Juan Facundo Quiroga, the son of a…

Juan Facundo Quiroga, the son of a traditional but impoverished Riojan family of cattle breeders, had tried to enter the independentist army at twenty-two after the May Revolution had proclaimed Argentinian self-rule.

With this in mind, he had traveled to San Luis to enter the Granaderos a Caballo Regiment, led by General José de San Martín, which was recruiting there.

He was imprisoned and eventually expelled due to his bad temper.

He had moved back to La Rioja and become a businessman until 1820, when the central government of Buenos Aires fell and the province became autonomous.

Quiroga had entered the provincial army and quickly risen to its command, gaining control of the government through his charisma.

During the time of the Constitutional Congress of 1824, Quiroga had 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 carrying out a compulsory levy for the impending Argentina-Brazil War (1825–1828).

Thus, under the flag of Religión o Muerte (Religion or Death), he had overthrown the centralist government of San Juan shortly after the central government had signed a treaty with Britain by which religious freedom was established.

After the civil war, Quiroga establishes himself as one of the leaders of federalism in Argentina (along with Rosas and the caudillo of Santa Fe, Estanislao López), although he has declared in his correspondence with Rosas that his ideas are in fact unitarian, but that he had become a champion of federalism because that is what people want.