Corrientes

Spanish explorers came up the Paraná in the 16th century, looking for a route to the silver of the interior. On 3 April 1588 Juan Torres de Vera y Aragón founded San Juan de Vera de las Siete Corrientes, named for the seven rocky points on the shore that threw the river into dangerous currents. The site was chosen as a halt between Asunción and Buenos Aires, on high ground that kept it above the floods. A frontier town of a few hundred people in the 1620s, it grew slowly, and one episode of its early conflicts gave rise to the legend of the Cross of Miracles, a wooden cross said to have survived fire, which is still venerated in the city and appears on the provincial arms.

In 1807 the town resisted the British invasions of the Río de la Plata. After independence it was often at odds with the centralist government in Buenos Aires, but the Paraguayan War brought the two together after Paraguayan forces attacked and occupied the city in 1865. River trade through the port remained the city's lifeline, and until the 1960s its church towers were its tallest buildings.

The airport opened in 1961, and in 1973 the General Belgrano Bridge joined the city by road to Resistencia across the river. In 1999 a popular uprising against the provincial government blocked the bridge, and two people were killed when the Gendarmerie cleared it. Graham Greene set his novel The Honorary Consul in the city. Today it is a fast-growing regional capital, university town and centre of chamamé.

Corrientes is the heartland of chamamé, the accordion-led folk music that grew from Guaraní, Jesuit-era and immigrant influences and was long known as the Corrientes polka. UNESCO inscribed it as intangible cultural heritage in 2020. Each January the Fiesta Nacional del Chamamé fills the Anfiteatro Mario del Tránsito Cocomarola, named after one of the genre's most influential figures, for nights of music and dancing, and the sapucai cry of Guaraní origin rises from the crowd.

The carnival is the city's other great celebration. Corrientes holds the official title of national capital of carnival, and its comparsas, led by the long-established Ara Berá and Copacabana, parade with samba bands; since 2012 they have had a permanent corsódromo near the airport.

Religious devotion is strong. The city's patrons include the Virgen de la Merced and the Cross of Miracles, and the Virgin of Itatí, the provincial patron, draws pilgrims up the river each July. Guaraní is co-official in the province, and correntinos are known for their accent, their attachment to tereré and a warm, unhurried manner. Football support divides between Huracán Corrientes and Boca Unidos, with the memory of Deportivo Mandiyú's seasons in the top division still alive.

The 2022 census counted about 430,000 people in the city, nearly a quarter more than in 2010, and every day thousands cross the bridge to Resistencia and Barranqueras for work and study. Public administration is the main activity, alongside health care and education, and the National University of the Northeast brings thousands of students. The port still handles river cargo.

The river limits how the city can spread, so growth has pushed outwards along Avenida Maipú and Route 12 towards Laguna Brava. A shortage of housing is a recurring local complaint, as are the distances that new neighbourhoods put between residents and services.

The heat shapes the day. Shops open in the morning, close for a long siesta when the streets empty, and reopen into the evening. When the sun drops, the Costanera fills with walkers, runners, families and friends sharing tereré, and in summer the southern riverside has free weekend shows and discos that run late.

The city eats like the rest of the Guaraní northeast, with dishes shared with Paraguay. Chipá, small cheese breads made with cassava starch, are everywhere; a local form, chipá mboká, is roasted so that it comes out as a tube, and a stall on the Costanera sells it. Sopa paraguaya, a dense cornbread with cheese and onion despite its name, and chipá guazú, made with fresh maize, appear at family meals and asados, and mbeyú is a cassava starch pancake.

The Paraná supplies the prized fish. Surubí, a large catfish, is grilled or cooked in stews; pacú and dorado are cooked over coals. Boiled or fried mandioca, cassava, is the usual side, and asado completes the family table.

Mate is drunk hot in the cooler months, but tereré, yerba mate with iced water and often with herbs, is the drink of the long hot days. Bakeries sell facturas, the sweet pastries of Argentine breakfasts and afternoon merienda, and dulce de mamón, a papaya preserve, is a regional dessert.