The Virgin of Urkupiña , Virgin of Urcupiña or Virgin of Urqupiña is an invocation of the Virgin Mary Assumption , who is venerated on August 15 in the city of Quillacollo , provincial capital 14 km from the city of Cochabamba in Bolivia .

According to popular tradition, at the end of the  17th century , to the southwest of Quillacollo , there lived a family of peasants who survived thanks to the usefulness of their small flock of sheep that was in the care of the youngest daughter. The girl went daily to the low hills in front of Cota, passing the Sapinku River, where there was abundant pasture for her flock. One day in August, a lady appeared to her with a child in her arms, with whom she held long conversations in the local language, Quechua . The shepherdess was playing with the child in the waters of a spring that flowed from the rocks.

From then on, the girl was almost always late in returning to her parents’ hut. When they asked her why, the girl told of her encounters with the lady whom she called ” the little mother and the child .” She said that they would come down to play with her in the chimpa juturis (or chimpa pila), which is what the two springs of clear, sweet water at the foot of the hill were called and are still called. Hearing her, her parents became alarmed and repeatedly went to the green hill to convince themselves of the incredible stories.

When the visit of the “Little Mother” was repeated, the girl went in search of her parents and they looked for the Doctrinero (the parishes were called doctrines and, by extension, the priest, Doctrinero), and neighbors of the ranch , who, informed of the event, decided to verify its veracity, going to the place where the girl was guiding them. The Virgin, seeing that the shepherdess did not appear, got up from where she was and went up the hill, while the girl shouted, pointing with her finger, in Quechua Jaqaypiña urqupiña, urkupiña , which in Spanish means “she is already on the hill” ( urqu = hill, piña = it is already), hence the Castilianized name. When they reached the top, the lady disappeared, but they managed to see a celestial image that vanished in the tangle of carob trees , cacti and ululas. Convinced that the vision was strange, they ran to the town. The priest called the townspeople together, and together with other authorities they went to the place of the miracle in front of the Cota ranch. The bustling crowd moved this image to the chapel of Quillacollo and since then it is known as the Virgin of Urkupiña , which is highly venerated by the Bolivian people and the stories of the miracles that are bestowed on its devotees are extraordinary. In that place a chapel of the Virgin was built, which has been moved to the Matriz temple of Quillacollo where pilgrims from all over Bolivia and South America come to venerate the patron saint of National Integration. (The story was written by Monsignor Francisco Cano Galvarro and Mercedes Anaya de Urquidi).