Patagonia is a geographic region located in the extreme south of America, including areas of southern Argentina and Chile. Politically, the region is divided into two: the Patagonia Argentina, east (which includes the provinces of Neuqun, Black River, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands) and the Chilean Patagonia, to the west (covering the regions of Los Lagos, Aysen of General Carlos Ibez del Campo and Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica).

The Mapuche are a people derived from the Araucanians. Around 500 years d. C. settled in the region of the foothill lakes of Chile's central valley groups considered as ancestors of the Mapuche. These populations were extended as far south as the river Maulln in Chile and possibly westward, occupying the north and center of the present province of Neuqun. When the Spaniards arrived, the Mapuche ("people of the land"), lived in the region between the rivers Itata and Toltn. They shared with Picunche ("people of the north") and Huiliche ("people of the south") the same language, which extended from the river Choapa, to Chiloe in the south. The Mapuche began to enter the Argentine territory pushed by the Spanish persecution and attracted by the wild cattle from the seventeenth century. This massive influx of the Mapuche in southern Argentina provinces meant a considerable change in both cultures, not only of the Mapuche culture, but also of Argentina Southern culture. This long process of miscegenation and cultural exchange resulted paisana current population of the provinces of Neuqun, Chubut River and Black.