The Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña: Mountains and Materialism in the Bolivian Andes

The Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña is one of Bolivia’s largest and most important celebrations, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims annually to Quillacollo, a city in the Cochabamba Valley. Held each August, the festival witnesses a confluence of Catholic devotion and indigenous Andean spirituality. At its core lies Cerro Calvario, a sacred hill where pilgrims perform rituals rooted in pre-Columbian beliefs about mountains as sources of fertility, prosperity, and divine power — beliefs that have been transformed by centuries of Catholic influence.

Mountains occupy a fundamental place in Andean cosmology, serving as dwelling places for protective spirits, sites of divine manifestation, and sources of material and spiritual abundance. The Festival of Urkupiña is the result of the clash between these ancient Andean ideas with Catholicism, creating a syncretic religious practice where the Virgin Mary is honored alongside the Andean earth goddess Pachamama, offering blessings to pilgrims who visit and perform rituals on the sacred hill.

The Legend of the Virgin of Urkupiña

Sometime during the eighteenth century, an indigenous girl tended her livestock on a dusty hill outside Quillacollo. On that hill, known as Cota Hill, a strange woman and her small child met the girl, speaking with her, playing with her, and telling her stories. At home, the girl told her parents about the mysterious lady and child. The parents, together with others from the community, went to the hill to investigate. When the girl pointed to the hill and said in Quechua, “Urkupiña!” — “She is on the hill!” — the villagers rushed to the spot. But when they arrived, the woman and child had vanished, leaving behind an image imprinted on a stone. Since then, the apparition of Mary has been venerated as the Virgin of Urkupiña.

That’s one version of the legend, at least.

In other popular retellings of the legend, the mysterious lady gave stones to the poor shepherd girl. These stones later transformed into precious metals like gold or silver. Despite this detail not appearing in all versions, the story established a connection between the Virgin Mary and themes that would become associated with the rituals during the festival: prosperity, abundance, and material gain.

The legend itself is Catholic, with clear parallels to the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego in Mexico, another indigenous “seer” who encountered Mary on a hill. Yet some scholars believe that it was created as a way to introduce Catholicism to the local indigenous population.

The Blending of Catholic and Indigenous Traditions

During the colonial period, the Spanish deliberately suppressed indigenous beliefs through the destruction of “idols” and indigenous spiritual sites known as huacas, many of which existed on mountains and hills including on Cota Hill. In some instances, they placed Catholic iconography like crosses and chapels where huacas had been located. They also attempted to wean the Andean population off idolatry and onto Catholicism by aligning Catholic ideas with their indigenous analogs. In the case of Quillacollo, this meant conflating Mary with Pachamama, the Andean mother earth goddess often honored in August.

In the Andean world, August (late-winter in the southern hemisphere) was an important time to prepare for the upcoming growing season. August is the month of Pachamama, the month when prayers and rituals were held asking for prosperity in the harvest. On the Catholic calendar, this time coincided with rituals and ceremonies to honor another mother: the Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Assumption (August 15).

Mary was mapped onto Pachamama.

What emerged, and what survives, was a unique hybrid religious system wherein Mary is venerated alongside Pachamama. This system is not endorsed by the Catholic Church, of course. But it is the one that is practiced by the people without any sense of conflict or contradiction.

Nowadays, in our era of neoliberalism, pilgrims ask for upward mobility, consumer goods, and modern indicators of prosperity rather than crops and livestock that their ancestors sought.

The Virgin and Material Prosperity

In her statue, which is held in the Templo de San Ildefonso in Quillacollo, the Virgin of Urkupiña’s appearance reflects her role as bestower of material prosperity. She is decked out with makeup: blush on her cheeks, lipstick, and dark eyeliner. She wears a necklace, gem-encrusted earrings, a bejeweled crown, and an array of jeweled rings on her fingers. In her right hand, she brandishes a crowned scepter; in her left, she carries baby Jesus, himself wearing a sparkly crown. An ornamental sash in the colors of the Bolivian flag hangs across her chest, alluding to her role as the patron saint of “national integration.”

Cerro Calvario and the “Mines”

The Festival of Urkupiña centers on Cerro Calvario (Calvary Hill), yet this is not the site where the Virgin reportedly appeared to the shepherd girl. The actual location of the purported eighteenth-century apparition is Cota Hill, a smaller hill located several kilometers west of Cerro Calvario. A small chapel marks the location today, but it receives minimal attention during the festival. Cerro Calvario, by contrast, hosts the overwhelming majority of pilgrims.

