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Temuco
—  City and Commune  â€”
Coat of arms
Map of Temuco commune in Araucanía Region
Temuco Location in Chile
Coordinates: 38°44′S 72°40′W / 38.733°S 72.667°W / -38.733; -72.667
Country	Chile
Region	Araucanía
Province	Cautín
Founded	24 February 1881
Government[1][2]
• Type	Municipality
• Alcalde	Miguel Becker Alvear (RN)
Area[3]
• Total	464 km2 (179 sq mi)
Population (2002 Census)[3]
• Total	245,347
• Density	530/km2 (1,400/sq mi)
• Urban	232,528
• Rural	12,819
Sex[3]
• Men	117,071
• Women	128,276
Time zone	CLT (UTC−4)
• Summer (DST)	CLST (UTC−3)
Area code(s)	56 + 45
Website	Municipality of Temuco

Central Temuco

Temuco is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The city is located 670 km south of Santiago at the heart of the modern Araucanía Region and historic Araucanía—the land of the Mapuche who resisted Spanish conquest.

Temuco was founded by Chilean military in Mapuche territory 1881 during the occupation of Araucanía and grew quickly into one of Chile's main cities. Temuco grew as a consequence of the livestock, wheat and forestry boom that its surrounding countryside experienced between 1890 up to the 1940s. Nobel Poets Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda both lived in Temuco for some time.

Temuco's central place in Araucanía with easy access to the Andean valleys and the coast makes it a hub for agricultural, livestock and forestry operations as well as communication and trade centre for the numerous small towns of Araucanía.

Etymology[link]

The name comes from the Mapudungun language, meaning "temu water"; "temu" (Blepharocalyx cruckshankii) is a tree used by Mapuches for medicinal purposes.

History[link]

The city was founded on February 24, 1881 as a fort during the Occupation of the Araucanía. Manuel Recabarren, in charge of the project, named the place Fuerte (Fort) Recabarren.

Formed as a military encampment, Temuco had in its origins the attributes of a camp, and a year after its founding, the first major streets started to form in the downtown area.

On April 15, 1888, the first city officers were elected including the first mayor José del Rosario Muñoz. The city grew quickly; a census in 1895 indicated a population of 7,708 people, and when Cautin was declared a province, Temuco became its capital, with its population by that time of 16,037 people.

Chilean poetry has deep roots in Temuco. Nobel Poets Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda (Neftali Reyes) both lived in Temuco. Mistral was the principal of an all-girls school where Neruda would visit her and show her his first verses when he was around 15 years old.

In 2010 Temuco was affected by the earthquake on February 27 centered 400 km (250 mi) to the north. It was one of the most affected regions of Chile besides Santiago, Concepcion, Valparaiso and others.^{[clarification needed]} The earthquake registered 8.8 M_w on the moment magnitude scale. Though landlocked Temuco avoided the tsunamis the earthquake caused, many very strong aftershocks throughout the country followed, including a 7.1 M_W earthquake 70 km (43 mi) northwest of the city.^[4] Temuco continues to rebuild from the disaster, and the alpine region hopes to be awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics, though the host city is Santiago or the alternative site, Chillán, with plans for an Olympic ceremony stadium under way.^{[citation needed]}

Geography[link]

Temuco, capital of the Araucanía Region, is located in the center-south of Chile, equidistant between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. Morphologically, the city placement corresponds to Cautín River-originated fluvial land masses that developed in a crushed form between two hills, Ñielol (350m) and Conunhueno (360m).

The city is surrounded by an environment typical to central-southern Chile, consisting mostly of plantations of coniferous forests in the midst of a central prairie of deciduous forests, moraines and cones next to the foothills of the Andes. The zone produces many crops and fruits, and has an abundance of forests, particularly alerce, roble and lingue. Despite all this, air quality has deteriorated because burning wood is the primary source of heat for most of the city. Air pollution is generally kept under control by the frequent rain in winter.

