Merlo is a partido of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, west of the city of Buenos Aires. Its capital is the city of Merlo.
The region of the present-day partido was colonized shortly after the second, and permanent founding of Buenos Aires (1580). In 1730 an interim parish was founded near the estancia (landholding) of Francisco de Merlo. In 1755 Merlo founded the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino, which was renamed later in his honour. For many years, the development of Merlo lagged behind the growth of nearby Morón. In 1865 the region was officially declared a partido.
Geography
Merlo covers and is bordered by the partidos of Morón and Ituzaingó (northeast), La Matanza (southeast), Marcos Paz (southwest), and Moreno and the Reconquista River (northwest). Besides the city of Merlo, the significant localities are San Antonio de Padua, Parque San Martín, Libertad, Pontevedra and Mariano Acosta. The city of Merlo was formerly important solely as a railroad junction and trade centre for the surrounding agricultural and pastoral lands.
About half of the partido now lies within the Greater Buenos Aires urban area, and the population density is less than that of most of the metropolitan partidos of Buenos Aires Province.
History
1755: Francisco de Merlo and Villa San Antonio del Camino In the early 17th century the present-day partido was part of the Pago (from the Latin pagus, country district) of Las Conchas; the territory was traversed by the Reconquista River, known in those days as Río de las Conchas (literally River of Shells) from where the region took its name. The region was largely inhabited by the taluhet people, part of the het nation, a hunter-gatherer society better known by the exonym querandi.
In 1636 the territory of today's Merlo was divided into a few haciendas, given as land grants by Governor Pedro Esteban Dávila to a few and influential Buenos Aires neighbors.
Inside the haciendas the main economical activities were the agriculture and cattle-raising. The fertile land —drained by Las Conchas/Reconquista River— was covered with wheat fields and orchards. The bigger hacienda was granted to the Company of Jesus and the resulting production provided the Jesuits the financial resources to maintain the schools they had in Buenos Aires.
The Jesuit priests Thomas FalknerThomas Falkner (Manchester, October 6, 1702 – January 30, 1784) was an English Jesuit, surgeon, ethnologist, botanist and zoologist. In 1774 Falkner published a book under the title "A Description of Patagonia and the adjoining parts of South America, with a grammar and a short vocabulary, and some particulars relating to Falkland's Islands". and Florian PauckeFlorian Paucke (or Baucke), (Wińsko, Wołów County, Lower Silesia, September 24, 1719 - Zwettl Abbey, April 13, 1780). He was a Jesuit priest, ethnologist, botanist and zoologist. visited the region in the mid 18th century and described the area plenty of herds of feral cattle and horses roaming free on the plains and numerous packs of dogs that feed on them and sometimes attacked the unwarned and helpless travelers.
By the 18th century the Araucanian people were moving from the lap of the Andes Mountains to the Pampas, attracted by the numerous cattle and horses herds. The Araucanians looted and sacked the Spanish settlements around Buenos Aires, performing unexpected horse mounted attacks known in the Southern Cone as malones (s. malón, from Mapudungun malocán: “to make war”).
By those days the Spanish businessman Francisco de Merlo bought many lands in the region, establishing a big estancia.
The settlers scattered throughout the region took refuge around the fortified Merlo's ranch-house, starting a little hamlet in his properties. It made Merlo petitioned King Philip V of Spain authorization to found a town in his states. On October 28, 1755 Francisco de Merlo founds the town of Villa San Antonio del Camino.
After Merlo's death the town became into an out-back town, isolated from the main commercial routes, remaining within the boundaries of the estancia belonged to the Mercedarian Order, expropriated in 1821 by the State of Buenos Aires and bought in 1852 by the English businessman Thomas Gibson Pearson. After his death the estancia was managed by his stepson Juan Dillon, key figure in the history of Merlo.
Juan Dillon
Juan Dillon y Calderón was born in Buenos Aires in 1819 and died in 1887. He was son of John Dillon, an Irish immigrant and his second wife, Manuela Calderón. Juan Dillon was a businessman, absentee landlord and public official, member of the prosperous Irish community in Buenos Aires. He married Josefa Ballesteros (b. 1824) and they had eight children. He was a prominent member of Adolfo Alsina's Autonomist Party.
John Dillon, left Ireland and emigrated to Spain. In 1807 he settled in the River Plate as a merchant and owner of a meat-curing plant. He loaned his flotilla of boats to Argentina in the war for independence with Spain. He also started the first brewery in the country. John Dillon dies in 1826 and Manuela Calderón married Thomas Gibson Pearson.
After Rosas’ fall in 1852, Juan Dillon was appointed Juez de Paz (Justice of Peace) in Morón (1855–1856) and military commander for the region. He also was elected Presidente de Municipalidad (Municipal President or Mayor) of the same district (1857; 1864–1865).
By those days Dillon took charge of his family's estate in Merlo, rebuilt the town and was appointed Juez de Paz of the newly created Partido of Merlo.
After his public life in Merlo, President Avellaneda appointed Dillon as Chief Commissioner of Immigration in 1875. During his administration Argentina experienced the first massive European immigration to the country and Dillon received the first Welsh immigrants, Volga Germans and Italians from Friuli. After that, Dillon and his family moves to La Plata when he was elected senator and served during three terms in the Buenos Aires legislature, in which he chaired the budget commission.
