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Coronel Dorrego District (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina)

Partido de Coronel Dorrego

Last modified: 2008-05-24 by francisco gregoric
Keywords: coronel dorrego | partido de coronel dorrego | dorrego (manuel) | cenci (nora del carmen) | southern cross |
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[Flag of Coronel Dorrego District]
image by Francisco Gregoric, 27 Apr 2008
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About the district

The District ("partido") of Coronel Dorrego (16,522 inhabitants in 2001; 5,818 sq. km) is located in the south of the province of Buenos Aires, 628 km from Buenos Aires [City]. It is mostly a rural district, the main products being grains, maize and soybean. The popular sea resort of Marisol is also part of Coronel Dorrego.

After the so-called Conquest of the Desert (1879-1884) achieved by General Julio A. Roca (1843-1914; President of the Republic 1880-1886 and 1898-1904) and the organic unification of the Republic, the building of the nation was started with the motto "Poblar y educar" (To populate and to educate). In the province of Buenos Aires, new districts were formed and railways were built in every directions. In 1886, Tres Arroyos was linked to Buenos Aires via Juárez and Tandil. Agriculture was developed and immigrants from all over the world came to settle the southern lands.

In 1887, between rivers Quequén Salado and Sauce Grance, there were 79 landowners, including close friends of Roca and of Carlos Pellegrini (1846-1906; Vice-President of the Republic, 1886-1890; President of the Republic, 1890-1892). They had therefore an easy access to Máximo Paz, then Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires (1887-1890), and requested the creation of a new village between Bahía Blanca and Tres Arroyos, which were separated by 200 kms of plains.

The project was presented to the Provincial Congress and accepted by Law No 1979 of 14 October 1887 creating the Municipality of Coronel Dorrego, which was confirmed by the the Executive on 29 December 1887. On 2 January 1888, the Executive commissioned the land surveyor Baldomero Vidala to draft the map of the village, with the railway as the center of the settlement. On 28 January 1888, the Executive appointed a commission made of Roberto Urquiza, Francisco Villanueva and Ignacio Sánchez to select the exact place of the village. The first suggestion was to build the village near Las Mostazas, an idea immediatly abandoned for the existing agricultural estates, La Reserva, owned by the brothers Miguel and Arturo Villanueva and Coronel Dorrego, owned by José V. Urdapilleta. Dr. Urdapellita was Judge at the Supreme Court and a close friend of Governor Paz, so that his domain was selected as the spot of the new village.

On 9 April 1890, the Resolution proclaming the upgrading of the agricultural estate Coronel Dorrego as the capital of the district of the same name was released in La Plata.

Source: Dorregonet website

Coronel Dorrego is named after Colonel Manuel Dorrego (1787-1828). During the conflict between the Unitarians and the Federalists, Dorrego originally joined the Unitarians but he later left them for the Federalists and exiled in the USA for a while. Back to Argentina, he opposed in 1824 the first President of the Republic Bernardino Rivadivia and was elected Representative for the Province of Santiago del Estero at the first Argentine National Congress, where he contributed to the resignation of Rivadavia. In August 1827, Dorrego was elected Governor of Buenos Aires. He attempted to end the war with Brazil, but was forced by the English to accept the creation of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay. This territorial loss helped the Unitarians to set up a plot against him; Dorrego was overthrown and captured by Juan Lavalle, who let him shot in Navarro on 13 December 1828.

A more detailed biography of Colonel Dorrego can be read on: El Ortiba website

Ivan Sache 6 Jan 2007


Description of the flag

"La Nueva Provincia", 30 December 2006, reports the celebration on 29 December 2006 of the 119th anniversary of the creation of the district of Coronel Dorrego. The first act in the ceremony was the hoisting of the national and provincial flags by the head of the School Council, Delia Luján Roché, and the District Police Lieutenant Oscar Ortiz. Then Mayor Osvaldo Crego and the President of the Municipal Council, Dr. Fabián Zorzano, hoisted the new district flag.

The flag of Coronel Dorrego was designed by Nora del Carmen Cenci, former Municipal Director for Culture and today municipal employee, as a submission to the contest "Una Bandera para Dorrego" (A Flag for Dorrego), which involved 27 proposals submitted by 18 designers. In a first round, the jury selected three proposals, among which the one submitted by "Centauro" was unanimuously chosen as the new district flag. The flag is vertically divided blue ("azul"), light blue ("celeste") and white with a stylized golden Southern Cross in the middle.

The district website shows a detailed report on the ceremony, with several photographies of the flags. This is very helpful since there are no image with the article in "La Nueva Provincia". Moreover, the description of the flag given in the article does not match the real flag to be seen on the photographies taken during the event.

As can be seen very clearly on photographies, the flag of Coronel Dorrego is vertically divided blue-white-light blue with four golden stars forming the Southern Cross all over the flag (therefore the order of the stripes given in "La Nueva Provincia" is wrong and the Southern Cross is not really in the "middle" of the flag).
Ivan Sache 6 Jan 2007

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