Las Parejas, born out of agriculture and consolidated with industry.

La Parejas is situated in the Belgrano district, to the south-west of Santa Fe province. It is 184 km far from the capital of the province and 100 km far from the city of Rosario.

The region in which Las Parejas was born constituted a vast grassland plain, whose monotony was interrupted not by lush ombúes–as it happened with the plain of Buenos Aires- but by dry espinillos.

At that time, the region was inhabited by the Pampas, previously referred to as Querandíes.

However, there were no permanent aborigine settlements neither in Las Parejas district nor in the surrounding area, possibly due to the lack of streams with permanent flow.

During the nineteenth century, due to the absence of population- except for Las Totoras and Pareja posts- which promised meagre spoils- the raids did not devastate the place. Only few groups went looting and pillaging the area.

These lands were successively occupied by different owners, including “The Society of Jesus”.  When the Jesuits were expelled by King Charles III, one of the purchasers was D. Tomás Armstrong, who eventually bequeathed them to his daughters Ma Dolores Armstrong Dose and Isabel Armstrong Elortondo. Dolores inherited the area where Las Parejas is situated and she gradually sold her properties.

The town was originally called “Elisa”, but since there was another town with that name in the north of Santa Fe the name “Elisa” was changed for “Las Parejas”, probably because it was said that near the village there were two parallel or similar pools.

On  September 16th 1889, the “Central Argentino” Railway Station was inaugurated, in the line Cañada de Gómez-Las Rosas.

On April 15th 1890 the complete line from Cañada de Gómez to Las Yerbas (Sastre nowadays) was inaugurated. However extensive research carried out by a committee of local scholars showed that this date did not reflect the reality. August 20th 1899 can be considered to be the real date, date in which the first lots were sold according to a plan drawn up by the surveyors Rojas and Tenac.

The human group which founded the town of Elisa was originally composed by Italian immigrants and their children, most of whom were born in Argentina.

The station set up in Las Parejas was welcomed by the farmers in the area, the majority of whom were tenants. This station allowed them to deliver  their crops from their warehouses instead of travelling to Cañada de Gómez.

By the year 1900 the first houses were built, giving birth to the town of Elisa.

Its inhabitants lived a peaceful life that was economically dependent on the production of the fields that surrounded the town.

The outbreak of the Second World War stopped the import of machinery, equipment and instruments. Therefore, in order to satisfy the demands the Argentinean industrial activity began to grow. In Las Parejas the most enterprising settlers moved to town to set up mechanical repair workshops. In 1942, in the absence of farming implements, entrepreneurs began manufacture them. Iron foundries were installed and the most competent workers began to imitate their employers, in this way the industrial activity started growing.

The spread of manufacturing establishments was so big that in 1961 Las Parejas was recognized as the most industrialized town in the country taking into account the number of its inhabitants.

Our city has had its ups and downs but today is mostly an industrial town, a wide variety of agricultural machines is manufactured here and exported.

So much so that in 2004 Las Parejas was titled of Provincial Capital of Agribusiness SMEs, an event that will be celebrated again on November 19th and 20th , 2010.

On June 27th Las Parejas was declared to be a city and there are currently 14000 inhabitants. Thanks to the strength of its people Las Parejas grows day by day and, no doubt, a promising future awaits.