60 Fun Facts About Uruguay

Why is Uruguay officially the 'Oriental Republic of Uruguay'?

It lies east of the Uruguay River: in colonial times the land was simply the Banda Oriental, the 'eastern bank', and the republic kept the word.

Which two countries share a land border with Uruguay?

Argentina and Brazil are its only neighbours: Uruguay was created in 1828 as a buffer between the two after neither could win a war over it.

Which emblem fills the top corner of Uruguay's blue-and-white striped flag?

The Sun of May, a golden sun with a human face, also shines from the flag across the Río de la Plata, because both countries grew out of the same United Provinces.

Which country is the only sovereign nation in South America with a smaller area than Uruguay?

Suriname is the smallest; French Guiana is smaller than both, but it doesn't count because it is an overseas region of a European state, not a country.

Cerro Catedral, the highest point in famously flat Uruguay, rises to roughly what elevation?

514 m: Cerro Catedral, in the Sierra Carapé hills, is lower than New York's One World Trade Center, which reaches 541 m.

In December 2013 Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalise what?

Cannabis. The Senate passed the law 16 votes to 13, and the government argued that a legal, state-regulated market would take the trade away from drug cartels.

Which Uruguayan president (2010–2015) was nicknamed 'the world's poorest president'?

José Mujica gave away about 90% of his US$12,000 monthly salary and shunned the presidential residence, staying on his wife's ramshackle flower farm outside the capital.

What car did 'the world's poorest president' famously drive instead of an official limousine?

A 1987 Volkswagen Beetle was his only declared asset in 2010, valued at US$1,800; in 2014 he said an Arab sheikh had offered $1 million for it.

Which Marxist urban guerrilla group in 1960s-70s Uruguay counted a future president among its members?

The Tupamaros began by robbing banks and handing out food to the poor, then turned to kidnappings; the army crushed them, and the future president spent over a decade in jail.

Which stadium was built for the 1930 World Cup?

Estadio Centenario was finished late because heavy rain held up the builders, so the tournament's first matches had to be played at two smaller club grounds.

Who did Uruguay beat 4–2 in the first World Cup final?

Argentina led 2–1 at half-time, but Uruguay scored three times after the break to win the first World Cup on home soil.

Uruguay's 2–1 win over the hosts in the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup is remembered by what name?

The Maracanazo, named for Rio's Maracanã stadium: the hosts needed only a draw and scored first, but Uruguay hit back twice to silence a vast home crowd.

What is the nickname of Uruguay's national football team?

La Celeste, 'the Sky Blue', dates from a 1910 win in a new shirt, chosen to honour a Montevideo club that had just beaten a top Buenos Aires side in those colours.

Uruguay has won two World Cups, yet its shirt carries four stars; what do the other two mark?

Olympic gold medals: FIFA recognises the 1924 and 1928 Olympic tournaments, both won by Uruguay, as open world championships, so the shirt counts four world titles.

Which Uruguayan was awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the 2010 World Cup?

Diego Forlán scored five goals, level with the tournament's top scorers, and took the award even though Uruguay finished only fourth.

Which Italian defender did Luis Suárez bite at the 2014 World Cup?

Giorgio Chiellini was bitten on the left shoulder; the referee missed it, but FIFA banned Suárez from all football for four months, his third punishment for biting an opponent.

Which country did Luis Suárez's deliberate goal-line handball knock out of the 2010 World Cup?

Ghana won a penalty in the last seconds of extra time and Suárez was sent off, but Asamoah Gyan struck the crossbar and Uruguay won the shoot-out.

Which two Montevideo clubs contest the Uruguayan Clásico?

Nacional and Peñarol shared every league title for more than four decades until Defensor broke their grip in 1976; each has also won three Intercontinental Cups.

The 1972 Andes crash of Flight 571 carried an amateur club team in which sport?

Rugby. The Old Christians Club, an amateur side from Montevideo, had chartered the air force plane to fly to a match in Chile, taking family and friends along.

What struck the 1972 Andes crash wreck and killed eight more survivors?

An avalanche buried the fuselage as the survivors sheltered inside, more than a week after the official search for them had been called off.

Which two Andes crash survivors trekked for ten days across the mountains to find help?

Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa set out with a third man, who turned back after three days so their food would last; the pair walked on until they met Chilean herdsmen across a river.

Which 2023 Spanish-language film retold the story of the Andes flight disaster?