Demographics[link]

According to the 2002 census by the National Statistics Institute (INE), Temuco had a communal population of 245,347 (117,071 men and 128,276 women). Of these, 232,528 (94.8%) lived in urban areas and 12,819 (5.2%) in rural areas. The population grew by 24.4% (48,111 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.^[3] The INE projected the 2010 population to be 377,495,^{[citation needed]} which makes it the second largest city south of Santiago (behind Concepción), and the fourth largest in the country. One of the distinctive features of Temuco is the strong presence of the Mapuche culture, who make up 23.05% of the population in the Temuco commune, and numerous German immigrant colonies (9.82%). Temuco proper has a population of 227,086.^{[when?][citation needed]}

The locals are called temuquences. Most inhabitants are of different origins. Temuco has a high percentage being of Basque ancestry other than Castilian and other Spanish nationalities. Thus, one can find indigenous, mainly Mapuche, who account for 13% of the population of Temuco, which makes it the largest city of Chile with an indigenous presence.^{[citation needed]} There is also a large percentage of temuquences that are directly descended from European immigrants, many of the early arrivals during 1883–1901, after the pacification of Araucanía. The main sources are from Switzerland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom and other less numerous in many other parts of Europe such as Holland, Austria, Croatia, Armenia, Greece, Portugal and others arrived after that first migration, especially during the World Wars, the Spanish Civil War (1930s) a large percentage being Aragonese, Asturians, Catalans, Galicians, Navarrese and Basques; reaching a significant number of immigrants from Europe (mainly Germany and Spain).

There are also small communities of Jews (i.e. from Russia, Poland, Macedonia, Hungary, Central and Eastern Europe) and Arabic (Lebanon, Syria and Palestine) peoples, proof of this phenomenon of immigration from Europe and to a lesser extent, Jewish and Arabic are the various clubs, schools, and sections of the city of Temuco. There are East Asian colonies of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans in Temuco, dating back to the end of the Korean War in the 1950s when thousands of Korean refugees settled through U.N. relocation programs to Chile.^{[citation needed]}

Notable people[link]

• Pablo Neruda poet, Nobel Prize of Literature Laureate in 1971.
• Marcelo Salas retired soccer player, chairman of local soccer club Unión Temuco

Climate[link]

Climatologically, Temuco corresponds to Chile's central valley Mediterranean region, with more humid and temperate weather. Through the year, cyclonic and anticyclonic influences alternate, with a short dry summer period (when compared to Santiago or other central valley cities). Its mean annual temperature is 13 °C (55 Â°F), with highest median during the warmest month of 23.5 °C (74 Â°F) and lowest median during the coldest month of 3.5 °C (38 Â°F) (Ciren-Corfo, 1992). Annual mean rain during 1961-1990 (Dirección Meteorológica de Chile, 1991) was 1,157 millimetres (45.6 in) (Capelli de Steffens et al., 1997).

Administration[link]

As a commune, Temuco is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council, headed by an alcalde who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Miguel Becker Alvear (RN).^[1][2]

Within the electoral divisions of Chile, Temuco is represented in the Chamber of Deputies by Germán Becker (RN) and René Saffirio (PDC) as part of the 50th electoral district, (together with Padre Las Casas). The commune is represented in the Senate by José Garcia Ruminot (RN) and Eugenio Tuma Zedan (PPD) as part of the 15th senatorial constituency (Araucanía-South).

Transport[link]

Traffic is frequently congested during working hours and parking on public streets in the downtown sector is difficult to find and is controlled with parking fees being charged. Many streets are one-way, and marked with an arrow, if and when visible or installed.

In residential areas people frequently park on either side of the street, regardless of traffic direction and in some areas vehicles may be seen parked either entirely or partially—with only one side of the vehicle—on the sidewalk or grass area.

Traffic signals frequently use green arrows to control turns and right hand turns are not permitted when a red light is showing unless there is a specific sign authorizing such a turn.

