Fiesta Virgen de la Merced Latacunga

Latacunga's September Mama Negra procession, organized by vendors of the Pichincha, La Merced and El Salto markets in devotion to the Virgin of Mercedes, centers on a masked costumed cast including the title figure riding through the city on horseback. Rooted in the city's history of surviving Cotopaxi eruptions, it is the more devotionally intimate of Latacunga's two annual Mama Negra celebrations.

Latacunga's September observance of the Virgen de la Merced carries the deepest devotional roots of the city's two annual Mama Negra celebrations, organized by the vivanderas and merchants of the Pichincha, La Merced and El Salto markets in thanksgiving to the Virgin for favors granted, a tradition tied historically to the city's repeated survival of eruptions from the nearby Cotopaxi volcano.