Graneros

Graneros is a commune and city in central Chile, located in the O’Higgins Region, Cachapoal Province. It covers an area of 113 km2 and has a population of 35,938 inhabitants (2024 Census), including 17,613 men and 18,325 women. It is situated 74.36 km from Santiago and 11.97 km from Rancagua. Together with the communes of Mostazal and Codegua, Graneros forms part of the Northern Cone area of the O’Higgins Region, serving as its main urban center and a hub for agro-industrial, commercial, and service development.

== History == === Pre-hispanic period === thumb|left|250px|Remains of the Pucará de La Compañía. The territory where the commune of Graneros is currently located shows verifiable evidence of early occupation by Indigenous peoples (10th millennium BCE). The Indigenous groups of the Cachapoal Valley were mainly the Picunches, who before the arrival of the Spanish were associated with the lonco Cachapoal and called themselves Cachapoales. Their main settlements were around what is now the city of Rancagua, along the river and valley of the same name, consisting of family-based groups that freely moved across their territory. At that time, the area of Graneros served as a passage northward through the Angostura Pass, north of Mostazal. The Cerro de La Compañía (La Compañía Hill) was a strategic point for controlling this route, and there was communication among the villages governed by the caciques of each sector. There is also evidence of early occupation (8th millennium BCE) by another originally nomadic, hunter-gatherer people known as the Chiquillanes, who seasonally crossed the Andes, reaching the valley and occasionally the coast. At the time of the Spanish conquest, these groups remained mostly on the Argentine side of the mountains.