Showing posts with label Patagonia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patagonia. Show all posts

July 9 - Independence Day in Argentina

 Posted on July 9, 2021


This is an update of my post published on July 9, 2010:



On this day in 1816, Argentina's Congress declared the country independent of Spain. José de San Martín is the hero who led an army against royalists in Chile and Peru and is, therefore, said to have liberated Argentina, Chile and Peru.


Argentina is famous for its pampas, plains that are used to graze cows and other livestock. The Argentinian version of cowboys are called gauchos; they used to wear ponchos, ride horses, and carry large knives and bolas (two leather-wrapped rocks attached to each other with a long piece of string).


One of the most interesting places in Argentina is Patagonia, including Tierra del Fuego at South America's tip. (The term Patagonia is also used for a portion of Chile.) This region is made up of flat terraces that abruptly step up as one travels westward from the Atlantic Ocean, each “step” around 100 meters (330 feet) higher than the one before, until one reaches the Andes mountains. These terraces are mostly lifeless, covered with coarse gravel or pebbles. The little dips and indentations are filled with fresh or brackish water. (Brackish water is somewhat salty—but not as salty as sea water.)






Tierra del Fuego means “Land of Fire,” but the first Europeans to see the land (Magellan and his crew) named it “Land of Smokes,” probably because of the campfires of the native peoples. This is actually an archipelago of islands that come very close to bridging the gap between South America and a jutting bit of land in Antarctica.




Explore Argentina

Start here with a simple website with a couple of Argentinian recipes and a bit of Spanish language.

Check out the beautiful photos and interesting info here by clicking each heading link.

One of Argentina's most famous contributions to world culture is the tango, a very sultry dance. To see the moves, check out this You Tube video.


Also on this date:










































Birthday of artist Saturnino Herrán

Plan ahead:


Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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July 27 – Welsh...in Argentina?

Posted on July 27, 2020

If you ever go to southern Argentina, you may happen on a very clear, twisty river called Chubut River. That name comes from a Tehuelche word that means "transparent."


But the river had another name: "Afon Camwy." And that name means "twisting river." 

And that name is Welsh!

You may know that Wales is pretty darned far from southern Argentina. However, on this date in 1865, settlers from the British isle arrived in the rugged Southern Hemisphere region. 

They settled, they built, and they ended up thriving.


And even today, Welsh is spoken by some people in that region; several towns have Welsh names and feature tea houses.


Speaking of Welsh names...they're sometimes odd. In English, the letter "y" sometimes acts as a consonant and sometimes acts like a vowel; the same is true in Welsh, but the letter "w" is always a vowel! 

It's a lovely region!
The southern region of Argentina
is called Patagonia.
The name of the Welsh colony was Y Wladfa. Some of the towns founded by settlers from Wales include Trelew, Dolovan, and Trevelin. Other Welsh place names in Argentina include Dyffryn y Merthyron, which translates to Valley of the Martyrs. I bet most people use the Spanish name, though: Valle de los Mártires!

Since Argentina's official language is Spanish, the first
language seen on this sign is Spanish. However, the
sign is translated into both Welsh and English, as well.




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June 1 - A Company That Cares

Posted on June 1, 2019

Today is the anniversary of Patagonia opening a child-care center on-site of their distribution center in Reno, Nevada, in 2017. The corporate headquarters in Ventura, California, has had on-site child care facilities since 1983, and CEO Rose Marcario has seen the data that providing this sort of child-care option is good business. Under her leadership, 100% of women working for Patagonia have returned to work after giving birth. 


Rose Marcario
In addition to caring about parents and kids of employees, Marcario has managed to grow Patagonia's business by making ethics important, and by caring about more than profits:






She made the company's production processes more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Source: THEPRCH


Marcario reduced packaging.

Marcario and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard withdrew from the annual Outdoor Retailer trade show, in 2016, because the governor of the host state, Utah, was trying to eliminate the protected status of land in the Bears Ears National Monument. Other outdoor industry companies followed suit, and a big spotlight of public attention followed the story of the boycott. The trade show decided to relocate to a more eco-friendly state.

Bears Ears
Marcario closed the company on Election Day in 2016 to raise awareness of the importance of voting. (Many Americans think that Election Day should be a public holiday. If other companies follow Patagonia's lead, this idea has a bigger chance of achieving reality.)

Patagonia-the-company takes its name from Patagonia-
the-region. This region is shared by Chile and Argentina,
and the relatively uninhabited lands includes a rugged
portion of the Andes Mountains. Note that the logo (above)
echoes the skyline of one section of the Andes (below).

Marcario has spoken out against the actions taken by Donald Trump that pull the U.S. out of the fight against climate change and give companies the go-ahead to pollute. 

She has also sued the Trump administration over the executive orders that attempt to reduce the size of several national monuments, including Bears Ears.

She donated the $10 million saved by Trump's tax cuts to environmental organizations. 

(Since 1985, Patagonia has given 1% of all sales to environmental nonprofits.)



Under her leadership, Patagonia encourages people to get their gear repaired rather than buy new things.














Marcario says, "If you want to retain great people and have a great company, then you have to inspire the people to a greater, bigger purpose than themselves, and for us it's saving the planet."

I hope more and more companies will place women in high positions and listen to women's ideas. I hope more and more companies will put thought and effort into making parents and families a priority. I hope more and more companies will follow Patagonia's lead and stand for environmentalism and corporate responsibility. I hope more and more companies will try to inspire their workers and their customers to greater purposes than short-term financial benefit!







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