Purén 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 ...

(2002 pop. 12,868) and commune in

Malleco Province Malleco Province () is one of two provinces in the southern Chilean region of La Araucanía (IX). Its population as of the 2017 census is 205,124, and it covers an area of . The provincial capital is the city of Angol. Malleco Province is known ...

La Araucanía Region LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Ange ...

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 ...

. It is located in the west base of the

Cordillera de Nahuelbuta The Nahuelbuta Range or Cordillera de Nahuelbuta () is a mountain range in Bio-Bio and Araucania Region, southern Chile. It is located along the Pacific coast and forms part of the larger Chilean Coast Range. The name of the range derives from t ...

(650 km. south of Santiago). The economical activity of Purén is based in forest exploitation and agriculture. The most characteristic product of Purén is the white strawberry which is one of two species of strawberry that were hybridized to create the modern

garden strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated ...

. In the

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 ...

language or

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 ...

Purén means ''swampy place''.

History

San Juan Bautista de Purén was a fort founded by

Juan Gomez de Almagro ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippi ...

, by order of the

Governor of Chile The royal governor of Chile ruled over the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonial administrative district called the Captaincy General of Chile, and as a result the royal governor also held the title of a captain general. There w ...

Pedro de Valdivia Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' and the first royal governor of Chile. After having served with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in ...

, almost in the center of the northwest part of the valley of Purén, a little more than a kilometer from the left bank of the

Purén River Purén is a List of cities in Chile, city (2002 pop. 12,868) and Communes of Chile, commune in Malleco Province of La Araucanía Region, Chile. It is located in the west base of the Cordillera de Nahuelbuta (650 km. south of Santiago). The ec ...

in the Purén valley and about six kilometers to the northeast of the present city of Purén. This fort was abandoned on the death of Pedro de Valdivia but was reoccupied by García Hurtado de Mendoza, after a bitter campaign with the followers of

Caupolicán Caupolicán (meaning ‘polished flint’ (queupu) or ‘blue quartz stone’ (Kallfulikan) in Mapudungun) was a ''toqui'' or war leader of the Mapuche people, who led the resistance of his people against the Spanish Conquistadors who invaded the ...

on May 20, 1558.

Guanoalca Guanoalca (or Huenualca) Claudio Gay Historia fisica y politica de Chile, Capitulo XIII/ref> (died 1590) was the Mapuche '' toqui'' (leader) elected in 1586 following the death in battle of the previous toqui, Cadeguala, killed in a duel with the g ...

captured and burned it in 1586. Rebuilt by Governor

Alonso de Sotomayor Alonso de Sotomayor y Valmediano (; 1545–1610) was a Spanish conquistador from Extremadura, and a Royal Governor of Chile. Early life He was born in Trujillo, in the province of Extremadura, the son of Gutiérrez de Sotomayor e Hinojosa ...

in 1589, it received some improvements but it was always harassed by the

, and was again abandoned and set afire by them in the 1598 Mapuche rising that exploded after the

Disaster of Curalaba A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. ''Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by natur ...

. The fort was again restored under the governor Alonso Garcia Ramon in 1609, lost again and rebuilt by governor Alonso de Ribera in 1613 and was again abandoned in 1624. So it remained until 1665, when governor

Francisco de Meneses Brito Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...

again built a fort there and repopulated it. Finally in 1723, Governor

Gabriel Cano de Aponte Gabriel Cano de Aponte (or Gabriel Cano y Aponte) was a Spanish soldier who served as Royal Governor of Chile from 1717 to 1733. His administration was the longest of all Colonial Governors and the second longest in the history of Chile after the ...

decided to order its demolition and permanent abandonment, moving the garrison to the fort of San Carlos de Purén called Purén Nuevo (New Purén), on the

Bio Bio River Bio or BIO may refer to: Computing * bio(4), a pseudo-device driver in RAID controller management interface in OpenBSD and NetBSD * Block I/O, a concept in computer data storage Politics * Julius Maada Bio (born 1964), Sierra Leonean politician ...

. The old ruins continued to be known as Old Purén and those ruins were still to be seen in the 1890s. On November 24, 1868, a new fort was built in Puren, located at 38° 04' Lat. and 73° 06' Lon., between the brooks Nahuelco and Panqueco, a little more than three kilometers from the south or right bank of the upper part of the Purén River. To the northeast on the opposite shore of the Purén river is the location that the old Purén fortress occupied. A village had sprung up next to the fort by the 1890s following the occupation of Araucania. Recently, some pre-Hispanic proto-

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

s or

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

s have been discovered near Purén. Dillehay, Tom,
Monuments, Empires, and Resistance: The Araucanian Polity and Ritual Narratives
' (Cambridge University Press, Washington, 2007)

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, Purén spans an area of and has 12,868 inhabitants (6,408 men and 6,460 women). Of these, 7,604 (59.1%) 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 5,264 (40.9%) 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 fell by 7.5% (1,049 persons).

Administration

As a commune, Purén 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 Benigno Quiñones Lara ( PDC). 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 ...

, Purén 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 Gonzalo Arenas (

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 ...

) and Mario Venegas (PDC) as part of the 48th electoral district, together with

Angol Angol is a commune and capital city of the Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region of southern Chile. It is located at the foot of the Cordillera de Nahuelbuta and next to the Vergara River, that permitted communications by small boats to the ...

Renaico Renaico () is a city and commune forming part of the Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The city is located on the south bank of the Renaico River. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics ...

Collipulli Collipulli is a city and commune forming part of the Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. Its name means "coloured lands" in the Mapuche language spoken in the area. It has a population of 22,354 (2005) and an area of . It ...

, Ercilla,

Los Sauces Los Sauces () is a Chilean town and commune in the Malleco Province, Araucanía Region. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Los Sauces spans an area of and has 7,581 inhabitants (3,847 men and 3,73 ...

Lumaco Lumaco is a town and commune in Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region of Chile. Its name in Mapudungun means "water of '' luma''". Lumaco is located to northeast of Temuco and from Angol. It shares a boundary to the north with the communes ...

and

Traiguén Traiguén () is a Chilean city and commune in the Malleco Province, Araucanía Region. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Traiguén spans an area of and has 19,534 inhabitants (9,734 men and 9,800 ...

. 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 ...

by Alberto Espina Otero ( RN) and Jaime Quintana Leal ( PPD) as part of the 14th senatorial constituency (Araucanía-North).

References

Sources

Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos, Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile, D. Appleton y Compania, New York, 1899
*
Purén,(Aldea y fuerte) pg. 597
*
Purén,(Antigua plaza fuerte) pg. 598

External links

Purén Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puren Communes of Chile Geography of Araucanía Region Archaeological sites in Chile Populated places in Malleco Province 1868 establishments in Chile