Our Lady of Chiquinquirá

"La Chinita," patron of the Zulia and Maracaibo (Venezuela)

"La Chinita" is the soul of the Zulia: a tablet found floating in the lake of Maracaibo in which, according to tradition, the image of the Virgin of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá, now patron of the state and center of the multitudinary Fair of the Chinita, was miraculously renewed.

Origin and history

The advocation of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá was born in Chiquinquirá (Boyacá, Colombia), from which it spread throughout the continent. The Zulian tradition tells us that a humble woman found floating on the shore of Lake Maracaibo a small wooden tablet, which took her home as a cover of a tincture; one day she heard a few blows and saw the tabula shining and the image of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá had appeared clear on it, so she exclaimed "Miracle, miracle!" The sector has since taken the name The Miracle. The popular versions place the prodigy around 1709 or 1749.

Devotion is firmly rooted in the Zulia, where "La Chinita" is the identity symbol of the people - it inspires even the Zulian gaita. She is a patron of the state Zulia and Maracaibo, venerated in her Basilica of the city centre. His feast, on November 18, is the great Fair of the Chinese, with gayer dawn, procession and mass celebrations.

The date of the prodigy of the tablet (1709 / 1749) and the canonical coronation: they are not safely recorded in the sources.