defense of the town until it was destroyed almost completely by the earthquake of February 20, 1835. It still suffered from the hostilities of the Mapuche in their uprisings of 1723 and 1766 and during the war of Independence in the assault that they made on it on June 4, 1817, with their royalist allies. Population began to gather around this fort and it became the city of Araucan (later Arauco) on December 7, 1852. Later it became the capital of the department of Araucan and now Commune of Arauco in the Arauco Province. Demographics According to the 2002 census of Population and Housing by the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas or INE) the commune of Arauco spans an area of had 34,873 inhabitants; of these, 24,269 (69.6%) lived in urban areas and 10,604 (30.4%) in rural areas. At that time, there were 17,603 men and 17,270 women. The population grew by 17.6% (5,216 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses. Administration As a commune, Arauco 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 Mauricio Alarcón Guzmán (ILE). Within the electoral divisions of Chile, Arauco is represented in the Chamber of Deputies by Manuel Monsalve (PS) and Iván Norambuena (UDI) as part of the 46th electoral district, together with Lota, Lebu, Curanilahue, Los Álamos, Cañete, Contulmo and Tirúa. The commune is represented in the Senate by Victor Pérez Varela (UDI) and Mariano Ruiz-Esquide Jara (PDC) as part of the 13th senatorial constituency (Biobío-Coast). References Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos, Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile, D. Appleton y Compania, Nueva York, 1899 Arauco (Ciudad de), pg. 47-49 Arauco Viejo, pg. 50 External links Municipality of Arauco Communes of Chile Populated places established in 1552 Geography of Biobío Region Destroyed cities Populated places in Arauco Province 1552 establishments in the Spanish Empire Colonial fortifications in Chile Coasts of Biobío Region Port cities in Chile