Drivers often disregard marked traffic lanes and many buses and collective taxis will stop virtually anywhere to take on or discharge passengers.

Buses and collective taxis are the most popular massive transport. The bus fare is $120 for students and $350 for adults; the colectivos charge $400 ($500 at night). Regular taxis are also available.

Maquehue Airport is commercial air terminal for Temuco located to the South of the city. Because its low capacity, the Chilean Airport Direction is projecting a new and bigger airport for Temuco. It would be located near Freire, about 20 minutes southern from Temuco. At the time there is a controversy because it would be located in Mapuche areas.

The railroad connects Temuco with Victoria to the north and points in between.

Temuco does not have a rapid transit rail system.

Important places[link]

• Alemania Avenue

Is the principal artery in Temuco. Here we can find The Araucaria Museum building (19th century Chilean style); the Menchaca Lira Campus of Art Building (a Victorian Style building, recently restored); The English Alley, where we can find the Red Cross Building and not long ago a blue house which was dismantled to be rebuilt elsewhere (as a Heritage recovery project by the school of architecture of a known University of Temuco), both Neoclassical styled.

Recently, Alemania Av. has become an important commercial centre. Several restaurants,night clubs, pubs,bistros, pharmacies, boutiques, banks, supermarkets and two shopping malls have been opened there. There is also a Casino and a five stars hotel in the same avenue.

Nevertheless, the core of Downtown Temuco is the Main Square Anibal Pinto. Temuco's Main Square is the only one in Chile that was not built with a water fountain in its centre; an art gallery was built in 1981 as part of a total renewal. Compared to other main squares of southern Chile, Temuco's looks very modern. It was named one of Chile's most beautiful plazas.

It is a tradition, in all creole cities in Chile, that some specific buildings must be in front of the main square; in Temuco, this tradition has been broken. Main Squares are supposed to be surrounded by : a Cathedral (which is in front of Temuco's main square, as traditionally), the Municipality (which also, is located in front of the square), a Theatre (there used to be a film theatre in front of it), a Fire Station (there is not a fire station in front of the square, as it should),a School (there is no school in front of the main square), and a Bank (there are four banks around the main square)

[edit] Cerro Ñielol

The Ñielol Hill represents the original forest of the whole southern Chile area as it was before the Spanish people colonised it. It has also a special meaning for the Mapuche people living in the Region. We can also find a restaurant at the top of the Hill and a viewpoint of the east side of the city and Padre Las Casas, across the river. It is a "must" for visitors. The Southern Andean Volcano Observatory has its office there.

Other features[link]

Temuco at night

The central market is one of the best places to get Mapuche crafts. It has a meat market and shops selling woodcrafts, artifacts, wool knits, and similar goods.

References[link]

External links[link]

Spanish[link]

• Ilustre Municipalidad de Temuco
• Cuerpo de Bomberos de Temuco
• Primera Compañía de Bomberos de Temuco
• Mercado Municipal de Temuco
• Foro de Jóvenes de Temuco
• Foro de Opinion de Temuco
• Museo Nacional Ferroviario Pablo Neruda

English[link]

• Temuco City Guide, by All Southern Chile and Patagonia

Coordinates: 38°45′S 72°40′W / 38.75°S 72.667°W / -38.75; -72.667

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Silvio Rodríguez
Background information
Birth name	Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez
Born	(1946-11-29) November 29, 1946 (age 65)
Origin	San Antonio de los Baños, Havana Province, Cuba
Genres	Nueva trova
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1967–present
Website	www.silviorodriguez.org

Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez (born November 29, 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños) is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.

He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and La maza. He has released nearly 20 albums.

Rodríguez, musically and politically, is a symbol of the Latin American left wing. His lyrics are notably introspective. His songs combine romanticism, love (even eroticism), revolutionary politics, and idealism.

