The story
Jesus del Gran Poder Procession in Quito
Quito's Good Friday procession centers on the cucurucho, a barefoot penitent in a tall purple hood, part of a devotion the Franciscan order formalized in 1961 around a seventeenth-century Christ figure. Starting at the Convento de San Francisco, the procession moves for hours through the historic center and south Quito, drawing thousands of participants and much larger crowds of spectators along the entire route.
The cucurucho, a barefoot penitent in a tall purple cone hood, is the defining image of Quito's Good Friday procession, a role first organized by Franciscan friars in 1961 when they named a seventeenth-century Christ figure Jesus del Gran Poder after its counterpart in Seville.