Cerro Calvario is a barren mound, reaching around 8,500 feet in elevation. On its summit are “mines,” large pits dug into the summit exposing massive boulders that pilgrims attempt to break during rituals. The mines can be large, resembling emptied pools filled with large boulders. Between the mines are elevated footpaths allowing pilgrims to navigate between different mines and around the hill.

With sledgehammers, pilgrims attempt to break chunks from boulders. The ritual is called “working in the mine,” evoking Bolivia’s mining heritage and the extraction of wealth from the earth.

The ch’alla ritual accompanies the stone-breaking. It is a pre-columbian libation ritual in which practitioners pour or spray alcoholic beverages — beer, wine, chicha — onto the earth, rocks, or objects. It embodies the Andean principle of reciprocity, offering liquid sustenance to Pachamama in exchange for blessings, the permission to take resources, or protection. To receive, one must first give.

Stones hold multiple layers of meaning in the ritual. Many pilgrims refer to the stones as “money” or “loans” from the Virgin. If the Virgin wills it, a pilgrim may break off a large piece of rock, representing divine favor. The bigger the rock, the bigger the blessing. Pilgrims return in subsequent years to “repay” these loans through continued participation and devotion.

Alasitas

Important to the Festival of Urkupiña are alasitas — miniature representations of valuable objects that pilgrims hope to obtain. The term derives from an Aymara word that translates roughly to “buy me.” These small replicas of houses, vehicles, currency, documents, and other desired items are the material embodiment of the petitions directed to the Virgin. They are prayers, miniaturized and tangible.

During the festival, pilgrims purchase alasitas from vendors near Cerro Calvario. These miniatures must then be blessed through ceremonies and rituals that invoke both the Virgin Mary and Pachamama. Shamans and sahumeros place the alasitas on colorful woven blankets, douse them with alcohol, and recite prayers. The bundle is often held over burning incense, allowing smoke to envelop and penetrate it. Sometimes the bundles are burned, sometimes not. As the incense and smoke rises, pilgrims can be seen attempting to cup the incense smoke in their hands and shove it into their pockets.

As in the stone-breaking ritual, the ch’alla often accompanies the blessings of alasitas.

The miniatures and the stone-breaking ceremony thus simultaneously operate within both Catholic and indigenous frameworks: they are petitions to the Virgin Mary and Pachamama for divine intercession and abundance.

Location and Setting

The Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña takes place in a city called Quillacollo, about 30 minutes west of Cochabamba in the Cochabamba Valley.

The Cochabamba Valley has been inhabited since pre-Hispanic times. Rich and fertile with a temperate climate compared to the high Andes, the valley was on an important node within the Incan Empire’s network. During the colonial period, the Spanish founded Cochabamba as an outpost to facilitate trade, grow crops, and support Potosí and its mining efforts. The city served as a geographic and cultural center, connecting the mountainous highlands to the tropical lowlands.

The best way to reach Quillacollo from Cochabamba is to take the Q bus from Cochabamba, which stops on the western side of the Plazuela Corazonistas. The bus stops at Plaza Bolivar and at the foot of Cerro Calvario in Quillacollo.

Festival Dates and Events

Technically, the Festival of Urkupiña runs the entire month of August, but the most popular and well-attended days are in the middle of the month, surrounding the Feast of the Assumption on the 15th. Ceremonies on the hill take place year-round, but especially during the month of August. The core days of the festival are as follows.

August 13: Entrada Autóctona

One day before the official festival begins, the Entrada Autóctona (Indigenous Parade) takes place. This event is an attempt to give more exposure and space within the festival to rural indigenous communities who traditionally lead the celebrations in the years before the festival grew to its current size. The parades now begin about a mile north of Cerro Calvario on Martín Cardenas and wind through the city.

August 14: Entrada Folklórica

August 14 features the Entrada Folklórica (Folkloric Parade), the grand opening of the festival. This day-long carnival of dancing, music, drinking, and elaborate costumes is similar to other major Bolivian festivals. The parade begins in the morning at the same spot as the Entrada Autóctona and ends at the Church of San Ildefonso. This is the festival’s busiest day.

August 15: Assumption Day

On this day, masses are held at the church. Following the mass, the folkloric parade repeats, though with relatively fewer crowds and fewer participants. The atmosphere on this day is more relaxed than the previous day’s celebrations, but it is still crowded in real terms.

August 16: Calvary Day

August 16, known as “Calvary Day,” marks the pilgrimage to Cerro Calvario. In the small hours before dawn, pilgrims march on foot from Cochabamba to the Church, where they hear a mass before moving on to the hill. A part of the highway is blocked off for pilgrims, with the first groups leaving around midnight. Pilgrims visit Cerro Calvario throughout the entire month, but this day is the hill’s busiest.