Part of Pilar Partido initially, the town was renamed San Miguel after the former district was subdivided shortly afterward.

A Buenos Aires-Pacific Railway line was built along the town in 1870, and its first schools were opened at that time as part of President Domingo Sarmiento's program for education in Argentina.

[1] Cable television provider TeleRed broadcasts from San Miguel, covering audiences in most of the Greater Buenos Aires.

Its programming includes a local Catholic channel, Señal Santa Marìa, which offers family-friendly content plus religious programmes, mostly from EWTN.

[2] San Miguel is home to a number of educational institutions, including the National University of General Sarmiento and the parochial Colegio Máximo de San José, from which Jorge Bergoglio (the future Pope Francis) obtained a degree in philosophy.