Chacho Peñaloza

Ángel Vicente Peñaloza
Portrait of Peñaloza, c. 1863.
Born	1796 Sierra de los Llanos, La Rioja Province (Argentina)
Died	November 12, 1863 Olta, La Rioja Province
Nationality	Argentine

Ángel Vicente "Chacho" Peñaloza (1796 – 1863) was a military officer and provincial leader prominent in both the history of La Rioja Province and the Argentine Civil Wars that preceded national unity.

Peñaloza was born in Sierra de los Llanos, a rural community in southern La Rioja Province. Raised in privileged circumstances, he was educated by a priest. The priest, an uncle of the young Peñaloza's, nicknamed him Chacho (a diminutive form of muchacho, or "guy"). He enrolled in the provincial militia, and fought under the command of Captain Juan Facundo Quiroga, reaching the rank of Captain by 1826.

That year, he fought in the Battle of La Ciudadela against Tucumán Province Governor Gregorio Aráoz de La Madrid. Aráoz was severely wounded and defeated, and Peñaloza's own wounds, as well as his role in the battle, earned him the rank of commanding Captain of the Militia. He fought in this capacity in the battles of Rincón de Valladares (1827), La Tablada (1829), and Oncativo (1830). His defeats in the latter two, however, enabled the formation of the Unitarian League by José María Paz, against which the La Rioja forces were little match.

Peñaloza returned to La Rioja, and helped oust Aráoz de La Madrid's proxy, Governor Domingo Villafañe, in 1831. Following Quiroga's 1836 assassination, Peñaloza secured an alliance with San Juan Province Governor Martín Yanzón, and though their attempted invasion of La Rioja failed, the victor, Tomás Brizuela, pardoned Peñaloza upon his election as governor in May 1837. Peñaloza joined Brizuela, who was named commanding military officer in 1840 for the newly formed Northern Coalition. The group, an alliance of fellow Federalists opposed to the paramount Governor of Buenos Aires Province, Juan Manuel de Rosas, chose poorly in their alliances, supporting Juan Lavalle's failed revolt against Rosas, as well as their former foe, Aráoz de La Madrid, in a failed battle against a Rosas ally in Mendoza Province. Following these 1841 defeats, Peñaloza fled to Chile.