The Seven Patagonias
by Antonio Torrejón (*)
The Background
Since Pigafetta´s identifications until today, the region situated south
of the Río Colorado in argentine territory is individualized as Patagonia. According
to the expert geographer Federico A. Daus this space:
- Has continental scale
- Is a unique object (without
parallel in the planet)
- Has territorial continuity
- Has significant geographical
features (physical, biological and human)
- Has life with internal
coherence; spaces with substantial continuity.
At the time of reflection about geographical spaces, it is good to
remember what these means of communication mean, the progress in logistics, the
change of the spatial relationship, etc. Ratzel recalls that the "space" began
to have a potential value; where the man able to adequately organize and differentiate
would achieve the essential support for success. Therefore, it is an urgent
priority to devote the maximum effort to organize Patagonia´s subregional homogeneities
(tourist corridors) and its zonal unities to break with outdated provincialisms
or localisms leading nowhere, that delay the possible transferences that would
benefit the whole and its parts. When on the 11th. of November,
1878, the law was promulgated to create the Governorship of Patagonia, the coherent
decision was established to interpret and colonize this territory on the basis
of its geographic and global reality. The first subdivision was not a happy
one. Due to the border disputes with Chile in the region, the national authorities,
without a detailed study of the "intermediate homogeneities" (subregions) or the
search for equitable jurisdictions, passed in 1884 the Law No. 1532, improvising
a subdivision that still stands today with the border of the present southern
provinces. Their capitals: Ushuaia, Río Gallegos, Rawson and Viedma were
situated according to the most fluid accesses of the times, except Neuquén
that due to its inland location responded to another strategy. The 26th.
of June, 1996, the governors of the provinces of Chubut, La Pampa, Neuquén,
Río Negro, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the Southern
Atlantic Islands, signed a foundational treaty of the Patagonian region, with
the purpose of reaffirming the regional patagonean identity and to consolidate
the integration that would allow to provide the joint solutions required by the
development of the communities of each of the provinces. Parallels and
meridians subdivided the space, but not as a function of these homogeneities,
and identify a minimum of seven geographical provinces:
- The great valley
- The plateaus
- The beaches
- Central Patagonia
- The steppes
- Southern Patagonia ´
The seven regions
® 1999 Antonio Torrejón,
Director of Chubut´ s Tourist Office
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