Before you go to Río de la Plata: eras, customs, phrases and what is still there

Eras in a line

Empire and the colonial Americas (1492–1808) — Spain governed its American lands through viceroys who represented the king: New Spain from 1535 (Mexico City) and Peru from 1542 (Lima), joined in the…
Revolutions and new nations (1808–1898) — When Napoleon imprisoned the Spanish king in 1808, towns across Spanish America formed juntas to govern in his name.
Revolution, war and dictatorship (1898–1975) — After 1945 Latin America became a front in the Cold War.
Democracy and today (1975–) — Since 1990 almost every Spanish-speaking country has chosen its governments at the ballot box, though democracy has been tested by economic collapse (Argentina…

Mate — A bitter infusion passed round a circle from one gourd through one metal straw, with a server, an order and a rule about saying thank you.
The asado — The Sunday barbecue that is not a meal but a ceremony: wood or charcoal, never gas; chorizo first; cuts named like wines; coarse salt and nothing else; and…
Día del Amigo — On 20 July the phones in Argentina do not stop, the restaurants of Buenos Aires fill up, and friends give each other a flower or a cake.

El mate es la bebida nacional de Argentina, Uruguay y Paraguay. — Mate is the national drink of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
En Argentina, el asado no es una comida: es una ceremonia. — In Argentina, the asado is not a meal: it is a ceremony.
En Argentina, el 20 de julio es el Día del Amigo. — In Argentina, the 20th of July is Friends' Day.
El tango nace en los barrios pobres del puerto, hace más de cien años. — Tango was born in the poor neighbourhoods of the port, more than a hundred years ago.
Todo porteño habla dos idiomas: el castellano que le enseñaron en la escuela y el lunfardo que aprendió en la calle. — Every porteño speaks two languages: the Castilian he was taught at school and the lunfardo he learned in the street.

Buenos Aires is founded, twice — The Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires is on the site where Juan de Garay refounded the city in 1580.
The Jesuit missions among the Guaraní — You can visit the ruins of the Jesuit mission of San Ignacio Miní in Misiones, Argentina, a World Heritage Site where the Guaraní carved the stone around a central plaza.