La Higuera, Chile
Encyclopedia
La Higuera is a town and commune in Elqui Province
Elqui Province
Elqui Province is a province in the Chilean region of Coquimbo . The provincial capital is the city of Coquimbo. The province has an area of , and has 365,371 inhabitants.-Geography and demography:...

, Coquimbo Region
Coquimbo Region
The IV Coquimbo Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It is some 400 km north of the capital, Santiago.The capital and largest city is La Serena, other important cities include the seaport Coquimbo and the agricultural centre...

, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the east by the Atacama Region
Atacama Region
The Atacama Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It comprises three provinces, Chañaral, Copiapó and Huasco. It is bordered to the north by Antofagasta, to the south by Coquimbo, to east with Provinces of Catamarca, La Rioja and San Juan of Argentina, and to west with...

, and the south by the communes of Vicuña
Vicuña, Chile
Vicuña is a Chilean commune and city in Elqui Province, Coquimbo Region, founded during the government of Bernardo O'Higgins to secure sovereignty over the Elqui Valley. The famous Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral was born there in 1889. It borders to the west with the communes of La Higuera, La...

 and La Serena.

Punta de Choros is famous for its beaches and a colony of Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...

s, the southernmost colony of that species. Of the total commune population, 1,080 live in urban zones and 2,641 live in rural zones.

The islands of Choros and Damas are also part of the commune, which form the National Reserve of the Humboldt Penguin
Humboldt Penguin
The Humboldt Penguin is a South American penguin, that breeds in coastal Peru and Chile. Its nearest relatives are the African Penguin, the Magellanic Penguin and the Galápagos Penguin...

, administered by the Corporación Nacional Forestal
Corporación Nacional Forestal
Corporación Nacional Forestal , Chile's National Forest Corporation, is a Chilean government agency that is part of Agriculture Ministry. It administrates the forestal policies of Chile and promotes the development of the sector with sustainable forest management. Conaf was created on May 13, 1970...

. On the island of Damas, the beach La Tijera is found at the extreme south.

Las Campanas Observatory
Las Campanas Observatory
Las Campanas Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Carnegie Institution for Science It was established in 1969 and remains the primary observing site of that institution. The headquarters is located in La Serena, Chile and the observatory is in the southern Atacama...

 and La Silla Observatory
La Silla Observatory
La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory organisation, and several others are partly maintained by ESO...

 are also found in the territory of the commune.

History

The territory of La Higuera was well known historically for its mineral resources, and was greatly developed between 1855 and 1880. This encouraged immigration to the area, though when it got exhausted, many of them left. Today the slag piles visible in the northern part of the town of La Higuera are a reminder of this bygone era.

There exist projects to install in the commune territory a modern thermal power station
Thermal power station
A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator. After it passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycled to where it was heated; this...

, with the idea of providing energy to the power grid that may be more reliable than hydroelectric power in times of drought. Despite the economic stimulus this would provide the commune, there are sectors of the population that oppose such an initiative due to the eventual environmental damage that it would cause.

Another problem that has affected the commune is the scarcity of potable water, due to various factors, which has led to public complaints to the municipal as well as regional government. A fog collection
Fog collection
Fog collection refers to the collection of water from fog using large pieces of vera trough below the canvas.-Technical explanation:Through a process known as condensation, atmospheric water vapour from the air naturally condenses on cold surfaces into droplets of liquid water known as dew...

 project installed on El Tofo mountain in the 1990s to supply the village of Chugungo had fallen into disrepair as of 2002, and water was delivered to the village by truck, despite requests for construction of a water pipeline.

Demographics

According to the 2002 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 of the National Statistics Institute
National Statistics Institute (Chile)
The National Statistics Institute of Chile is a state-run organization of the Government of Chile, created in the second half of the 19th century and tasked with performing a general census of population and housing, then collecting, producing and publishing official demographic statistics of...

, La Higuera had 3,721 inhabitants (2,084 men and 1,637 women). Of these, 1,080 (29%) lived in urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s and 2,641 (71%) in rural areas. The population grew by 6.4% (223 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

The population of the commune is dispersed between a number of villages located throughout the commune. The predominant ones are Caleta Los Hornos, Chungungo, La Higuera (communal capital), El Trapiche, Punta Colorada, Los Choros and Punta de Choros.

Administration

As a commune, La Higuera is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council
Municipal council
A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...

, headed by an alcalde
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

 who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Sylvia Clavería Mondaca.

Within the electoral divisions of Chile, La Higuera is represented in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Chile
The Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Chile is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current constitution....

 by Mr. Mario Bertolino (RN
National Renewal (Chile)
National Renewal , is a liberal conservative political party belonging to the Chilean right-wing political coalition Coalition for Change in conjunction with the Independent Democratic Union and the Chile First movement...

) and Marcelo Díaz (PS
Socialist Party of Chile
The Socialist Party of Chile is a political party, that is part of the center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy coalition. Its historical leader was the late President of Chile Salvador Allende Gossens, who was deposed by General Pinochet in 1973...

) as part of the 7th electoral district, (together with La Serena Vicuña
Vicuña, Chile
Vicuña is a Chilean commune and city in Elqui Province, Coquimbo Region, founded during the government of Bernardo O'Higgins to secure sovereignty over the Elqui Valley. The famous Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral was born there in 1889. It borders to the west with the communes of La Higuera, La...

, Paiguano and Andacollo
Andacollo
Andacollo is a city and commune in the Elqui Province, Coquimbo Region, Chile.-History:Andacollo is a copper and gold mining city located in the mountains of the Small North in Chile. It was founded in 1891....

). The commune is represented in the Senate
Senate of Chile
The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile.-Composition:...

 by Evelyn Matthei Fornet (UDI) and Jorge Pizarro Soto (PDC
Christian Democratic Party
Christian democratic parties are those political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social teaching, and it continues to be influential in Europe and...

) as part of the 4th senatorial constituency (Coquimbo Region).

External links

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