The father of Argentine independence,
Gen. Jose de San Martin, was appointed Governor of the
Province of Cuyo in 1814. From there, San Martin began his legendary crossing of the
Andes, one of military history's great tactical decisions. San Juan, then a small town, was a great supporter of the expedition supplying gold, men and mules.
In 1820, San Juan was granted autonomy from the Province of Cuyo, thereby becoming an autonomous province. The remainder of Cuyo region became
Mendoza Province.
Following an era of international isolation for Argentina, the advent of new, more liberal government in 1853 attracted a number of exiled intellectuals back into San Juan. Among these, was a San Juan military officer and novelist named
Domingo Sarmiento. Sarmiento was eventually elected governor in 1862, pursuing sorely needed public investments and enacting Argentina's first law mandating compulsory education (at that time about 80% of the adult population lacked any form of education). Once elected President of Argentina in 1868, those policies became national law.
In 1944 a moderate, yet highly destructive
earthquake near the capital destroyed most of the city and killed 10,000 people. A fundraiser was organized to raise money for the victims of the quake where Colonel
Juan Perón met his eventual wife and political companion
Eva Duarte.
A more powerful earthquake stuck the same city in 1977; however new construction codes put in effect following the 1944 incident kept damage to a relative minimum. The most noteworthy loss following this event was the destruction of the Cathedral of San Juan (
image, at top). A new, modernist house of worship was quickly put up in its place and inaugurated in 1979.
Among the most rapidly growing provinces in Argentina after 1945, the national government began the construction of the
National University of San Juan, which opened its doors in 1973. Congress further responded to the needs of San Juan's growing agricultural sector by breaking ground in the mid '70s for the largest hydrostructural project in the province up to that point, the
Ullum Dam and Reservoir. Inaugurated in 1980, it has contributed to the province's production of irrigated desert crops, like olives, figs and, most importantly, wine grapes.