La Virgen de Caacupe

The Mecca of Paraguay
The small town of Caacupe in Paraguay is the center of a yearly pilgrimage that brings thousands of people every year to view a statue of the Virgin Mary. Every year on December 8th, the Virgin of Caacupe is celebrated. Starting several days or up to a week before, over a million people start a pilgrimage to the town of Caacupe. Paraguay, like most of South America, is a predominately Roman Catholic country, around 99%. And the Paraguayan people adamantly believe in the legend of their sacred virgin.

The Legend of the Virgin
In the seventeenth century, a group of Mbaya Indians were pursuing a Guarani Indian near the mountains of Tobati. They wanted to kill him because the Guarani was a Christian convert and follower of the Franciscans, a group that caused a great deal of fear in the hearts of the Mbaya. Completely surrounded, the Guarani convert hid behind a huge tree. Trembling, he began to pray, and could feel the presence of the Immaculate Conception, the Virgin Mary. He vowed, if he survived, he would carve a statue in her image to show his gratitude for saving him. Miraculously, none of the Mbaya found the Guarani, and he lived out the rest of his life solely for the purpose of keeping his promise to the “queen of the skies”.

He later returned to the trunk of the tree where he was saved and patiently began drying the wood to begin his project of perfection. With all the fervor and skill he could muster, the grateful Guarani sculpted not just one, but two identical statues, one twice as big as the other. The larger was taken to a church in Tobati and the smaller was kept by the Guarani for his own devotion. The true identity of the creator of the statues remains unknown to this day.

The Paraguayan people then travel every to the city to view the Virgin Mary statue at the Basilica. The pilgrimage itself is supposed to be a time when people give over their burdens to the Virgin Mary to look after them throughout the night and the rest of the year.

Our Pilgrimage
Starting at 9pm on December 7th, I traveled with my two best friends, Brenda and Jessica, and 8 of Brenda's Paraguayan host family members to the Basilica in Caacupe. We had chatted with Brenda's host brothers and sisters for weeks about the pilgrimage and the three of us were really excited to experience the walk with Paraguayans. My family unfortunately were not interested in attending since they have walked in the past and my host siblings are too young.

We started our journey with a crowded bus ride to the town of Ypaacuri where we began the over 20 km walk. Hundreds of thousands of Paraguayans walked the same road as us that night. I was surprised that most of those that were walking were youth, in Paraguay youth mean those that range from 15 to 30 years old. Some carrying their children in their arms, but most were walking hand in hand with their significant others or were with a group of friends much like we were. We took a few breaks to grab some water or munch on a quick snack. Luckily Brenda's mom sent her some Trader Joes trail mix early that week in a care package and we got to munch on that the whole walk. The last break we took right before we entered the city was at an outdoor mission/homeless shelter space. As we rested our very tired feet by then, we drank delicious cocido and ate white bread rolls that were being passed out for free.

We walked until 4:30am in the morning when we finally reached the outskirts of the city. We then walked up a side road to find a place to rest our feet and heads for a few hours. Paraguayans lined the sidewalks and driveways of Caacupe for the night. We sprawled out some bed sheets on the sidewalk in front of a home and were able to get some shut eye for about an hour and a half. I was then awakened by the rising sun and the sound of the choir singing from the Basilica. It was the most refreshing alarm clock ever. We then spent a few hours in the morning walking around the town looking at the vendors, buying chipa (a traditional corn bread like food of Paraguay), and people watching the outrageous number of people who also made the pilgrimage like we had the night before. The last adventure was trying to catch a bus back to Guarambare. After two hours of walking around in the sun watching completely filled bus after completely filled bus pass by we had decided to just rest in a small park we found. Luckily once we had given up looking a parked empty bus down the street roared to life and we were able to cram us all on to a bus for the ride out of town.


I found the walk to be really fulfilling in many ways. While we walked along in the darkness I was able to spend some time thinking about my future here in Paraguay and after my service. Training has been so busy in the past 10 weeks that most of my time is concentrated on language training, technical skills and/or community integration with my host family, that I have not really had the time to think about my future seriously. Especially since I am still pretty nervous about moving to my future site since it is not exactly what I had been imagining for me, I was able to think about the positive possible work I could complete in and what I want to do after Peace Corps. While I still have two years to go, thoughts of grad school or possibly governmental work in D.C. have been floating through my head. So it was great to get the time to think. I was able to think about how things happen for a reason and what I can do to make the best out of those situations. And how the best choice I can make is how I choose to live my day to day life to make the best out of them. While hard with the language barrier still very present in my life, I am looking forward to getting to know my community more and what sort of work I can begin to keep myself busy and happy.

While walking some of my own burdens were shed that night as well.