Villa Regina is a city in the General Roca Department of the . The city is connected to the rest of the towns in the Upper Río Negro Valley via National Route 22.
The city was built by the Italian-Argentine Colonization Company (), which purchased 5,000 hectares for urban development from the estate of Manuel Zorrilla. The lands were divided into four zones of 1,300 hectares, 1,200 hectares, 1,300 hectares, and 1,200 hectares. These zones were then subdivided into lots, which were sold to families that immigrated to Argentina from Italy. The settlement was established on November 7, 1924. It was originally named Colonia Regina de Alvear, after the wife of then-president Marcelo T. de Alvear, who had approved the project. The company developed the town with the help of Italian investors. In 1930, the government of Rio Negro created the municipality of Villa Regina, dissolving the Italian-Argentine Colonization Company. By 1939, the development of the four zones was completed. In 1987 the town wrote its first constitution, doing away with the position of municipal president and replacing it with the position of mayor.
Villa Regina is considered the capital of the Eastern Upper Valley micro-region. The surrounding area produces a large portion of the apple and pear harvests of Patagonia and also has a sizable grape harvest. The economy of the town is complemented by its canning and bottling plants, which compose the local industrial park. The city celebrates the Provincial Grape Harvest Festival annually and also hosts the National Comahue Fair biennially.
History
Campo Zorrilla The first known mention of the area was an entry in the diary of Colonel Manuel José Olascoaga, an officer in the Argentine army. On June 4, 1879, during the Conquest of the Desert, Olascoaga described it while camping with his troops: "Two hours on the way up from Chichinal, we camped on a place a bit far from the river, close to a water reservoir. [...] The ground is plain with ligere landforms. The canyons to the north increase their altitude westbound." During the expansion of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway () to the lands conquered during the Desert Campaign, the new route passed by the area because it was flat. Manuel Marcos Zorilla, the private secretary of president Julio Argentino Roca, was given 15,000 hectares there, which he called Zorilla Field (Spanish: Campo Zorilla). Zorrilla officially received the lands in 1895, with the condition that he would have to cede, free of charge, the sections where the tracks of the Ferrocarril del Sur would be built.
In 1898 engineer César Cipolletti was hired by the Argentine government to analyze the Neuquén, Limay, Negro and Colorado rivers, to construct reservoirs to prevent floods, and to study the feasibility of building irrigation systems. Cipolletti concluded that the construction of irrigation channels from the rivers would turn the arid lands that surrounded the Upper Valley of the Negro river into cultivable land. Cipolletti started the construction of the channels in 1907. To attract Italian investors, he shared his ideas that same year at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, but he died in 1908 while returning to Argentina. In 1923, Felipe Bonoli, an engineer who had accompanied him during the construction of the channels, purchased 5,000 hectares of land from the estate of Manuel Zorrilla on behalf of the Italian-Argentine Colonization Company (); he then dedicated this land to urban development. The next year, President Marcelo T. de Alvear approved the purchase and colonization of the area. The purchased land received irrigation from a branch of the main channel of the Nequén levee and was near Chichinales and the station Km. 1120 of the Ferrocarril del Sur.
Colonia Regina de Alvear
The colony was established on November 7, 1924, and was initially named Colonia Regina de Alvear, in honor of the first lady, Regina Pacini de Alvear. Héctor Valsecchi was named the first president of the company. Bonoli and his helper, Emilio Bignami, planned the organization and development of the area. The company spent most of its starting capital of US$1.4 million buying the 5,000 hectares. During the first year, they worked 1,300 hectares, which were divided into lots of 5, 10 and 15 hectares. To settle this area, the company gave preference to the Italian immigrants that already lived in Argentina. During the second stage, the company cultivated 1,200 hectares; these were given to Italian families that wanted to immigrate to Argentina. Those in this second wave of settlement were selected by the officials of the company. By 1927, 1,000 people had settled in the town. Soon a hospital, a church, a school, a library and a sports club were built. The Bank of Rome gave the settlement a loan of 5 million lire, in spite of Benito Mussolini's plan to use that money to support Italian workers in Italy. Further loans to the settlement were leveraged by Bonoli's connection to Ottavio Dinale. Dinale, a collaborator of Mussolini, had influence with the General Commissariat of Emigration (Italian: Commissariato Generale dell'Emigrazione). The loans were given by the Banca Commerciale Italiana, through the Francés y Italiano para América del Sur bank and the Italia y Río de la Plata bank.
