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San Miguel de Tucuman holds a specific, unmistakable place in the Argentine imagination: it is the birthplace of the nation. On July 9, 1816, delegates from across the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata gathered in a colonial house on what is now Congreso Street and declared independence from the Spanish Crown. That house, the Casa Historica de la Independencia, was mostly demolished and rebuilt in the 1940s, but the original assembly room where the declaration was signed survives, making it one of the most visited historic sites in the country.

The city is the capital of Tucuman province, the smallest in Argentina yet one of the most densely populated, and it has an intensity that surprises visitors who expect a quieter northern city.

Avenida Independencia runs through the center past handsome Belle Epoque buildings and the busy Plaza Independencia, where locals gather at all hours. The nearby province produces about 65 percent of Argentina's sugar cane, and the sugar mills that ring the city have shaped its working-class character. In January, the Tucuman summer is fierce, but the trade in empanadas tucumanas, the regional specialty stuffed with spiced beef, hard-boiled egg, and potato, provides consolation.