The need to establish a “Rural Society” arose primarily from the region’s cattle ranchers.
It was a way to connect with the most economically significant sectors in order to defend their interests and articulate their collective demands to the national government. These “Rural Societies” were established in the major cities of each Patagonian region and functioned as true interest groups (lobbies) whose direct counterparts were the regional and local governments.
The Puerto Deseado Rural Society was founded on February 16, 1913, and the Río Gallegos Rural Society was founded in 1921. During the 1930s, new rural organizations emerged in Santa Cruz: Puerto San Julián, Puerto Santa Cruz, and so on. Many of them received financial support from the commercial firms La Anónima and Stubenrauch.
The primary objectives of these rural associations in Patagonia were to promote and protect livestock farming, agriculture, and related industries, as well as to improve farming and livestock-raising methods.
To demonstrate this power, they organized annual rural fairs. These were true celebrations that provided an opportunity for socializing but also for making demands of the central government, expressing sector-specific interests and concrete needs to secure the material foundations of their dominance in the region.
With these tools, the large landowners of Patagonia grew increasingly powerful and influential in the corridors of power at the national level.
