Angela Rosales Challis and Professor Catherine Black, Dance

Urkupiña is one the most important religious festivities in Quillacollo, Cochabamba, Bolivia. It is a colorful festival with folkloric dancing, a large religious mass, processions, typical food, and the sale of miniature handicrafts. People of all ages participate in this celebration. The festivity consists of different activities during four full days, folkloric dances being fundamental among them. The origin of this festivity comes from a legend. In Quillacollo lived a little shepherd girl that met the Virgin Mary on the hill while taking care of her sheep. The Virgin told the girl that she should bring rocks from the mountain. If she did, the Virgin promised that she would turn those rocks into money. The little girl believed her and the Virgin turned the rocks into money. The origin of the festivity’s name comes from orqopiña, which means “on the hill” in Quechua. When people wanted to know where they could find the Virgin, the girl would answer orqopiña. Urkupiña is a celebration to the Virgin Mary.

The local newspaper Los Tiempos stated, “more than 70 fraternities, which include at least 10.000 dancers, showed their dance of faith and joy dancing 2 miles” (Garcia, August 14, 2005). I wanted to find out what the motivations of the people participating in the celebrations are. In addition to documenting Bolivian traditions, I planned to stimulate reflection among American readers/audiences upon the meaning and importance of traditions in their own lives. I find it important to reflect about our traditions because we need a reason to carry out traditions. Some times we participate in customs without knowing the original purpose or the truth in it. Also this research gives me the opportunity to implement my culture in my studies and have Bolivian culture enrich American culture.

Procedures

I did research about Urkupiña and learned the origin of this festivity.
I flew to Cochabamba, Bolivia. I traveled to Quillacollo the first day of the celebration.
I planned to interview the dancers during their rehearsals, but I was unable to do so. I interviewed the dancers the day of the festivity. I went to the beginning of the route and talked to them while they waited for their turn to start the 3 kilometers of journey. The problem with this was that I was not able to interview as many people as I planned to. The positive side of it was that they were exited to be there. This made their answers more heart-felt.

I interviewed 67dancers which include children, teenagers, adults, and seniors. I randomly selected the population for the research. After the interviews my husband and I took pictures and filmed the happenings. We did the same the next two days of the celebration. I plan to put together a DVD to show to students in the Dance Department.

Conclusion
I do not have my statistics ready yet, but while talking to the people I was amazed to find that all the people that I interviewed knew the legend. Also their main purpose to be there was to show their devotion to the Virgin. Some dancers were participating there for more than 10 years and their faith has increased more each year.

While proposing this research I thought that the faith and devotion had disappeared in this festivity. I also thought that the participation was mainly motivated by social interaction. I was glad to prove myself wrong. This people believe in a miraculous Virgin. Some people shared with me very personal stories which reflected their strong faith.

Reaching out

Back in Utah I had the opportunity to teach Creative Dance in two Elementary Schools. The last week of my teaching residency I decided to share with them the Bolivian Urkupiña. I decorated the classroom with Bolivian artifacts, pictures from Urkupiña, miniature things used in the festivity, and I dressed up with native clothes. When the students got into the classroom I had Bolivian music playing. They looked around and then we gathered together. I asked if they knew anything about Bolivia. They showed me where in the map was Bolivia, and told me what they knew. Then I told them the legend of the little shepherd girl. We discussed if they believed it or not. I told them that many people believe in this legend and that is why we have the festivity.

I explained the Calvary which consists of thousands of pilgrims walking about 10 miles to get to the mountain and take rocks from it. Then they take the rocks to be blessed by a yatiri. I explained that people buy miniature things that represent what they would like to have next year. These things range from fruits and vegetables, cars, houses, university diplomas, passports and suit cases, to sacks of flour and much more. People take these miniatures home, having faith that the Virgin will bless them with what they asked for.

I explained to the students that people make promises to the Virgin and dance about 2 miles for 2 or 3 consecutive days to show their devotion. The children learned some Bolivian dance. At the end we discussed what traditions Americans have. I asked them if they believed in those or not. I asked them if they knew the origin of those traditions, for example: Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, and Thanksgiving. We talk about what traditions do to our lives and why we would want to carry them out or not.

My project is not finished yet, but I felt that I was able to reach my goal of implementing my culture in my studies and having Bolivian culture enrich American culture. The 463 children that I taught in my Creative Dance classes were enriched by experiencing Urkupiña in a small way.