Uco

Uco lies in Cuyo, east of the Andes, in a dry valley where mountain water made irrigation the basis of settlement. Huarpe peoples lived in and crossed the valley before the Spanish arrival. One account connects the valley's name to a Huarpe leader called Uco at the time of Francisco de Villagra's expedition in 1551. In the seventeenth century Jesuits established a curacy at Uco, giving the missionaries a base in the valley.