Plaza Pringles is a plaza

Plaza

Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...

 (urban square) in Rosario

Rosario

Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....

, province

Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...

 of Santa Fe

Santa Fe Province

The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. Its name is an homage to Colonel Juan Pascual Pringles

Juan Pascual Pringles

Juan Pascual Pringles was a distinguished military leader in the Spanish American wars of independence, with the rank of colonel, and later a leader of the Argentine Unitarian Party....

, hero of the Spanish American wars of independence (who also gave its name to the Plaza Pringles located in the city of San Luis

San Luis, Argentina

-External links:* * *...

).

Plaza Pringles occupies a half block in the downtown area of Rosario, beside the historical section of Córdoba St.

Córdoba Street (Rosario)

Córdoba Street is one of the most important streets in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina. It runs east–west through the center of the city, from the coastal avenue by the Paraná River to the western limit of the urbanized area....

 known as Paseo del Siglo

Paseo del Siglo

Paseo del Siglo is a part of the historical center of the city of Rosario, Argentina. It comprises eight blocks in the downtown Córdoba Street, from Oroño Boulevard east up to Paraguay Street...

. It is surrounded by the Juan Álvarez Passage, Paraguay St., Córdoba St., and Presidente Roca St. Opposite the Passage lies the old entrance to the Biblioteca Argentina Dr. Juan Álvarez

Biblioteca Argentina Dr. Juan Álvarez

The Biblioteca Argentina Dr. Juan Álvarez is a public library in Rosario, Argentina. It is the more important library in the city and in the province of Santa Fe....

 (the largest public library in Rosario).

The terrain where the plaza was to be located was originally bought by Rosario's Political Chief (mayor) Nicasio Oroño

Nicasio Oroño

Nicasio V. Oroño was an Argentine politician and lawyer, and governor of Santa Fe between 1865 and 1868.-Youth in the military:...

, and turned into a public space in 1898. It received several names until acquiring that of Pringles.

Recent history and events

• Since 1981, the plaza's narrow paths were often occupied by a flea market
  Flea market
  A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
  
  , with artisans selling merchandise on the floor. A municipal order forced them to move to a more spacious location in 2003.
• On 25 March 2005 the plaza hosted the first live reenactment of a Via Crucis in the city.
• On 2 December 2006 the plaza was the stage for the first flash mob
  Flash mob
  A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, artistic expression...
  
   in Rosario (the second in Argentina), consisting in a pillow fight
  Pillow fight flash mob
  A pillow fight flash mob is a social phenomenon of flash mobbing and shares many characteristics of a culture jam. The flash mob version of massive pillow fights is distinguished by the fact that nearly all of the promotion is Internet-based...
  
  .
• Plaza Pringles has often been the center of many social or political demonstrations, such as a protest of tango
  Tango (dance)
  Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
  
   dancers against the closing of milonga
  Milonga
  Milonga can refer to an Argentine, Uruguayan, and Southern Brazilian form of music which preceded the tango and the dance form which accompanies it, or to the term for places or events where the tango or Milonga are danced...
  
  s (tango bars), the collection of citizens' signatures demanding the repeal of the Ley de Lemas
  Ley de Lemas
  ||The ley de lemas is the Spanish name of the double simultaneous voting system which is, or has been, used in elections in Argentina, Uruguay and Honduras...
  
  , and a show following the first gay pride parade
  Gay pride parade
  Pride parades for the LGBT community are events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage...
  
   celebrated in the city and demanding a law of civil unions
  Civil unions in Argentina
  Same-sex marriage in Argentina has been legal since July 22, 2010. A bill for legalization was approved on May 5, 2010, by the Chamber of Deputies, and on July 15, 2010, by the Senate. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed it on July 21. On July 22, the law was published in the Official...
  
  for same-sex couples.