Curicó Province

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Curicó Province
Provincia Curicó.png
Location in the Maule Region
Country
Region
 Chile
Maule
Capital Curicó
Area 7,280.9 km2
Population
 - Total
 - Density

244,053 (2002 Census)
/km² 
Communes See article
Molina, Curicó province

Curicó is a province in the Maule Region of central Chile, lying between the provinces of Colchagua and Talca and extending from the Pacific to the Argentine frontier; area of 7,280.9 km², population 244,053.

Contents

[edit] Comunas

The province is composed by nine comunas:

[edit] History

Inside of the Chilean Central Valley, Bride's Veil Waterfall

The region is named for the Curis one of the tribes of Picunche or Promaucaes settled along the rivers of the central valley flowing into the Mataquito River, around the modern city of Curicó. Others tribes were the Tenu along the Teno River (the modern Rauco and Teno communes) to the north. To the south were the Gualemo along the Lontué River the modern Molina commune. Along the Mataquito were the tribes centered on the modern towns of Palquibudi in Sagrada Familia commune, La Huerta in Hualañé commune and Lora in Licantén commune. On the coast north of the river, the Vichuquén in the commune of the same name [1].

The province was created in 1865. Formerly it was part of the Colchagua Province. In 1974, because of a regionalisation process in Chile during the Augusto Pinochet regime executed by CONARA (Comisión Nacional de Reforma Administrativa in Spanish, National Commission of Administrative Reform in English), the province was reshaped, taking place in the recently created Maule Region.

[edit] Geography and ecology

The eastern and western sections of Curicó Province are mountainous, and are separated by the fertile valley of central Chile. The provincial capital is Curicó, on the Mataquito River, 194 km south of Santiago. In some of the mountainous areas of the province is found the endangered Chilean Wine Palm, Jubaea chilensis, whose southern range is generally defined by the northern Maule Region, e.g. Curicó Province; historically, this endemic Chilean palm had a much wider distribution.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thomas Guevara, Historia de Curicó, Capítulo I, 1891
  2. ^ C. Michael Hogan, 2008

[edit] Sources