Biography[link]

Rodríguez was born on November 29, 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños, a fertile valley in Havana Province known for its tobacco crop. He was raised in a family of poor farmers. His father, Víctor Dagoberto Rodríguez Ortega, was a farmer and amateur poet who supported socialist causes. His mother, Argelia Domínguez León, was a house wife. On many occasions Rodríguez has spoken how his love of music was developed by his mother, who would pass time singing boleros and songs from Santiago. Although Rodríguez had an uncle who played the bass, his mother had a far greater influence. Later, she also collaborated with him on a few musical works.

When the Revolution led by Fidel Castro triumphed in January 1959, Rodríguez was only 13 years old, and, like most Cubans of his generation, became involved in the new Revolutionary enthusiasm. He participated in the Literacy Campaign held in 1961, and then started working as a comics designer in a magazine. During this period a friend of his, Lázaro Fundora, taught him how to play the guitar.

Guitar playing took a major role in his life while he was doing his military service in the army, during 1964, but it wasn't until 1967, with his first television experience, that he started to become well known and influential among Cuban revolutionary youth. With pro-revolution yet very independent lyrics (together with his very informal dress code), Rodríguez soon attracted the animosity of some members of the new Culture Ministry, which was devoted to the eradication of the United States' influence in Cuban culture. In this context, a very important role was played by the cultural institution Casa de las Américas and its then director Haydée Santamaría, the former a respected revolutionary who participated in the Moncada barracks assault of 1953 and sister of Abel Santamaría, who was tortured and killed after the failure of the assault. Haydée Santamaría became a protective mother-figure of the young composers and of several of his colleagues at the time. Casa de las Américas became the home not only for the new Cuban trovadores but also for many other Latin Americans on the left. It was in this institution that Rodríguez met Pablo Milanés, and Noel Nicola, who along with Rodriguez would become the most famous nueva trova singers and composers.

In 1969, for almost five months, he worked as part of the crew on the fishing boat Playa Girón, and during this fertile episode he wrote 62 songs, among which are the famous "Ojalá" and "Playa Girón." The lyrics and music of these songs became a book named Canciones del Mar. In 1976, he decided to join Cuban troops in Angola, playing for the soldiers.

After more than 40 years of artistic work, Rodríguez has now written a vast number of songs and poems (said to be between 500 and more than one thousand), many of which have never been set to music and probably never will be. Although his musical knowledge has been continuously increasing (counting among his teachers the famous Cuban composer Leo Brouwer), he is more widely praised for the poetry in his songs than for the accompanying music. His lyrics are a staple of leftist culture throughout the whole Spanish-speaking world, and he has been banned from the media during several of the dictatorial regimes that ruled Latin America in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

His debut album was Dias y Flores, launched in 1975. Al Final de Este Viaje and Cuando Digo Futuro feature songs he composed before Dias y Flores. He reached international popularity in the early 1980s with Rabo de Nube and, in particular, Unicornio. In the early part of his career his work displayed a fair amount of revolutionary optimism. Mujeres, released in 1979, is in contrast a romantic and highly intimist album. In the middle of his career, Silvio Rodriguez experimented with sounds and rhythms departing from his trademark acoustic guitar, accompanied by the group Afrocuba (e.g. in Causas y Azares). At maturity, Silvio Rodriguez thoroughly purified his sound through a return to acoustic guitar, great care and sophistication in the voice, and exclusive control of the production process from beginning to end. His lyrics became more introspective, at times even self-absorbed or self-justifying, expressing melancholic longings about the shortcomings of real-life socialism in Cuba while vindicating idealism and revolutionary hope amongst the youth. The trilogy, called Silvio, Rodriguez, and Dominguez (his first name, his father's last name, his mother's last name) displays sound artistic talent. The doubts, absent in the early part of his career, also correspond to the fall of communism worldwide and the so-called Special Period in Cuba. An unnoticed recurrent theme in the lyrics of the early part of his career is that of death, particularly although not only as associated with guerrilla warfare. In contrast to the explicitness of his early songs and political positions, there was a displacement of emphasis in his later years toward fantasy and dreams. Both, however, are about an alternative that is not present but is called for, or what Laclau would call a longing for a "missing fullness". This is true politically, romantically, and existentially. In a similar way, the unusual confessional tone of many of his songs allows for an unorthodox combination of transgression, eroticism, longing, and at times (probably accurate) self-deprecation in many of his lyrics.

