Cauquenes

Cauquenes, a city and commune in Chile, is the capital of the Cauquenes Province and is located in the Maule Region. The name Cauquenes comes from the indigenous people of the same name mentioned by Alonso de Ercilla in the epic poem La Araucana. According to tradition, these people stopped the advance of the Incas at the Maule River before the period of the Spanish conquest of Chile (see Battle of the Maule). The name of the river that crosses the city is also believed to come from this indigenous group. In turn, the name cauquenes may derive from the Mapudungun word cauqueñ, which referred to a freshwater duck (Bernicla poliocephala). This name may be related to the fact that the group organized their lives around the presence of freshwater and its resources, or because their activities were associated with bird hunting, collecting reeds (totora), and similar practices. Other sources attribute the name to cauques, fish of the family Atherinopsidae that were abundant in nearby rivers, or to cauques, a type of seabird. According to the historical records of Alonso de Ercilla, Cauquenes was originally inhabited by an indigenous community of the Promaucaes, known as the Cauqui by the Inca or cauquenes by the Spanish and that gave their name to Cauquenes River. They lived to the south of the Maule River and north of the Itata River and 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 Promaucae cacique (chieftain) Ascensio Galdámez and his wife Micaela de Araya donated to the Kingdom of Spain.