The Democracy Center On-Line
Volume 46 - September 20, 2002
100,000 PEOPLE AT DAWN
Dear Readers,
First, a quick progress report on our campaign against the Bechtel Corporation and its effort to sue Bolivia in a secret World Bank trade court (over the water revolt) Response to our call for support was extraordinary. On August 29th more than 300 organizations from 41 countries filed an International Citizens Petition with the World Bank, calling for the case to be opened to public scrutiny and participation. The petition had a quick effect as well. Less than two weeks later Bechtel sent a representative to Bolivia to start negotiations with the government. We'll keep you posted on what we hear. Thanks to all of you who joined in on this. A copy of the full petition and all the groups who signed on is posted on our Web site at:
Now, as long-time readers of this newsletter know, I feel like my political writings about Bolivia too often focus people on the problems here, and not the gloriousness of this place, so I like to add in something different from time to time. This issue is something special, the story of the Festival of Urkupiña, complete with an on-line slide show that my wife Lynn and I put together. I hope you will read this and share it, and most especially look at the photos that accompany the story, posted on The Democracy Center Web site at:
http://democracyctr.org/urkupina
Saludos!
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
100,000
PEOPLE AT DAWN
View
the photo exhibit that accompanies this article at:
http://democracyctr.org/urkupina
My
daughter Elizabeth and I left our house at three in the morning, into
the cold and down the rough cobblestone street that leads toward town.
At first, we were the only people on the street. Steadily, as we got
closer to the main highway leading out of Cochabamba, more and more
people began to appear Ð families mostly, with children bundled up against
the late winter night, and also groups of teenagers, many walking arm
in arm. These small clusters slowly transformed into bigger ones and
by the time we reached the highway about an hour later, even in the
dark we could see the huge mass of people spread in either direction.
Three lanes wide, a swarm that numbered well over 100,000 was making
a pilgrimage ("la caminata"), nine miles long from Cochabamba to a modest
brown hill behind the neighboring town of Quillacollo.
Remembering a Shepard Girl and Mary
Urkupiña is one of Bolivia's largest celebrations, rooted in the belief that, at some time in the 1800s, the Virgin Mary appeared to a humble shepard girl on this same hill. According to the legend Mary told the girl that her riches were contained in that hill and that people could come there to pray for miracles and wishes. The tradition of Mary is powerful one in Latin American spirituality Ð a woman who was deeply poor but also is imbued with a direct connection to God. Latin Americans, especially the poor, identify with her strongly.
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 "Calvario", the hill where Mary is said to have appeared. The last mile is bordered by hundreds of small stands, many selling miniatures of the objects which represent the dreams or miracles that people have walked here all night to wish for Ð miniature cars, trucks, houses, and stacks of cash. One seller yells out, over and over again, "$50,000 for one Boliviano (the local currency equal to about 15 cents)!" For those seeking travel there are miniature suitcases and even tiny US passports. For those whose wishes are more humble there are miniature shovels, picks, and other tools.
With the objects of choice in hand, people climb the a long hill through a towering white arch and reach the church dedicated to the virgin, the entrance to which has hundreds of flower arrangements spread out like a carpet. While one set of priests carry out an all-morning series of services inside, behind the chapel another set of priests and sisters tend to the never-ending line of people waiting to be blessed with a sprinkle of holy water on their head.
Beyond this buzzing beehive of traditional Catholic activity, lies the real objective of the day, the hill itself and the task of using a huge sledge hammer to pound a rock out of it, which must be carried back home and then returned the next year in order to fulfill the "please grant my wish" bargain with Mary. [By this time my teenage daughter Elizabeth, had run into some friends and ditched me and I had also gotten hopelessly separated from my own friends in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd.].
Imagine a hillside, perhaps a quarter mile across, covered with 10 foot-deep pits filled with and surrounded by groups of people drinking chicha, burning incense, playing tubas, blowing off firecrackers, and flailing sledge hammers away at huge boulders trying to chip off a piece or two. Along the various paths are line-ups of old traditional medicine men who, for a price, will light incense, say a few prayers in Quechua (the native language) and do what they can to help build some spirit power behind your specific desire. There is also a good array of dancing monkeys, fortune-telling parrots, and the occasional stray fountain of beer that leaps out of a rock pit and nails you in the face. Add to all this the fact that everyone there has already been up all night walking to get there and, you have to admit, it is a pretty good scene.
Such is the Bolivian festival of Urkupiña.
View the photo exhibit that accompanies this article at: http://democracyctr.org/urkupina
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON-LINE is an electronic publication of The Democracy Center, distributed on an occasional basis to more than 2000 nonprofit organizations, policy makers, journalists and others, throughout the US and worldwide. Please consider forwarding it along to those who might be interested. People can request to be added to the distribution list by sending an e-mail note to mailto: info@democracyctr.org. Newspapers and periodicals interested in reprinting or excerpting material in the newsletter should contact The Democracy Center at "info@democracyctr.org". Suggestions and comments are welcome. Past issues are available on The Democracy Center Web site.