Mariquina is a commune 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 ...

, Valdivia Province, Los Ríos Region. It is located about 40 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 ...

, close to Cruces River. The capital is the city of San José de la Mariquina. The commune's main economic activities are agriculture, cattle farming and wood pulp manufacturing.

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, Mariquina spans an area of and has 18,223 inhabitants (9,361 men and 8,862 women). Of these, 8,925 (49%) 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 9,298 (51%) 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 grew by 1.5% (271 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Administration

As a commune, Mariquina 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 current alcalde is Ronaldo Mitre Gatica. 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 ...

, Mariquina 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 Alfonso De Urresti ( PS) and Roberto Delmastro ( RN) as part of the 53rd electoral district, together with

, Lanco, Máfil and Corral. The commune is represented in the as part of the 16th senatorial constituency (Los Ríos Region).

History

In the mid-17th century local

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

Juan Manqueante ruled the lands of Mariquina. He presented himself to the Dutch who had arrived in Valdivia in 1643 as a friend.Barros Arana 2000, p. 285. When the Spanish returned in 1645 he allied to them for about ten years until the Mapuche uprising of 1655. Local lore consider him the most notable person ever born in the lands of Mariquina. Manqueante was catholic according to contemporary chronicler Diego de Rosales. According to Tomás Guevara by the 18th century the Mapuche of Mariquina were among the last to raise chilihueques, a now extinct llama-like animal. During the Mapuche uprising of 1881 most women of San José de la Mariquina were sent to the city of

as men prepared for hostilities. Chileans and German settlers dug defensive trenches around the town. At the moment of the uprising it was even thought that rebels could reach Valdivia in the south if they succeeded in penetrating San José de la Mariquina.

References

;Bibliography *

External links

*
Municipality of Mariquina
{{Communes in Los Ríos Region Populated places in Valdivia Province Communes of Chile Populated places established in 1850