Cauquenes, a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and commune in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, is the

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

of the

Cauquenes Province Cauquenes Province () is one of four provinces of the central Chilean region of Maule (VII). The provincial capital is the city of Cauquenes. Geography and demography The provincial capital, Cauquenes, lies approximately southwest of Santiag ...

and is located in the

Maule Region The Maule Region (, ) is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. Its capital is Talca. The region derives its name from the Maule River which, running westward from the Andes, bisects the region and spans a basin of about 20,6 ...

History

According to the historical records of

Alonso de Ercilla Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (7 August 153329 November 1594) was a Spanish soldier and poet, born in Madrid. While in Chile (1556–63) he fought against the Araucanians (Mapuche), and there he began the epic poem '' La Araucana'', considered one ...

, Cauquenes was originally inhabited by an indigenous community of the

Promaucaes Promaucae, also spelled as ''Promaucas'' or ''Purumaucas'' (from Quechua ''purum awqa'': wild enemy), were an Indigenous pre-Columbian Mapuche tribal group that lived in the present territory of Chile, south of the Maipo River basin of Santiago, Ch ...

, known as the ''Cauqui'' by the

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

or ''cauquenes''Juan Ignacio Molina, Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile, pg. 9. by the Spanish and that gave their name to Cauquenes River. They lived to the south of the

Maule River The Maule river or Río Maule ( Mapudungun: ''rainy'') is one of the most important rivers of Chile. It is inextricably linked to the country's pre-Hispanic (Inca) times, the country's conquest, colonial period, wars of Independence, modern hi ...

and north of the

Itata River The Itata River flows in the Ñuble Region, southern Chile. Until the Conquest of Chile, the Itata was the natural limit between the Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indi ...

and owned a settlement in the place where the city lies today. The city of Cauquenes was founded on May 9, 1742, de "Villa of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes de José de Manso del Tutuvén", in the land located between the rivers Tutuvén and Cauquenes, that the Promaucae ''

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

'' (chieftain) Ascensio Galdámez and his wife Micaela de Araya donated to the

Kingdom of Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Cauquenes' founder was the then

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of the Kingdom of Chile,

José Antonio Manso de Velasco José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

. The name of the city changed with time. With the law of 20 August 1826, which created the Maule Province, it became called "Villa de Cauquenes", and finally on 22 December of that year, it acquired the title of "Cauquenes". Cauquenes is a

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

from the term "cauque", a

salmonid Salmonidae (, ) is a family of ray-finned fish, the only extant member of the suborder Salmonoidei, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmon (both Atlantic a ...

species extinct today that inhabited the rivers of the area. Kiosko plaza cauquenes

27 February 2010 earthquake

Cauquenes was damaged by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Restoring power in the city in the immediate aftermath was impossible because of damage from the tsunami.Wall Street Journal
"Chile Power Firms: Slow Process Restoring Power In Quake Zones"
Matthew Cowley, ''2 March 2010'' (accessed 3 March 2010)

Demography

According to the 2002

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of the National Statistics Institute, Cauquenes spans an area of and has 41,217 inhabitants (20,092 men and 21,125 women). Of these, 30,771 (74.7%) lived in

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s and 10,446 (25.3%) in

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

s. Between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, the population grew by 2.3% (938 persons). Other localities in the commune of Cauquenes include the following: * Sauzal, pop: 521 * Quella, pop: 346 * Santa Sofía, pop: 612

Geography

*Altitude: *Latitude: 35° 58' S *Longitude: 072° 21' W

Administration

As a commune, Cauquenes is a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law ...

administered by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

, headed by an

alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Juan Carlos Muñoz Rojas ( RN).The municipal council has the following members: * Hernán Valenzuela Sepúlveda ( PDC) * Luis Ceroni García ( PPD) * Guillermo García González (

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi Hills, Enugu State, Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People Given name * Udi Aloni (born 1959), Israeli-American film ...

) * Domingo Leiva Mena ( PS) * Manuel Vergara Del Río (RN) * Alejandra Concha Urrutia (PPD) Within the

electoral divisions of Chile This article covers the electoral division of Chile, which involves two distinct systems: # Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Chamber of Deputies and Senate of Chile, Senate: Chile is divided into electoral districts and senatorial constituencies for ...

, Cauquenes is represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

by Ignacio Urrutia (

), Rolando Rentería (UDI), Manuel Matta (PDC) and Jaime Naranjo (PS) as part of the 18th electoral district. The commune is represented in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Ximena Rincón González ( PDC), Juan Castro Prieto (Ind-RN), Rodrigo Galilea Vial (RN), Juan Antonio Coloma Correa (UDI) and Álvaro Elizalde Soto (PS) as part of the 9th senatorial constituency (Maule).

Climate

External links

*
Municipality of Cauquenes
*
"Ficha Comunal de Cauquenes"

Cauquenes in Google Maps

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Cauquenes Province Communes of Chile Capitals of Chilean provinces Populated places established in 1742 1742 establishments in the Spanish Empire