Arroyito () is a city in

Córdoba Province, Argentina Córdoba () is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Its neighboring provinces are (clockwise from the north) Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja, and Catamarca. Together with San ...

. It is located east of Córdoba, on both sides of National Route 19. Arroyito earned the nickname Sweet City (''Ciudad Dulce'').

Etymology

Arroyito can be translated as "little stream", or "little brook". It was named after a

stream A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ...

(now disappeared) that crossed this settlement and landed on the Xanaes river. The first records referred to this settlement as ''paraje del Arroyito'' or ''El Arroyito''.

History

Early settlement

It is not clear when Arroyito was founded. The oldest document that mentions it was the first

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of the

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ( es, Virreinato del Río de la Plata or es, Virreinato de las Provincias del Río de la Plata) meaning "River of the Silver", also called " Viceroyalty of the River Plate" in some scholarly writings, i ...

on 23 November 1778, with a resulting population of 220 inhabitants. This hamlet was known as ''Villa Arroyito'', and was the place chosen by the Spanish soldier José Ignacio Urquía to build a church dedicated to the Virgin of Mercy, completed in 1790. In 1865, the total population for Arroyito was 228 inhabitants, according to the first census in Argentina.

Economy

The first main economic activity of Arroyito was forrest-spacing. Baldassare Dalle Mura and Raffaello Bianchi, both Italian immigrants from

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, were the owners of the two most important

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s of that time. As the land emptied, other people used it for

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

. But the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

directly attacked the raw material that sustained the sawmills, so they had to close, giving rise to emigration and decline. Primera fabrica arcor

In the early 1950s, a group of young entrepreneurs led by Fulvio Salvador Pagani decided to come together to set up a

candy Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called ''sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, i ...

factory. The dream was to offer consumers around the world quality products at a fair price became true on 5 July 1951 with the opening of the first candy factory. This is how Arcor was born, and Arroyito began a definitive new awakening, so the workforce was necessary, causing a very notable population increase.

Twin towns

Verzuolo Verzuolo is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin and about north of Cuneo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 6,379 and an area of .All demographics and ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

(2003)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arroyito, Cordoba Populated places in Córdoba Province, Argentina Cities in Argentina