Uruguay

Jose Velazquez

KEY DATA

CAPITAL: The capital of Uruguay is Montevideo.POPULATION: The population in Uruguay is 1,325,968.LANGUAGE: The language mostly spoken in Uruguay is Spanish.CURRENCY: The currency in Uruguay is peso.GEOGRAPHY: Uruguay is a country in Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Argentina and Brazil.

CULTURE

ART: The Uruguayan people revel in the art of theater as well as many musical and dance traditions.

MUSIC: The music of Uruguay includes a number of local musical forms. The most distinctive ones are tango, murga, a form of musical theatre, and candombe, an afro-Uruguayan type of music which occur yearly during the Carnival period.

FLAG

SUN: The sun emblem is the 'Sun of May'; it is a symbol of freedom and independence. The nine stripes represent the nine provinces of Uruguay, which existed at the time of the flags creation.

HISTORY: The Uruguay flag was adopted on July 11, 1830, making it one of the world's oldest flags. When it was first adopted in 1828 it had 17 stripes but it was reduced to nine in 1830.

FACTS: The colors of the Uruguay flag were inspired by the flag of Argentina; while the United States national flag influenced the design.

HOLIDAYS

HOLIDAYS: 2nd February Virgin de la Candelaria

Carnaval and Las Llamadas in the month of February or March

Semana Santa in February or March

1st may, Labor Day

May 18 - Batalla de las Piedras

June 19- Natalicio de Artigas

July 18- Jura de la Constitucion

August 25- Dia de la Independencia

October 12 -Columbus Day or Dia de la Raza

November 2- Dia de los Muertos

December 25- Navidad or Christmas Day

Religion

RELIGION: Religion in Uruguay can be divided into some broad categories. Roman Catholicism is most dominant religion in Uruguay.

The 1963 census showed that in Uruguay religion, 62 percent of the Uruguayan people had declared themselves to be Catholics.

During 1980s, about 66 percent of the people were estimated to be professed Roman Catholics.

Famous person

Carlos Páez Vilaró: Carlos Páez Vilaró was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1923. He took up drawing in 1939 and relocated to Buenos Aires, where he worked as a printing apprentice in the industrial Barracas section of the Argentine capital. Returning to Montevideo in the late 1940s, he developed an interest in Afro-Uruguayan culture. Settling in Montevideo's primarily black neighborhood of "Mediomundo" ("Middle Earth"), he studied the Candombé and Comparsa, dances characteristic to the culture.