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Location:
Andahuaylas (Apurímac)
Date: September 6-10
The
Virgen de Cocharcas is a carved replica commissioned in
1 598 by Sebastián Quimichi, one of the local faithful.
Born in San Pedro de Cocharcas, Quimichi had the figure
made to show gratitude for miracles granted by the Virgin
of Copacabana, in Bolivia. The festival is organized by
the virgin's local followers, known as quimichos (from Quimichi),
who bear the figure aloft on a procession through the streets
of the district of Cocharcas, in Andahuaylas.
Other replicas of the same image are led in pilgrimage to
other cities outside of the department of Apurímac.
These pilgrimages, toward the cities of Cuzco and Huamanga
(Ayacucho), are carried out amid songs, music and prayers,
after the crops. She is known as the Traveling Virgin and
is associated with the rains and the fertility of the earth.
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