Most of the settlers were from northern Italy, particularly from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Part of the population included Slovenians who were escaping from persecution in Fascist Italy, as well as Poles and Czechoslovaks who were admitted after Italy introduced a new policy that restricted their immigration to Italy from Poland and Czechoslovakia, respectively. The inhabitants initially paid a 10% deposit of the total value of the land they received, which was delivered fenced and ploughed. The extensions included a house with a porch, bathroom and well. The houses built on the 10 and 15 hectare extensions came with four bedrooms, while the ones built on the 5 hectare lots had two. The development plan of the Colonization Company encouraged crop diversification and promoted the cultivation of alfalfa, vineyards, pear trees, and apple trees. In 1925, the settlers worked every Sunday for a month to build a path; they later built a church and a graveyard at the end of it. The next year, the train station of Villa Regina was inaugurated.
In 1927, the governor of Río Negro, León Quaglia, wrote a letter to Bonoli, requesting the creation of a government-directed development committee for the colony. Bonoli opposed the government's decision to intervene in the administration of the lands, pointing out the progress that the company had already made with the urban development, and stated that if a committee was formed the company could "consider its mission accomplished" and that the current settlers could suffer a "lamentable delay" in the construction of the projected developments. He requested that the governor halt the creation of the committee for a year. After president Alvear had rejected the company's plan to annex the ethnic enclave to Italy and had reminded the settlers that their land ultimately belonged to Argentina, the town was renamed Colonia Regina, removing "de Alvear". By 1928, the 5,000 hectares had been developed, including the addition of 1,200 new hectares that belonged to the former Zorrilla estancia. The area was subdivided into four zones, and a cooperative financed by the bank loans was created. The cooperative distributed food and provided the settlers with seeds, plants and tools to work their lands.
Becoming a municipality
In December 1930, the government of Río Negro created the municipality of Villa Regina, dissolving the Italian-Argentine Colonization Company. During that same decade, the government-directed development committee was mostly composed of former employees of the company. By 1939, the development of the four zones was completed. Primary and secondary irrigation channels were built and were complemented by the construction of acequias, which are community-operated watercourses. The irrigation made the arid lands fertile, increasing the amount of land that could be cultivated.
The town remained distant from national politics until the Rio Negro National Territory became a province, causing the population to focus on European politics. The town was divided between the supporters of the Italian fascist regime and the supporters of the Italian socialists. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, 80% of the Italian population donated their gold to help the Italian war effort, while 20 settlers of the town departed to fight for Italy in the conflict. In 1937, an independent neo-fascist organization whose influence covered the Upper Río Negro valley area, called the Patagonic Nationalist Youth (Spanish: Juventud Nacionalista Patagónica) appeared in Villa Regina. The Patagonic Youth was mostly composed of descendants of the fascist enthusiasts that were part of the former Colonization Company. The organization aimed to support Argentine nationalism and gained a sizable membership because of its aversion toward the United Kingdom; this aversion was the reason most of Villa Regina supported the Axis powers during World War II. Relations between Argentina and the United Kingdom (UK) had been tense ever since the UK had seized the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) in 1833, causing most Argentines to sympathize with the UK's enemies, the Axis powers. Meanwhile, the Patagonic Youth were opposed by the Democráticos, who represented a major part of the population of Villa Regina, and by Acción Argentina, an organization favorable to the Allied Forces. After rival public demonstrations between the Patagonic Youth and Acción Argentina ended in riots in 1943 and 1944, triggering police repression, they were dismantled. The remaining members of these two groups founded other political parties that ultimately merged with Peronism, the political movement that ruled the town during the mid-1940s and the 1950s.
Recent years The local branch of Rotary International was established on November 22, 1955, and was subsequently recognized by the international organization in 1957. The fires in the town were controlled by the General Roca fire department until the creation of the volunteer fire department of Villa Regina on June 18, 1960. The department was established by Antonio Pirri, who used his house as its headquarters; however, he was not the first chief of the fire department. The firemen started with a Jeep donated by the province of Río Negro and a fire engine donated by Pirri. In 1961, the department requested that the government cede lands to construct a building to house the operation. In May 1961, the donation was approved and the building was constructed; it began operating as the fire department headquarters in 1962.
Up until the 1960s, the economic activities of Villa Regina were regulated by the Chamber of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce of the Upper Valley (Spanish: Cámara de Agricultura, Industria y Comercio del Alto Valle), or the CAIC, the organization that had also focused on the rest of the cities of the Upper Valley of Río Negro since 1931. On February 20, 1962, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Production of Villa Regina was created, replacing the role of the CAIC. The chamber was created to mediate between the different trade unions of the city and to unite their representatives on a board. In 1964, the First National Comahue Fair was held. The 45-day event, organized by the Chamber, was intended to showcase the economical potential of the Comahue Region, as well as to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the founding of Villa Regina. The fair was organized by Bartolo Pasin and Rogelio Chimenti, two local businessmen.