San Isidro de Lules, or, ''Lules'', as the town is colloquially known, is a settlement in

Tucumán Province Tucumán () is the most densely populated, and the second-smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the province has the capital of San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighb ...

in northern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and the seat of the department (county) of the same name. Lules was founded by the parish priest of

Famaillá Famaillá is a city in the provinces of Argentina, province of Tucumán Province, Tucumán, Argentina, located 30 km south from the provincial capital San Miguel de Tucumán. It has 22,924 inhabitants as per the , and is the head town of the F ...

, Dr. Zoilo Domínguez, on November 20, 1851, on the site of a former

Jesuit reduction Reductions (, also called ; ) were settlements established by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such reductions were also c ...

as an agricultural community, and named it in honor of the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of farmers,

Saint Isidore the Laborer Isidore the Laborer, born Isidro de Merlo y Quintana, also known as Isidore the Farmer () ( – 15 May 1130), was a Mozarab farmworker who lived in medieval Madrid. Known for his piety toward the poor and animals, he is venerated as a Catholic pa ...

(''San Isidro''), as well as for the area's indigenous people, the Lules tribe. Though Domínguez bequeathed the land to his five sons upon his death in 1865, he also intended to create a functioning community, and lots around the town square were auctioned to Lules Indians and other area residents. Domínguez also had a school and a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish built, and the town was officially recognized as such by the province in 1887. The town and surrounding fields became an important center of

blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) ...

and

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

production, and during the 20th century, Lules became home to numerous

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...

plants, including makers of fresh and concentrated juices, as well as paper and textile mills, among others.Lules.gov: Actividad Productiva

References

External links

Municipal website
Populated places in Tucumán Province Populated places established in 1851 1851 establishments in Argentina Cities in Argentina {{Tucumán-geo-stub