Society of the Snow, directed by J. A. Bayona, filmed its mountain backdrops in the real Andean valley where the plane came down, while the cast shot in the snow of Spain's Sierra Nevada.

Which hero led Uruguay's 1811 revolt against Spanish rule and won at Las Piedras?

José Gervasio Artigas then became the champion of federalism against Buenos Aires, and at his peak ruled a league of provinces stretching across what are now two countries.

Uruguay's national hero, leader of the 1811 revolt, spent his last three decades exiled in which country?

Paraguay. After an invasion broke his hold on the region, he crossed the border in 1820, never to return; he died near Asunción in 1850, aged 86.

The band of exiles whose 1825 landing began Uruguay's final fight for independence is known by what name?

The Thirty-Three Orientals crossed the river from exile in 1825 to free their homeland; the name stuck even though the surviving lists of members disagree on the true number.

Which outside power's diplomacy produced the 1828 treaty creating Uruguay as a buffer state?

Great Britain mediated because neither side could win the Cisplatine War and London wanted the Río de la Plata kept open to trade as an international waterway.

Uruguay's two 'Traditional Parties' are the Colorados and which other?

The Blancos took their name from the white badges one side wore in an 1836 civil-war battle, while their rivals, the Colorados, wore red.

Uruguay's early welfare state and democratic tradition led to it being nicknamed after which European country?

Switzerland. President José Batlle y Ordóñez proposed replacing the presidency with a council on the Swiss model, and a nine-member one ran Uruguay from 1952 to 1967.

Which German warship took refuge in Montevideo after fighting British cruisers in 1939?

Admiral Graf Spee, damaged in the Battle of the River Plate, ran for neutral Montevideo, where her captain was allowed only a few days for repairs while enemy reinforcements gathered.

What became of the German warship that sheltered in Montevideo in 1939?

Its captain scuttled it in the estuary, believing a superior British force was waiting outside; three days later he shot himself.

The Río de la Plata, sometimes called the world's widest river, is formed by the Uruguay and which other river?

The Paraná meets the Uruguay to form a funnel of water about 220 km across at its mouth, and geographers still argue over whether it is a river, a gulf or a sea.

Uruguayans consume more of which drink per head than any other nation?

Mate. The bitter infusion is sipped through a metal straw from a gourd, and Uruguayans commonly walk the streets carrying one with a thermos of hot water so it can be topped up all day.

The chivito, often called Uruguay's national dish, is what?

A grilled beef sandwich with ham and egg, the chivito means 'little goat' yet contains no goat at all; mozzarella, tomato, olives and mayonnaise are piled on as well.

The alfajor, a favourite Uruguayan sweet, is a small cake filled with what?

Dulce de leche, a caramel of slowly cooked milk and sugar, fills the alfajor, a treat the Spanish brought over that began in Moorish Iberia; quince jelly goes in the pastafrola instead.

On the 29th of every month, many Uruguayans traditionally sit down to which dish?

Gnocchi. Diners slip a banknote under the plate for luck, and the ritual gave local slang the word ñoqui for a no-show employee who turns up only at month's end to collect his pay.

Which Afro-Uruguayan drumming tradition did UNESCO add to its heritage list in 2009?

Candombe is played on three drums, chico, repique and piano, by a marching group called a cuerda, who gather round fires to warm and tune the drum skins before they set off.

Which world-famous tango did Montevideo architecture student Gerardo Matos Rodríguez first write as a march?

La cumparsita, 'the little parade', began as a march by an architecture student and became so famous that Uruguay's parliament declared it the country's popular and cultural anthem.

Tango legend Carlos Gardel sometimes claimed to be Uruguayan-born, but birth records place him in which country?

France. Birth and baptismal records show he was born in Toulouse, yet a museum to him stands near Tacuarembó, the Uruguayan town he sometimes named as his birthplace.

Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler won an Oscar for a song from which 2004 film?

The Motorcycle Diaries brought the first Oscar for a song in Spanish, yet he wasn't allowed to perform it: Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana did, so he sang two verses from the podium.

Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano is best known for which 1971 book?

Open Veins of Latin America shot back up the bestseller lists in 2009 when Hugo Chávez handed Barack Obama a copy; its author later said he couldn't bear to reread its 'leaden' prose.

What does the famous sculpture on Punta del Este's Brava Beach depict?

Fingers rising from the sand: Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal called his 1982 work 'Man Emerging into Life', but locals also know it as the Monument to the Drowned.

