[3] A strong advocate of the May Revolution, Castañeda made good use of his rhetorical talent in defense of the patriots position in front of his parishioners.

Ferdinand VII had been restored as King of Spain and the Quadruple Alliance vowed to counter republican and liberal revolutions, and a royalist reaction was feared among the former Spanish colonies in America.

[4] Martín Rodríguez was appointed governor of Buenos Aires in 1820 and in 1821, through his Minister of State, Bernardino Rivadavia, he decreed a number of reforms, among them a law of emphyteusis of public lands and restrictions to the power of the church.

Castañeda settled in Santa Fe Province, then ruled by strongman Estanislao Lopez, where in 1823 he founded an arts and crafts school.

Lacking of funds to sustain his project, Castañeda moved to Paraná, capital of the neighbour province of Entre Ríos in 1827, where he established an elementary school under the auspices of governor Pascual Echague.