Justo Daract

Son of a French Argentine immigrant, Daract was born in San Luis, Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, studied in Buenos Aires, and became a retailer.

He established a judicial system, subdivided the province into eight departments, established a system of public land leases over vast tracts of provincially owned pastures, founded the first newspaper in San Luis, regulated native American commerce, founded a strategically located fort (at what today is Villa Mercedes), and had a variety of infrastructure built in the pastoral province, as well as commissioning what became the Cathedral of San Luis (notable for its Neoclassical portico).

A series of disorders caused by the Federalist defeat at the Battle of Pavón led to Daract's re-appointment as governor by an assembly and with the support of Buenos Aires, in December 1861.

Serving for five months, he mediated a truce between Unitarian general Wenceslao Paunero and La Rioja Province governor Chacho Peñaloza, who had invaded San Luis Province amid a renewed conflict with Unitarians; the truce resulted in the Treaty of La Banderita, which contributed to national stability by dissipating conflict in the Cuyo (western) region of Argentina.

He was a constitutional assemblyman during a number of amendment deliberations, and established the San Luis National College, and the Girls' Normal School in that province.