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Here in the Cochabamba Valley, eight thousand feet high
in the mountains, that celebration runs a full week. It
includes parades, daylong processions of dozens of dancing
groups that keep vibrant and alive Bolivia's dramatic dance
traditions. The costumes range from tall-feathered hats from
the jungle to "La Diablada", in which dancers act out a
dramatic battle between the devil and an army of archangels.
Urqupiña also includes religious practices, in which
traditional Catholicism is mixed completely with the
indigenous traditions of chewing coca leaves, copious intake
of "chicha" (the local drink of fermented corn) and honoring
"La Pachamama" (Mother Earth).
The Crowd in the
Dark
But for
me, nothing is as dramatic as walking down a dark highway at
four in the morning with 100,000 people. Along the way vendors
have set up small tables selling hot pastries, fruit, coffee,
and a warm drink made of corn ("api"). Off in the distance we
catch a glimpse of an eerie pulsating luminescent Mary, which
as we get close to it turns out to be made of plastic and
mounted to the top of a pedestrian bridge that arches over the
highway.
As dawn rises up the sun behind us, we can see
the full mass of people stretching as far as the eye can see,
all of us headed to
(Continued on page 8)
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