Vigin of Urkupina

The Quechua people of Peru and Bolivia have integrated their original belief in "Pacha Mama" (Mother earth) with the belief in the Virgin Mary.The Quechua people always knew that "Pacha Mama" gave them the basic necessities required to live: water, food, animal wool for clothes, mud and rocks for houses.

In the seventeenth century, Spanish priests seeking converts told the Andean Indians that "Pacha Mama" was gone, they should pray to the Virgin Mary. The Quechuas knew "Pacha Mama" would not abandoned them.

To them, the Spanish image of the Virgin wearingher triangle-shaped robes looked like a mountain. They decided "Pacha Mama" and the Virgin must be the same.Bolivian Quechuas agree that "Pacha Mama" provides the basic necessities . They also believe that the Virgin provides material goods.

The Festival of Urkupina was first established in 1870. Today around ten percent of the population f Bolivia (500,000 people)attend the Festival of Urkupina to ask the Virgin to make their dreams come true.They carry miniatures (alasitas) that represent what they wish for;tiny trucks, television sets, todor houses, telephones, college degrees, cars, clothes, sewing machines, visas and businesses..and more. For two days they dance to petition and thank the Virgin, then attend a Catholiv Mass.Finally. they visit the shaman women on the nearby mountain who conduct traditional ceremonies and ask Virgin/Mamacita to answer the pilgrims' prayers.

The ceremonies are held in a small town called Quillacollo which is around 10 miles from Cochabamba.The days of celebration are from August 14th to 16th and Masses are celebrated at the main church of Quillacollo: San Idelfonso church.

This festival comes from the middle of the seventeenth century when the Virgin appeared to a little shepherd girl and she was witnessed by her parents and neighbors.Urkupina it is a mixture and interaction of pagan with religious things, that it last three days overflowing days of happiness, faith and its thrills, accompanied by the Bolivian Traditions.