Máfil (

Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...

for ''embraced between rivers'') is 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 of the

Valdivia Province Valdivia Province (; ) is one of two Provinces of Chile, provinces of the southern Chilean Regions of Chile, region of Los Ríos Region, Los Ríos (XIV). The provincial capital is Valdivia (city), Valdivia. Located in the province are two importan ...

, Los Ríos Region in southern

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 ...

, about 30 km northeast of

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and ...

. The commune is the site of a dairy industry and the town of Máfil a local centre of commerce and services such as

basic education According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), basic education comprises the two stages primary education and secondary education, lower secondary education. Universal basic education Basic education featured heavi ...

and a community health center. Relative to other communes of Los Ríos Region Máfil stands out for its central position and good road connections to the surrounding communes. The climate of Máfil is temperate oceanic with at least four dry months. A total of 803 mm of precipitation occurs in winter and 189 mm in summer according to averages calculated in 1989. The natural vegetation of Máfil is Valdivian temperate forests. The main natural resources of Máfil are the forest and their timber, the

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

of Madre de Dios and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

in Pupunahue and Millahuillín. The commune has soils of volcanic origin including trumaos.

History

The lands of Máfil were formerly known as Pidey and were chiefly populated by

Huilliche The Huilliche (), Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group in Chile and Argentina. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco or Ve ...

s. In the second half of the 19th century, German farmers settled in Máfil. The change in name to Máfil is attributed to a land survey map published in 1910 where it appeared. In 1953 a large coal gasification plant began to be developed in Pupunahue by CORFO. The plant was to gasify coal using German technology from

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to then create in the long term a larger plant in

Magallanes Region The Magallanes Region (), officially the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region () or Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctica Region in English, is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and sec ...

where coal deposits were larger. The building of the gasification plant was halted during the government of Jorge Alessandri and its infrastructure and materials were subsequently either sold, abandoned or stolen. The commune was created in 1964 during the government of Jorge Alessandri.

Demographics

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, Máfil spans an area of and has 7,213 inhabitants (3,773 men and 3,440 women). Of these, 3,796 (52.6%) 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 3,417 (47.4%) 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. The population fell by 7% (547 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses. The town of Máfil had 5,237 inhabitants according to the 2017 census.

Administration

As a commune, Máfil 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 alcalde is Claudio Sepúlveda Miranda r. 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 ...

, Máfil 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 Marcos Ilabaca ( PS), Gastón von Mühlenbrock ( UDI), Bernardo Berger (ind- RN), Patricio Rosas (ind- CS) and Ana María Bravo ( PS) as part of the 24th electoral district (Los Ríos Region). The commune is represented in the Senate during the 2022–2030 period by Alfonso de Urresti ( PS), Iván Flores ( PDC) and María José Gatica ( RN) as part of the 12th senatorial constituency (Los Ríos Region).

References

Books

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External links

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Municipality of Máfil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mafil Populated places in Valdivia Province Communes of Chile Populated places established in 1964