The story
Paseo del Chagra Machachi in Machachi
Machachi's annual chagra parade honors the Andean cowboy tradition of Ecuador's central highlands with a horseback procession in traditional dress, an outdoor mass, and the release of a herald bull, held each July around the founding of Mejia canton and recognized since 2018 as national intangible cultural heritage.
The chagra, the Andean cowboy of Ecuador's central highlands, gets a full day of public honor in Machachi through the annual Paseo Procesional del Chagra, a tradition that draws on three separate historical threads: the 1877 eruption of Cotopaxi volcano, which local memory credits the town's patron image with sparing the community from harm; the feast of Santiago Apostol, Machachi's patron saint; and the founding of Mejia canton, of which Machachi is the capital.