Champaquí: An Anthropological Look at the Highest Mountain in the Sierras Grandes de Córdoba (Argentina)

Abstract

Mount Champaquí reaches an altitude of 2790 meters above sea level and constitutes the maximum height of the Sierras Grandes in Cordoba. The summit is easily accessible thanks to a vehicular road that leads to a set of antennas near the top and the presence of shelters that allow you to spend the night on the long walks that are undertaken from its eastern slope. Although its attractiveness as a tourist and hiking destination is well known, the symbolic dimension of its summit has not received deserved attention in academic discussion. This paper brings together the observations made during a group ascent on foot along the western slope of the mountain, on a 22 km long journey with more than 1500 meters of positive elevation gain. The focus of the investigation is placed on the different granite promontories that surround the smal lagoon at the top, where crosses covered with offerings abound (rosaries, handkerchiefs, medals), mortuary plaques, commemorative monuments, busts, ex-votos, images of saints and virgins and all sorts of elements of unavoidable religious importance, which account for an intense and sustained ritual use of this high altitude space. The interviews with hiking guides, the spontaneous testimony of baqueanos and the comparative anthropological analysis –in relation to other emblematic mountains of the Central Sierras–, allow us to deepen our understanding of the growing importance of Champaquí as a “de facto” place of pilgrimage that collects innumerable, but still little recognized manifestations of popular devotion in the center of Argentina.