The Story of the Ranquel “Arbolito”, the Native Who Beheaded Colonel Rauch
Saturday, 28 March 1829 dawned cloudy and cold on the Buenos Aires plains. The weak rays of sunlight breaking through the clouds were not enough to warm the men making camp at Las Vizcacheras, a spot a few kilometres south of the Salado River, near what is today the town of Gorchs, Buenos Aires Province.
They had marched all night from Laguna de las Perdices. Hungry and exhausted, they knew the enemy was close and could not afford to lower their guard. Commander Juan Aguilera ordered that, once the tents were up, everyone was to remain at their posts and on alert. There were about six hundred men, well armed with firearms, lassos and bolas, mostly Buenos Aires federal militiamen, organised into four squadrons and reinforced by a group of Ranquel warriors under Colonel Ventura Miñana.
By mid-morning, as the autumn sun began to take the chill out of the air, a courier arrived with news: the Unitarian forces under Colonel Federico Rauch, also around six hundred strong, were less than a league away and ready to attack.
The political climate was tense. Just two months earlier, the federal governor Manuel Dorrego had been overthrown and executed by the Unitarian Juan Lavalle, triggering a bitter civil conflict. Rauch, a European-born officer in Unitarian service, had been sent to hunt down and imprison federal fighters loyal to rancher Juan Manuel de Rosas.
The battle began before noon. Rauch advanced in three columns: the central column broke through the federal lines, inflicting heavy casualties, but on the flanks Aguilera’s men managed to prevail. Rauch did not realise the flanks had collapsed until he found himself surrounded. He tried to escape at full gallop, but Corporal Manuel Andrada brought down his horse with a boleadora. Once on the ground, a Ranquel named Nicasio Maciel — nicknamed Arbolito (“Little Tree”) for his height — finished him off by cutting off his head.
Rauch’s death caused an immediate stir. For Lavalle’s Unitarians, it was a heavy blow: they had lost an experienced officer who had played an important role in various campaigns. For the Federals, it was cause for celebration: they had removed a formidable adversary. But among the indigenous peoples who had suffered his harsh military campaigns, the news was felt as both relief and justice.
For the Ranquel, Catrielero and other frontier communities, Arbolito became a hero — the man who avenged years of abuses and violence, and whose act ended the life of one of the most feared military figures among the native peoples.
Fragment of the book “Mitos, leyendas y verdades de la Argentina indígenas”, by Andrés Bonatti
La Voz del Chubut