In wide areas of the Argentinean northwest, mountainous regions of the current provinces of Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja, the west of Tucumán and San Juan's north, there are ruins of big towns, remains of cultivation fields and watering works that were inhabited by a town of which today there are only memories, the diaguitas. The culture diaguita began to be developed toward the year 1000 and it received as inheritance a tradition of thousands of years of the history of the northwest. The first inhabitants were hunters' families that lived in caves and they fed of gumps, deer and wild fruits. Little by little the farmers invaded the territory of the hunters. They built small villages, they cultivated corn and they raised llamas. Thanks to a developed agriculture, to the gathering of wild fruits as the algarroba and the nuts pecán, and to the hunt of big animals, gumps and deer, and small, hares and mules, they could feed to a great quantity of inhabitants. In the protected valleys they cultivated different types of corn, porotos, peppers and zapallos, in the highest areas, for their resistance, the potato and the quínoa were sowed, of there the salt was also obtained. To get the honey and the wild fruits carried out expeditions to the forest. Their clothes were made in looms, they used the ceramic for their recipients and some elements were made in metal.

In each town, the social organization was centered in one or two caciques who coordinated to the rest of the population to carry out the community tasks and to face the external dangers. The entrance of the Inca Empire brought customs which were not too different to those of the diaguitas, however they lost their freedom and they should pay tribute to the Cuzco. In 1534, attracted by the possible presence of gold, the Spaniards also arrived . While the diaguitas resisted to the conquest, they kept their way of life, although they incorporated the Spanish novelties quickly as the wheat, the barley, the horses, the cows, the sheep and the glass objects and of iron.

The jurisdiction of the City of All the Saints from the New Rioja, been founded by Don Juan Ramírez of Velazco, May of 1591, 20 was inhabited by aborigins: diaguitas and olongastas. Each one of these partialities was formed by numerous tribes, with a cacique for tribe, they met for big occasions, as it was the rebellion against the conquerors, in 1536.

Well-known as the tiger of the plains, he was born in the year 1788 in San Antonio. Carrying a not very common anger the General Juan Facundo Quiroga, next to Roses, López and other federal commanders fought looking for the national organization intensely. In the year 1826, the National Congress concluded the project of Constitution whose terms ratified the centralist outline of Buenos Aires. When the project was subjected to consultation, the provinces began to manifest their unconformity and only some of the provinces approved it . The other provinces that pursued a régime federalist rushed against them. Quiroga who was governor from La Rioja and paladin of the federalism, faced with Tucumán whose governor, Lamadrid, defended the unitary ideas and he threatened to extend his authority in Catamarca, Salta, Jujuy and everytwhere, Lamadrid fell defeated in The Tala in October of 1826 and Quiroga agglutinated the center and north of the country. After defeating for the second time to Lamadrid in 1829, Quiroga attacked Córdoba but it was conquered by the General Paz in The Tablada and again in Oncativo. Ally to Roses, governor of the province of Buenos Aires, in the fight against the league of the Interior led by General Paz, Quiroga was taken prisoner in 1831. The General Lamadrid replaced to Paz, but it was definitively defeated by Quiroga in a bloody combat in the outskirts of Tucumán. At that moment, the three big economic areas of the Nation had a powerful leader, in the interior Quiroga had affirmed their power after their victory over Lamadrid ; in the north east coast, López conserved its regional hegemony and in Buenos Aires, governor Rosas consolidated his power and increased his influence. The three shared the same principles, but they also aspired somehow to the national supremacy. While the government of Rosas was threatened by the revolution of the Restorers, the authority of Quiroga grew in alarming form. until in February of 1835, 16 in Barranca Yaco, Quiroga was murdered by a group of gauchos.

Well-known in the history as The Chacho", was born in the Plains of La Rioja in 1789, beginning from very early age in the militias riojanas, ending up being the leader of the same ones. He participated actively of the fight between federal and unitarians of the XIX century. Urquiza appointed him general of the Armies of La Rioja and The Plains, in 1863 he rebelled in weapons against the federal government. After being dispersed their montoneras, Chacho saved his life taking refuge in the cave that takes its name now. Continuing his fight, he was defeated in Córdoba, he invaded San Luis where again he was defeated, and while he got ready to invade San Juan, he was defeated by the last time by the troops from the government under the control of Irrazábal. Chacho took refuge in Olta, where he was pressed to surrender, but once he made it he was stabbed and died.