Cultural Tourism
Malargue was originally the birthplace of Puelches and Pehuenches
indigenous tribes, then immigrants and inhabitants of outposts,
hard-working, kind people who have been, for years, knitting a way
of life which were, in time, intertwined with the wind and the land
giving shape to exquisite recipes, crafts, popular festivals and
legends.
In the year 2007 and by initiative of the Municipality of Malargue,
a local team was formed in order to develop a program of
investigation and salvage of sites declared National Patrimony and
historical Monuments of the Mendoza Province.
The funds needed for the implementation of this project were
provided by the Municipality of Malargue and the Cultural and
Historic Patrimony Secretariat of the Province of Mendoza.
The Origins of the “Ortega Complex”
When Argentina was in a process of consolidation of the National
State, and after the end of the “Desert Campaign” (La Campaña del
Desierto) a great deal of territories were incorporated to it and
these lands were given to military personnel and civilians who
cooperated with military actions.
The territory of Malargue was a part of the aforementioned
distribution of land. What today is the urban centre used to be a
part of the central part of an Estate: “The core of the Estate was
located in the old Cañada Colorada where the present day city of
Malargue stands…” (Maza, 1991)
The rural Estate was the property of Colonel Rufino Ortega a high
ranking military officer who was well-known in his times for
fighting against the native tribes.
The estate was a typical model of how these places functioned in
agriculture and cattle breeding at the end of the 19th
Century and the beginning of the 20th Century. Sheep,
horses and bovine cattle were raised here as well as a large flour
mill.
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