"The San Miguel School is more than just an old building. It is a monument that tells the vivid story of fatigue, courage and perseverance of those who trusted in education and knowledge as a means to achieve progress and the promotion of people, facing all the adversities that Patagonia required of them that time, "said the deputy.

The first mention of the Salesian school is in a report presented to the National Congress in 1888 by the Salesian Fr Alessandro Stefenelli, regarding the work that he intended to raise from the small school that had been built 11 years earlier. In that report, Fr Stefenelli highlighted the need for an agricultural school in order to meet the training needs of the young people.  

Fr Stefenelli had arrived in Patagonia, Argentina in 1885, at the age of 24. With his capability, commitment and initiative he was able to start a Mission Centre and the San Miguel School, both in the Department of General Roca, where the only school in the area was inactive. He was able to design a movable dam and install new irrigation systems, and in 1890 he set up, with enormous efforts, the first water pump of the valley.

He built a dispensary where he acted as both doctor and pharmacist, and he opened the Experimental Agricultural School to provide education to orphans, to the natives and migrants. In doing so he trained the future agricultural technicians of the region.

This award to the school as a National Historic Heritage is added to the memory of this priest and his pioneering actions, of his good management and his vocation as an engineer in vital works in Patagonia.

Even today his memory is alive in the popular imagination, so much so that since 1933 not only was the station formerly known as "General Roca" renamed the "Stefenelli Station", but also other institutions such as the meteorological station, retreat houses, NGOs, irrigation canals, accommodation, hotels, cities, roads and streets of the city have assumed the name of the priest as a sign of gratitude.

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