Calfucurá also known as Juan Calfucurá or Cufulcurá (b. late 1770s; d. 1873), was a leading Mapuche

Mapuche

The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...

 lonco

Lonco

A lonco or lonko is a tribal chief of the Mapuches. These were often Ulmen, the wealthier men in the lof. In wartime loncos of the various local rehue or the larger aillarehue would gather in a koyag or parliament and would elect a toqui to lead the warriors in battle...

 and military figure in Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

 in the 19th century. He crossed the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 from Chile to the Pampas around 1830 after a call from the governor of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...

, to fight the Boroanos

Boroanos

The Boroanos, Borogas o Boroganos where a group of Mapuches native from Boroa in Araucanía that got involved in several conflicts in the northern Patagonian pampas supporting figures such as José Miguel Carrera, the Pincheira brothers and Manuel Rosas...

 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

Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and seat of government of Bahía Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the...

 in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 with 3,000 warriors.

The decision of planning and executing the Conquest of the Desert

Conquest of the Desert

The Conquest of the Desert was a military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s, which established Argentine dominance over Patagonia, which was inhabited by indigenous peoples...

 was probably triggered by the 1872 attack of Calfucurá and his 6,000 followers on the cities of General Alvear

General Alvear, Mendoza

Gral. Alvear is the head city of the General Alvear Department, Mendoza in Mendoza Province, Argentina.Founded on August 12, 1914, it currently has a population of 26,342 , and its UN/LOCODE is ARGVA....

, Veinticinco de Mayo and Nueve de Julio

Nueve de Julio

Nueve de Julio means 9 July in Spanish. It may refer to:* The date of the Argentine Declaration of Independence* One of the following cities and towns in Argentina:** Nueve de Julio, Buenos Aires Province...

, where 300 criollos

Criollo people

The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

were killed, and 200,000 heads of cattle taken.