This article examines various reports related to the territory and his indigenoius inhabitants of the Argentine Andean region, published by the famous Buenos Aires magazine Caras y Caretas between 1898 and 1910. Through the analysis of texts and images that compose these materials, a characterization of this space emerges as rugged and inhospitable, yet potentially exploitable in economic terms. On the other hand, the article recounts the representation of indigenous peoples as a "relict" or degenerated vestige of a glorious past, in contrast to the positive assessment of the pre-Columbian civilizations that inhabited the Southern Andean region. This dichotomy reflects the inherent tensions in the process of modernization and nation-building in Argentine in the early twentieth century.