Río Gallegos (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈri.o ɣaˈʃeɣos]) is the capital of the Patagonia province of Santa Cruz, Argentina. It has a population of about 98,000, per the 2010 census [INDEC], a 24% increase over the 79,000 in the 2001 census [INDEC]. The city sits on the estuary of the Gallegos River, 2,636 km (1,638 mi) south from Buenos Aires.

The river was first sighted by a European in 1525, by the explorer García Jofre de Loaísa, and was called Río San Idelfonso. Simón de Alcazaba y Sotomayor's 1535 expedition was the first to name the river "Río Gallegos". The area was not settled by Europeans until much later, with one of the earliest recorded indications of habitation in 1885, when the Argentine government wished to better express its sovereignty over southern Patagonia — a naval base was created which increased the development of the town. Between 1912 and 1920, the government encouraged settlers from the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and southern Chile with preferential farming conditions. Some 3,000 arrived and boosted the town. As sheep-farming increased, Río Gallegos became the principal port for exporting sheep and their products. The Pioneers Museum is a preserved old Patagonian house exhibiting the life of the early settlers.

Luis Alberto "El Flaco" Spinetta (23 January 1950 – 8 February 2012) was an Argentine musician. As one of the most influential rock musicians of South America, together with Charly García is considered the father of Argentine rock. He was born in Buenos Aires in the residential neighbourhood of Belgrano. During his early childhood he was already listening to all kinds of music: folklore and tango, and a little bit later, rock. In 1967, amidst the repressive political climate, he formed a band called Almendra with his own school mates.

Contrasting with the backwards and authoritarian government of General Juan Carlos Onganía, Buenos Aires was undergoing a cultural blossoming based on new art expressions; the new generation, among sons of the middle class, were immersed in an effervescence that would not reappear in Argentina until 1983. Spinetta devoted himself fully to his own music. In his lyrics, there are influences of multiple writers, poets and artists like Arthur Rimbaud, Vincent van Gogh, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Carlos Castaneda and Antonin Artaud, which has his name in the album Artaud.