Calfucurá

Who was Calfucurá?

Calfucurá also known as Juan Calfucurá or Cufulcurá, was a leading Mapuche lonco and military figure in Patagonia in the 19th century. He crossed the Andes from Chile to the Pampas around 1830 after a call from the governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, to fight the Boroanos tribe. Calfucurá succeeded in ending the military power of the Boroanos when he massacred a large part of them in 1834 during a meeting for trade.

In 1859 he attacked Bahía Blanca in Argentina with 3,000 warriors.

The decision of planning and executing the Conquest of the Desert was probably triggered by the 1872 assault of Calfucurá and his 6,000 followers on the cities of General Alvear, Veinticinco de Mayo and Nueve de Julio, where 300 criollos were killed, and 200,000 heads of cattle taken.