The entire work of Silvio Rodriguez offers an intimate and introspective window into the life cycle of the artist. If the lyrics of the early part of his career are about revolutionary enthusiasm, love encounters and disappointments, as well as sensual desire, and if the middle-aged Silvio is more self-questioning, often looking backward; his most recent albums, such as Cita Con Angeles, talk in part about his life as a grandfather and has a certain focus on children, while Erase Que Se Era is the release (with all the means that come with being an established artist) of songs written early in his youth but never previously recorded. Mariposas also featured two classics composed in his youth.

Silvio Rodriguez stands out in the Spanish-speaking world for the intimacy and subtlety of his lyrics, as well as for his acoustic melodies and "chord picking." He is particularly popular amongst intellectual circles of the left in Latin America and Spain. He has also often served as Cuban cultural emissary in events of solidarity, whether in Chile (Silvio Rodriguez in Chile, 1991) or Argentina (En Vivo en Argentina, recorded in 1984), both massive concerts given shortly after the fall of the right-wing dictatorships. Cuban flags are always conspicuous in the crowd during his concerts.

In 2007, he received a doctorate honoris causa from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru.^[1] (Lima, Peru).

Rodriguez has been a major influence on many folk artists, including the Swedish artist José González.^[2]

U.S. Appearance[link]

Silvio Rodríguez has been denied a U.S. visa several times, and it was particularly controversial in 2009 when he was invited to celebrate the 90th birthday of Pete Seeger. However in 2010, he obtained a U.S. visa and performed at venues in Puerto Rico (May 30), New York (June 4 and 10), San Francisco (Oakland, June 12), Los Angeles (June 17), Washington, D.C. (June 19), and Orlando (June 23). These were his first appearances in the U.S. in 30 years.^[3][4]

Discography[link]

• 1975 - Días y Flores
• 1978 - Al Final de Este Viaje...
• 1979 - Mujeres
• 1979 - Rabo de Nube
• 1982 - Unicornio
• 1984 - Tríptico: Volumes I, II & III
• 1986 - Causas y Azares
• 1988 - Oh, Melancolía
• 1991 - Silvio en Chile (Live Concert with Irakere)
• 1992 - Silvio
• 1992 - Mano a mano (Silvio Rodríguez y Luis Eduardo Aute)
• 1994 - Rodríguez
• 1996 - Domínguez
• 1998 - Descartes
• 1999 - Mariposas
• 2001 - En Vivo en Argentina (Live Concert with Pablo Milanés)
• 2002 - Expedición
• 2003 - Cita con Ã�ngeles
• 2006 - Érase Que Se Era
• 2010 - Segunda Cita

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Silvio Rodríguez

• Official Silvio Rodriguez's website Songs, pictures, writings (in Spanish)
• Official Silvio Rodriguez's blog - More than 5800 followers (in Spanish)
• Analysis of Silvio Rodriguez Songs Meaning of lyrics (in Spanish)
• Che, Guía y Ejemplo: - Songs of Silvio Rodriguez dedicated to Che Guevara
• Hasta Siempre Commandante - performed live by Silvio Rodriguez
• TRANS Analysis of the harmonies of Silvio's songs, socio-cultural background
• Brief reviews of Silvio's albums
• Silvio's page in Patria Grande
• Cuban Singer Complains that U.S. Didn’t Give Him Visa by the Latin American Herald Tribune
• Cuba's Silvio Rodriguez Dedicates Song to 'Che' AP, July 23, 2009
• Cuban Folk Singer Plays Rare US Show June 5, 2010
• Silvio Rodriguez Concert in USA Photo Feature by Bill Hackwell, Havana Times, June 17, 2010

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