1864: Merlo obtains its autonomy In 1857 the Argentine railway company Camino de Hierro de Buenos Aires al Oeste opens the first steam locomotive public railway in Argentina and few years later the company was planning to extend the line westward to Moreno. The construction of the railway made land speculation a highly profitable activity. In order to reach Merlo the line had to pass through the land owned by the Pearson Family and Dillon saw the opportunity to make huge profits by selling out parts of the family's estate.
Dillon established in Merlo and in 1859 he commissioned the famous architect and engineer Pedro Benoit to design the layout of the town, organizing it on a rectangular grid of streets and blocks. The town was enlarged and endowed with a municipal palace, avenue, train station, school and church.
The rail station was opened on August 11, 1859.
Dillon and others businessmen and prominent neighbors such as Manuel Rodríguez, Enrique Smith and Fernando Pearson (Juan Dillon's step brother), petitioned to the Governor the erection of a new partido from the old Partido of Morón.
On October 11, 1864 the legislature of Buenos Aires sanctions the law 422 creating the Partido of Merlo. Until 1878 the new district included the today's Partido of Marcos Paz and comprehended 400 km² approx.
The election of the authorities took place in the same year and only sixty-four citizens voted; the first municipal government was integrated by Juan Dillon as Juez de Paz and Antonio Suárez, Francisco Sullivan, Fernando Pearson and Tomás Gahan as Municipales or Councilors.
Thousands of neighbors fled Buenos Aires to the countryside when a cholera epidemic first, and a yellow fever outbreak later, afflicted the city in 1867 and 1871 respectively. These events brought many Spaniard, Basque, Italian and French immigrants to Merlo, contributing with a highly qualified working force.
There was also a small British community constituted mainly by white collar workers, employed in the British railway companies. By the late 19th century many rural settlements were dispersed throughout the countryside, thriving along the rail tracks. The railway prompted the accelerated development of Merlo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; San Antonio de Padua, Mariano Acosta, Libertad and even Merlo city grew as railway towns.
Merlo was a countryside district until the late 1940s. People from Buenos Aires spent their weekend and summer getaways in cottages, picnicking at the Reconquista riverside, playing golf at the Ituzaingó Golf Club and gliding at the Club Albatros and Club Cóndor gliding clubs. The landscape was spattered with estancias and farms.
During the first half of the 20th century the two mayor political forces in the district were the Radical Civic Union and the Conservative Party of Buenos Aires.
Merlo becomes part of Greater Buenos Aires
In the second half of the 20th century Merlo experienced an important influx of immigrants from the provinces. Between 1947 and 1960 the district quintuplicates its population, initiating a rapid process of urbanization and incorporating Merlo into the Greater Buenos Aires.
This period coincided with the rise of the Peronism in Argentina and since then the district becomes a Peronist stronghold.
Cities According to the legislation of Buenos Aires, the status of city should be declared by law. The town must have a minimal population and a determined infrastructure.
The partido has six cities.
City Province law Promulgated onMerlo5830August 19, 1955San Antonio de Padua8212September 11, 1974Parque San Martín 8558December 4, 1975Libertad 10052October 14, 1983Mariano Acosta 10208October 18, 1984Pontevedra 11135October 9, 1991
Government
The Intendant until 2015 was Raúl Alfredo Othacehé, a lawyer and local peronist politician. He was elected mayor in 1991 and reelected in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011. In María O'Donnell's non-fiction book El Aparato (The Political Machine) an entire chapter is dedicated to Othacehé, portraying him as a corrupt politician.
The Council is controlled by the peronist party and its allies.
Economy According to the 1993 National Economic CensusProvincial Statistics Office the manufacture industry represented 50.2% of the local economy. The transnational groups Philip Morris and Pirelli have a cigarette plant and a tire plant —respectively— in the industrial park, at the surroundings of Merlo railway station.
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles 10.32%; transport, storage and communication 5%; financial intermediation, real estate and renting 13.72%.
The agriculture and livestock industry only represented 0.15% of the economy. The main activities are dairy farming, market gardening (flower farming and organic vegetable farming), poultry and beekeeping, organized in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Demographics Partido of Merlo Population by year1866 Provincial Census.National Census: 1869, 1895, 1914, 1947, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1991 and 2001.Provincial Statistics Office: Demographic projections for Buenos Aires, 2007. 1866 1,9041869 2,4691895 3,5951914 6,9901947 19,8651960 100,1461970 188,8681980 292,5871991 390,8582001 469,9852007 520,391
Villa San Antonio del Camino started with 101 inhabitants grouped into twelve families, most of them Spaniard and Criollo people.
At the dawn of 19th century more than fifty black African people lived in Merlo as slaves of the mercedarian friars. After his death Francisco de Merlo left five African slaves to the hospice.
Many Irish and Basque immigrants settled in Merlo around the mid 19th century, the first ones after left Ireland because of the Great Irish Famine and British oppression, and the second ones fleeing from Spain's Carlist Wars.