Overview

The word Argentina is derived from the Latin word "argentum," which in English means silver. For this reason Argentina is sometimes called "The Land of Silver." The official name of the country is Republic of Argentina. Located in the southernmost section of South America, the Republic of Argentina comprises 2,791,810 square kilometers, just over 15 percent of the continent's surface. Its area, including the South Atlantic islands and the Antarctic sector, covers 2.35 million square miles, which is about one-third the size of the United States. The 1991 Argentinean census counted more than 32 million people residing in the country. This amounts to 12 percent of the total South American population, making it the third most populous country on the continent after Brazil and Colombia. Approximately 90 percent of Argentineans are born Roman Catholics. About two percent of the population is Protestant and, according to recent Argentinean statistics, about 400,000 Jews live in...