This article focuses on the study of the celebration (1886) of the first birth centenary of Estanislao López, a federal leader of Argentina who was born in Santa Fe; as well as on the acts, cultural achievements and historiographical production linked to it. Evaluate which were the motives that led the political leadership of the province of Santa Fe to promote this tribute -considered as an "act of reparation, gratitude and justice" - was one of the main objectives of the research. To develop it, varied documentation was consulted including official publications, periodic sources and historiographical published and unpublished texts. Their analysis allowed noticing the operation started up by the nineteenth century political and intellectual elites in Santa Fe, in order to set in the collective memory the representation of Lopez as a supreme hero of the provincial past, holder of autonomy and federalism versus the centralism of Buenos Aires.