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- Drug-trafficking gang detained holding 93 kilos of cocaine in Moreno [04/15/2011]
- Gov’t says political reform 'will not distort the open primary election process' [04/15/2011]
- Gov’t officializes use of combined-list ballots for October elections [04/15/2011]
- Ex-Bodegas Giol site demolition commences [04/15/2011]
Classes and Castes
Until recently, Argentina had a very large middle class. Upper-class and lower-class sectors can generally trace their origins to more than five generations in the country. Originally the upper class was mainly formed by landowners of large estates. Urbanization and industrialization processes intensified in the early decades of the twentieth century and greatly affected Argentina's social structure. Merchants and industrialists increasingly joined the ranks of the landed elite. The Argentine middle class was formed mainly by the descendants of immigrants who came to Argentina either at the end of the nineteenth or beginning of the twentieth century, settled in cities, and worked in the newly created jobs in the industrial, commercial, and public sectors of the economy. In comparison to other Latin American nations, Argentina's income distribution has been fairly equitable throughout most of the twentieth century. Together with Uruguay, it had a very large middle class until quite recently, but that situation changed with the economic crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Social sciences literature refers to the "new poor," which is made up of former middle class citizens who experienced downward mobility.
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