Quinoa crop dissapeared from the social memory in the arid region of Coquimbo quite probably as a consequence of European influence in agriculture and local habits so that 400 years ago natives replaced some of their traditional crops by wheat and vinyards, among others. For instance this year 2009 the city of La Serena, regional Capital, celebrates its 465th aniversary since its foundation, being the 2nd oldest city in the country. The great drought tolerance of quinoa and the excepcional nutritional properties of quinoa grains stimulated a group of researches to suggest local farmers of this arid zone to re-introduce the practices of sowing and harvesting this crop, which without being a cereal, can be managed as if it was so. Even to the mechanized harvesting. This proposal unexpectedly became a process of action-research. This research was aimed to evaluate the national quinoa diversity to test its yields under our conditions of extreme aridity. The agronomical results and the acceptation by farmers were highly positive. However, the incipient market restrictions have delayed the massive crop recovery, one of the possible future scenarios. Ecotypes of different origins within the country have different yields and properties what helps to give alternative values to its biodiversity. Researchers on the other hand have started to discover physiological and functional properties of a species, in many aspects, ever surprising.