Cauquenes
Cauquenes, a city in Chile, is the capital of Cauquenes Province and is located in the Maule Region.
History
According to the historical records of Alonso de Ercilla, Cauquenes was originally inhabited by an indigenous community known as the Promaucaes, of the Maule area, who 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 Senora de las Mercedes de Jose de Manso del Tutuven", in the land located between the rivers Tutuven and Cauquenes, that the cacique promaucae Ascensio Galdamez and his wife Micaela de Araya donated to the Spanish kingdom. Cauquenes' founder was the then Governor of the Kingdom of Chile Jose Antonio Manso de Velasco. The name of the city changed with time: first it was changed to Villa de Cauquenes and eventually, to Cauquenes.
Cauquenes is a toponimic from the term "cauque", a salmonoid species extinct today, that inhabited the rivers of that area.
Demography
The 'municipality and comunaof Cauqueneshas an area of 2,126 km and, according to the 2002 Census of the Chilean National Institute for Statistics, its population is 41,217, of whom 21,125 are female and 20,092 are male. Roughly one quarter of the population lives in rural areas while three quarters live in the city of Cauquenes' .
Other localities in the municipality of Cauquenes, include the following ones:
Sauzal, pop: 521
Quella, pop: 346
Santa Sofia, pop: 612
Geography
Altitude: 136 meters
Latitude: 35 58' S
Longitude: 072 21' W
Local Government
The governor of Cauquenes Province is Ms. Maria Angelica Saez.
The mayor of Cauquenes is Mr. Guillermo Badilla (Christian Democrat Party of Chile) and the municipal council is composed by the following councillors:
Juan Carlos Soto (Partido Comunista de Chile)
Juan Carlos Canales (Renovacion Nacional)
Manuel Jose Vergara (Renovacion Nacional)
Cesar Aravena (Christian Democrat Party of Chile)
Hernan Valenzuela (Christian Democrat Party of Chile)
Said Yamal Jimenez (Partido Radical Socialdemocrata)
External links
"Ilustre Municipalidad de Cauquenes", in Spanish
"Ficha Comunal de Cauquenes", in Spanish
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Cauquenes
