Juan Facundo Quiroga

Juan Facundo Quiroga (born San Antonio, La Rioja, 1788– died Barranca Yaco, Córdoba, February 16, 1835) was an Argentine leader who supported federation.

Related Topics:
La Rioja - 1788 - Córdoba - February 16 - 1835 - Argentine - Leader - Federation

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Son of a traditional but empovered Riojan family of cattle breeders, he was sent at a short age to San Juan to be educated. Soon in his life, he became a problem child, and escaped from school. During his wandering in the desert beetween San Juan and La Rioja, he encountered and successfully killed a puma, thus earning him the nickname El Tigre de los Llanos (The tiger of the Plains, after the Riojan region of birth).

Related Topics:
San Juan - Puma

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During May Revolution, Quiroga tried to enter the independent army, and with this in mind, he travelled to San Luis to enter the Granaderos a Caballo Regiment, led by José de San Martín, which was recruiting there, but he was imprisoned and discarted due to his bad temper.

Related Topics:
May Revolution - San Luis - José de San Martín

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He moved back to La Rioja and became a bussinessman, until 1820, when central government fell and the province became autonomous. He entered the provincial army and quickly escalated to its command, gaining by its charisma control of the government. During the time of the Constitutional Congress of 1824, Quiroga led its forces through the andean provinces to oppose the centralist tendencies of president Bernardino Rivadavia and the officers of the National Army, which were carring away a compulsory levy for the upcoming war against Brazil (1825-1827). Thus, under the flag of Religión o Muerte (Religion or Death), he overthrown the centralist government of San Juan shortly after the central government signed a treaty with Great Britain by which religious freedom was established.

Related Topics:
1820 - Charisma - 1824 - Andean - Bernardino Rivadavia - Brazil - 1825 - 1827 - Great Britain - Religious freedom

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After the Brazilian war, the officers of the returning army (of centralist tendencies - known as unitarios) deposed the federalist governments in an attempt to restore the centralised rule. General José María Paz took over its province of Córdoba and his officers campaigned through the interior provinces. Quiroga tried to oppose them, but without success, and after defeat in the Battle of La Tablada, he had to exile himself in Buenos Aires. From there, where the coup was quickly defeated, Quiroga led an army towards Córdoba but was defeated in the Battle of Oncativo by the more disciplined Paz's forces. Facundo (as he is popularly known) decided not to give up, and tried a more ambicious attempt marching through indian territory to bypass Córdoba and attack directly Mendoza, where it succeded. From there, he campaigned up the andean provinces, until he finally defeated General Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid, who conducted the last remaining unitarian forces, in Salta.

Related Topics:
José María Paz - Córdoba - Battle of La Tablada - Buenos Aires - Battle of Oncativo - Mendoza - Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid - Salta

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After the war, Quiroga established himself as one of the leaders of federalism in Argentina (along with Rosas and Estanislao López), although he declared in his correspondence with Rosas that his ideas were in fact unitarian, but that he became a champion of federalism because people wanted federalism. In 1834 Quiroga was appointed by the governor of Buenos Aires (and Representative of Foreign Relations of the Argentine Confederation) Manuel Vicente Maza to mediate beetween the governors of Tucumán and Salta, but the governor De la Torre of Salta died before he could arribe. In his way there, he was advised that there was going to be an attempt to his life. Quiroga, disregarding the advice, return to Buenos Aires through the same way. At Barranca Yaco, a desolated place beetween Córdoba and Santiago del Estero, a party of gunmen stopped the carriage in which he travelled. Quiroga, confident in his charisma and that his mere presence and resolution would desanimate the attackers, appeared through the carriage door and shouted at the gunmen, frightening most of them. Their leader Santos Pérez, however, shot him dead.

Related Topics:
Estanislao López - 1834 - Argentine Confederation - Manuel Vicente Maza - Tucumán - Salta - Santiago del Estero

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The political crime made a huge crisis in all the Confederation, forceing Maza to resign and led to the establishment of Rosas' dictatorship. Rosas, as the Confederation leader, led the criminal investigation that ended with the prosecution of the governor of Córdoba José Vicente Reinafé, and his brother as intellectual perpetrators of the crime. They were hanged along with Santos Pérez in Buenos Aires.

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Today, most historians believe that the actual responsible of Quiroga's death was Rosas himself, who used the crime to return to power.

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In 1845 Domingo Faustino Sarmiento wrote Facundo, Civilization and Barbarism, a book that reviews the influence of caudillo leaders, which he defines as Barbarism, in the Argentine politic and social life. But also as a protest to Rosas' regime, and a call for European education and life style.

Related Topics:
1845 - Domingo Faustino Sarmiento - Facundo, Civilization and Barbarism - Barbarism - Europe

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