Moquehue is a town in the

Aluminé department Aluminé is a department located in the west of Neuquén Province, Argentina. Geography

The department borders with Chile to the east and northeast, Loncopué Department to the northwest, Zapala Department at the southwest and Huiliches Dep ...

, in the province of

Neuquén Neuquén (; ) is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department, located in the east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers which form t ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is located on the shores of Lake Moquehue, on Provincial Route 11, 23 km southwest of Villa Pehuenia and 80 km northwest of Aluminé. Cauquen en Lago Moquehue

The meaning of the name ''Moquehue'', is shady as there are several unofficial versions about its meaning. Some of them are: “place where there is maqui (''

Aristotelia chilensis ''Aristotelia chilensis'', known as maqui or Chilean wineberry, is a tree species in the Elaeocarpaceae family native to South America in the Valdivian temperate forests of Chile and adjacent regions of southern Argentina. Limited numbers of thes ...

'')”, “place where there is abundance of food”, “place of love” and “place of premonitions or dreams”. The Maqui is a tree that bears a fruit that is highly prized by indigenous cultures, but it is not often seen in the Villa Pehuenia area. For this reason, it is not known with certainty if the meaning of ''Moquehue'' that refers to this species is correct. It is believed that the region that Villa Pehuenia and Moquehue occupy today has been populated for 10 thousand years. At that time, the valley was home to numerous hunting and gathering peoples who gave rise to the

Pehuenche Pehuenche (or Pewenche) are an Indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes, primarily in present-day south central Chile and adjacent Argentina. Their name derives from their dependence for food on the seeds of the ''Araucaria ar ...

culture. Until 1881, the entire territory of Villa Pehuenia and Moquehue was under the command of chief Renque Curá, brother of the legendary chief

Calfucurá Calfucurá (from Mapudungun Kallfükura, 'blue stone'; from kallfü, 'blue', and kura, 'stone') also known as Juan Calfucurá or Cufulcurá (b. late 1770s; d. 1873), was a leading Mapuche lonco and military figure in Patagonia in the 19th century ...

. Trade between

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

s and

argentines Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

spread for several years in a positive way. Further back in time, Alejandro Arce, rancher from

Necochea Necochea is a port and beach city in the southwest of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast, along the mouth of the Quequén Grande River, from Buenos Aires and southwest of Mar del Plata. T ...

and one of the first settlers of Pehuenia, appeared. He was one of the pioneers in using the nearby mountain passes to sell his cattle 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 ...

References

{{coord, 38, 56, 35, S, 71, 19, 47, W, display=title, region:AR_type:city Populated places in Neuquén Province