populated with people of European descent, mainly Italian, Spanish and French. They called themselves Porteños to distinguish themselves from existing criollo (colonial Spanish) ancestry, mestizos, indigenous people and mulattoes.

Culture

Equestrian sports are a huge part of Porteño life. Buenos Aires produces some of the best polo players in the world, due to the high quality of ponies raised throughout the fertile grasslands in the Pampas region and the enthusiastic sponsorship of the sport by Argentina's land-owning elites. Each year, in November, the Palermo Open, the world's most prestigious polo championship, takes place in the Palermo section of Buenos Aires.

Porteño cuisine consists heavily of beef that is available in abundance owing to the geography of the Pampas that lends itself to cattle raising.

Demographics

Since Porteño is not officially reportable on any census, estimates differ regarding their population and geography. While not the majority ethnicity in Argentina, Porteños are prominent in the eastern province of Buenos Aires.