Guandacol

Guandacol lay in an outlying valley west of La Rioja, near the jurisdictions of San Juan and Chile. By the late eighteenth century, a growing population lived scattered around a modest parish church. The valley produced wheat and livestock, yet many families occupied their land as tenants of the Sañogasta entail, whose lord claimed authority over the proposed town site.

In 1783 the militia captain Gerónimo de Illanes petitioned La Rioja's council on behalf of ninety families who wanted to form a villa, build a new church and become landowners. Their proposal challenged both the hereditary estate and the council. La Rioja's councillors feared losing control over food supplies if the new town gained freedom to sell its produce elsewhere. Crown officials, meanwhile, sought closer control of distant territories, roads and mining interests. Guandacol's foundation consequently became a contest over property, local autonomy and the competing purposes of Bourbon reform.