Which Uruguayan artist built Casapueblo, the white cliffside home-hotel near Punta del Este?

Carlos Páez Vilaró built it in stages over 36 years, modelling it on the mud nests of the hornero bird; he also joined the search when his son's plane crashed in the Andes in 1972.

By 2009 Uruguay's Plan Ceibal had given every pupil in state primary schools what?

A laptop. Around 70% of the small XO machines went to children with no computer at home, yet the whole scheme cost under 5% of the education budget.

Uruguay rebuilt its electricity grid mainly around hydro dams and which other source?

Wind. In little more than a decade wind farms spread across the countryside, and by 2023 up to 98% of Uruguay's electricity came from renewables, turning it into a net exporter of power.

Which Uruguayan river port gave its name to a famous brand of tinned corned beef?

Fray Bentos. A meat-extract plant set up there in the 1860s turned the river port's name into a brand of tinned beef and pies on European shelves; the old works are now a World Heritage Site.

Which two national capitals are the only ones lying farther south than Montevideo?

Canberra and Wellington are the only two; Buenos Aires, just across the Río de la Plata, sits a fraction of a degree farther north, so Montevideo is the southernmost capital in the Americas.

In the 2010s, Uruguay was among the world's top per-capita contributors to what?

UN peacekeeping troops. Around 2010 Uruguay had some 2,500 soldiers on UN missions at once, most in Haiti and the Congo: roughly one in ten of its entire armed forces.

Uruguay is divided into 19 of which administrative units?

Departments. There were only nine when the first constitution was signed in 1830, which is why the national flag carries nine stripes.

Which Montevideo skyscraper has a near-twin in Buenos Aires?

Palacio Salvo shares its Italian architect with Buenos Aires's Palacio Barolo; he topped both towers with lighthouses, meant as twin beacons welcoming travellers into the Río de la Plata.

Which explorer, for whom Montevideo's grand old theatre is named, is credited as the first European to land in Uruguay?

Juan Díaz de Solís sailed into the Río de la Plata in 1516 and was killed with several of his men soon after going ashore; finding no gold or silver, Spain left the area unsettled for about a century.

Which indigenous people of Uruguay lend their name to the national football team's other nickname?

Charrúa. The players are also called Los Charrúas, and 'garra charrúa', Charrúa grit, is Uruguay's phrase for snatching victory against the odds.

Which European power founded Colonia del Sacramento in 1680, sparking a century of contest?

Portugal built the outpost opposite Buenos Aires to run contraband into Spanish territory; Spain replied by founding Montevideo as a fortress, and Colonia changed hands several times until 1777.

Uruguay is the least populous nation ever to win the World Cup, with roughly how many people?

3.5 million. Every other country that has won the World Cup has at least ten times as many people, and the city of São Paulo alone is home to far more.

Uruguay's long civil conflict that began in 1839 and saw Montevideo besieged for years is known as what?

The Guerra Grande, or 'Great War', made Giuseppe Garibaldi famous: he raised an Italian legion of Redshirts to defend besieged Montevideo before going home to fight for Italy.

While Malbec made its neighbour's wines famous, which red grape became Uruguay's signature variety?

Tannat, a tannic grape from the Pyrenean foothills, arrived around 1870 with the Basque settler Pascual Harriague and is now regarded as Uruguay's national grape.

Which Colorado leader won the 1984 election and served as Uruguay's first president after the dictatorship?

Julio María Sanguinetti won an election the generals still controlled: his chief rival, Wilson Ferreira, had been jailed on returning from exile and was barred from running.

What name is given to the traditional horsemen and cattle herders of Uruguay's grasslands?

Gauchos roamed the open plains working half-wild cattle until wire fences carved the land into ranches in the later 19th century and turned them into hired hands.

After Uruguay separated church and state, Holy Week was officially renamed what?

Tourism Week is still what Uruguayans call Holy Week: reformers around José Batlle y Ordóñez had the religious holidays legally renamed when the state turned secular.

Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott won a 1983 contest to design which Paris landmark?

Opéra Bastille: Ott, then based in Canada, beat architects from around the world in the competition, and his opera house was inaugurated on the eve of the French Revolution's bicentenary.

A 2001 law in Uruguay gave legal recognition to which minority tongue?

Uruguayan Sign Language was recognised as the natural language of deaf people, and the same law obliges the state to put interpreters on television news and official broadcasts.