Objective/context:

The link between the cult to the mountains and the figure of the Virgin Mary is evident in the Andes and has been the object of various works in ethno-history and anthropology. Here, we will point out the logical chains that are activated in the encounter and amalgamation of two elements of different ontological roots: the European Marian cult and the cult to the Andean mountains. The stories about the apparition of the Virgin Mary Queen of Heaven on one of the peaks of the Cachi department (province of Salta, Argentina) allows us to play with those elements scattered within modern logic that are woven around the possibility that both the hill and the Virgin have of mediating between humans and beings of greater power.

Methodology:

Unstructured interviews were conducted from which a series of elements to be organized within the Diaguita-Kallchaki analog universe were defined. To this end, it was essential to examine its link with the landscape in order to investigate the network of relationships created between humans and the other entities that inhabit it.

Conclusions:

We note that Cerro de la Virgen is not a disintegrating element of the local Andean logics or a passive element, but that the sum of the Virgin and the Cerro renders both more powerful.

Originality:

We consider that in this union, we can unravel the relations that link and order Cerro de la Virgen, both in the landscape and in the reproduction of the agricultural cycle for the current Diaguitas-Kallchaki communities. At the same time, the cult to mountains manifests the link between past and present Diaguita communities, and their association with other references in the Andean universe.

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