Cauquenes

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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 Señora de las Mercedes de José de Manso del Tutuvén", in the land located between the rivers Tutuvén and Cauquenes, that the cacique promaucae Ascensio Galdámez and his wife Micaela de Araya donated to the Spanish kingdom. Cauquenes' founder was the then Governor of the Kingdom of Chile José 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 comuna of Cauquenes has an area of 2,126 km² 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 (10,446) while three quarters live in the city of Cauquenes (30,771).

Other localities in the municipality of Cauquenes, include the following ones:

Sauzal, pop: 521
Quella, pop: 346
Santa Sofía, pop: 612

Geography
Altitude: 136 meters
Latitude: 35º 58' S
Longitude: 072º 21' W