Formosa Province "Laguna Yema", "Herradura" town, and "Misión Laishí". The province is divided into nine departments: Department (Capital) Formosa Province Formosa Province () is a province in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. Its northeast end touches Asunción, Paraguay, and borders the provinces of Chaco and Salta to its south and west, respectively. The capital is Formosa. The name of the city (and the province) comes from the archaic Spanish word "fermosa" (currently "hermosa") meaning "beautiful". The name "Vuelta Fermosa" or "Vuelta la Formosa" was used by Spanish sailors in the 16th century to describe the area where the Paraguay
San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca founded until 1683, by Fernando de Mendoza y Mate de Luna. "Catamarca" comes from Quechua meaning "fortress on the slope". The city, which had only 8,000 inhabitants in 1882 and was reached by a railway line in 1888, grew very slowly, and the region remained poor even in the middle of the 20th century. This situation was exacerbated by nepotism on the part of the ruling Saadi family, before they lost political power in the 1990s. In spite of this, the province remains still politically unstable, and a large part of its population lives in precarious conditions. The warm semi-arid