The character chosen by Domingo F. Sarmiento to pontify about civilization and barbarism, was born on November 27, 1788 in the department of Los Llanos, La Rioja. Facundo Quiroga fought in liberating campaigns Together with José de San Martín, but he returned to his native province to join the army that fought against the realists.
Concluded the War of Independence, Quiroga gave his support to Congress gathered in Buenos Aires in 1824. However, a year later faced the Unitary Political Project by Bernardino Rivadavia with the federal leaders Juan Bautista Bustos and Felipe Ibarra.
He defeated Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid in the battles of El Tala and Rincón de Valladares and became one of the most prominent referents of the Federal Interior Movement; Nicknamed “El Tigre de los Llanos” for his courage and recklessnessQuiroga invaded Córdoba and seized the city, but was evicted by the Unitary General José María Paz, who defeated him in La Tablada on June 22, 1829 and in Oncativo a year later.
The battle of the Citadel, in Tucumán, fought on November 4, 1831, concluded with Quiroga’s victory over the “immortal” Lamadrid, who fled to Bolivia, but his family had remained in La Rioja.
Facundo did not forget the humiliations perpetrated by the now general general against his mother and his wife and the looting to which he had submitted to his province, but Before his enemy’s request to send his family healthy and save a second And he did so while writing to Lamadrid reminding him that he did not forget the grievances but that the families did not have to suffer any outrage.
And he finished his letter in this way. “I wish we meet again so that one of the two disappears. His best enemy, Juan Facundo Quiroga. “
Lamadrid replied: “You may be all the enemy you want, but I will never forget this extraordinary gesture. ”
Between “civilized” and “barbarians”
Thus were the things among “the barbarians and the civilized.” Quiroga’s triumph with Juan Manuel de Rosas’s victory over Juan Lavalle in Buenos Aires They ended that stage of our eternal civil war.
Quiroga settled in Buenos Aires. I kept a ally relationship with roses and was considered by Don Juan Manuel as his man inside. In a remembered dinner at the “Restaurador” house, one of those present expressed his willingness to study law in the United States. When listening to the solvency and decision of the boy, Facundo offered to finance his career. The future lawyer that would make history was called Juan Bautista Alberdi.
Quiroga offered to finance the career of Juan Bautista Alberdi (image). / ArchiveThe differences between Rosas and Quiroga focused on the issue of the national organization. Facundo echoed the provincial claim to create a national government that equitably distributed national income, while Rosas and Buenos Aires landowners opposed to lose exclusive control over the income of the port and customs.
Before a unleashed conflict between the provinces of Salta and Tucumán, Manuel Vicente Maza, then governor of Buenos Aires, entrusted Quiroga for a mediating mission.
Quiroga moved to the north to carry out the management, but upon his return He was killed on February 16, 1835 in Barranca YacoProvince of Córdoba, by Santos Pérez, a hitman at the service of the Reinafé brothers, strong men of the Mediterranean province, linked to Estanislao López.
Facundo was already a legend, with his unwavering decision of give life to defend popular interests Because, as he said: “No one doubts that everything that is done by force or dragged from an influence cannot last whenever it is against the general feeling of the peoples.”
