[12] Neither official census data nor statistically significant studies exist on the precise amount or percentage of Argentines of European descent today.

A separate genetic study on genic admixture was conducted by Argentine and French scientists from multiple academic and scientific institutions (CONICET, UBA, Centre d'anthropologie de Toulouse).

In 1527, Sebastian Cabot founded the fort of Sancti Spiritus, near Coronda, Santa Fe; this was the first Spanish settlement on Argentine soil.

[5] It is worth noting that, since a person who was classified as Peninsular or Criollo had access to more privileges in the colonial society, many Castizos (resulting from the union of a Spanish and a mestizo) purchased their limpieza de sangre ("purity of blood").

[37] Following Rosas' overthrow by Entre Ríos Province Governor Justo José de Urquiza, jurist and legal scholar Juan Bautista Alberdi was commissioned to prepare a draft for a new Constitution.

Among the nationals there is no distinction of race, but it does distinguish literates from illiterates; at that time formal education was a privilege almost exclusive for the upper sectors of society, who were predominantly of European descent.

These provincial initiatives remained isolated cases until differences between the Argentine Confederation and the State of Buenos Aires were resolved with the Battle of Pavón in 1861, and a strong central government could be established.

Presidents Bartolomé Mitre (the victor at Pavón), Domingo Sarmiento and Nicolás Avellaneda implemented policies that encouraged massive European immigration.

Major contributors included Italy (initially from Piedmont, Veneto and Lombardy, later from Campania, Calabria, and Sicily),[41] and Spain (most were Galicians and Basques, but there were Asturians).

[42] Smaller but significant numbers of immigrants include those from France, Poland, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, and others.

[44] Argentina received a total of 6,611,000 European and Middle-Eastern immigrants during the period 1857–1940; 2,970,000 were Italians (44.9%), 2,080,000 were Spaniards (31.5%), and the remaining 23.6% was composed of French, Poles, Russians, Germans, Austro-Hungarians, British, Portuguese, Swiss, Belgians, Danes, Dutch, Swedes, etc.

[5] European immigration continued to account for over half the nation's population growth during the 1920s, and was again significant (albeit in a smaller wave) following World War II.

[45] The Marshall Plan implemented by the United States to help Europe recover from the consequences of World War II was working, and emigration lessened.

Instability from 1970 to 1976 in the form of escalating violence between Montoneros and the Triple A, guerrilla warfare, and the Dirty War waged against leftists after the March 1976 coup, was compounded by an economic crisis caused by the 1981 collapse of the dictatorship's domestic policies.

[59] During the period 1976–1983 thousands of Argentines and numerous Europeans were kidnapped and killed in clandestine centers by the military dictatorship's grupos de tareas (task groups); these included Haroldo Conti, Dagmar Hagelin, Rodolfo Walsh, Léonie Duquet, Alice Domon, Héctor Oesterheld (all presumably assassinated in 1977) and Jacobo Timerman (who was liberated in 1979; sought exile in Israel, and returned in 1984).

[9][10][11] The increasing numbers of immigrants from these sources has caused the proportion of Argentines of European descent to be reduced significantly in certain areas of the Greater Buenos Aires (particularly in Morón, La Matanza, Escobar and Tres de Febrero), as well as the Buenos Aires neighbourhoods of Flores, Villa Soldati, Villa Lugano and Nueva Pompeya.

[12] Many Amerindian or Mestizo people of Bolivian/Paraguayan/Peruvian origin have suffered racist discrimination, and in some cases, violence,[72][73] or have been victims of sexual slavery[74] and forced labor in textile sweat shops.

[75] Latin Americans of predominantly European descent have arrived from countries where there is a relevant proportion of white population Chile (52.7%[76] to 68%[77]), Brazil (47.7%[78][79]), Venezuela (43.6%[80]), Colombia (20%[76] to 37%[81]), Paraguay (20%[76] to 30%[82]) and in particular, Uruguay (88%[83] to 94%[84]).

President Carlos Saúl Menem – in the political framework of the Washington Consensus – offered to receive part of that emigratory wave in Argentina.

[88] Around 85% of the newcomers were under age 45, and 51% had a university education, so most integrated quite rapidly into Argentine society, albeit with some initial difficulties finding gainful employment.

[45][93][94] Argentine tango is a hybrid genre, result of the fusion of different ethnic and cultural elements, so well intermingled that it is difficult to identify them separately.

According to some experts, tango has combined elements from three main sources: 1) The music played by the Black African communities of the Río de la Plata region.

Much of that culture was lost during and after the conquest; only the music played by the Andean peoples survived in the shape of chants such as vidalas and huaynos, and in dances like the carnavalito.

[45] The major Spanish contribution to music in the Río de la Plata area during the colonial period was the introduction of three instruments: the vihuela or guitarra criolla, the bombo legüero[citation needed] and the charango (a small guitar, similar to the tiple used in the Canary Islands; made with the shell of an armadillo).

Once the Criollos obtained their independence from Spain, they had the chance to create new musical styles; dances like pericón, triunfo, gato and escondido, and chants such as cielito and vidalita all appeared during the post-independence period, primarily in the 1820s.

[104] European immigration brought important changes to Argentina's popular music, especially in the Litoral; where new genres appeared, like chamamé and purajhei (or Paraguayan polka).

Chamamé appeared in the second half of the 18th century -though it was not named as such until the 1930s- as a result of the fusion of ancient Guaraní rhythms with the music brought by the Volga German, Ukrainian, Polish and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants that settled in the region.

Regardless of the origin of the different rhythms and styles, later European immigrants and their descendants rapidly assimilated the local music and contributed to those genres creating new songs.

"Red Caps": Walter Heald, Herbert Barge, Thomas Best, Urban Smith, John Wilmott, R. Ramsay, J. Simpson and William Boschetti.

Another exponents are Carlos Alberto Reutemann (his grandfather was German Swiss, and his mother was Italian), who reached the second place in the World Drivers' Championship of 1981.