Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. She is also known as the Earth/time mother. In Inca mythology, Pachamama is a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own self-sufficient and creative power to sustain life on this Earth.

The four cosmological Quechua principles – Water, Earth, Sun, and Moon – claim Pachamama as their prime origin. Pachamama remains benevolent, giving, and a local name for Mother Nature. Many in South America believe that problems arise when people take too much from nature because they are taking too much from Pachamama.

Indigenous women, in particular senior women, are seen as incarnations of tradition and as living symbols of wisdom, life, fertility, and reproduction. A main attraction of the Pachamama festival is the Sunday parade, where the festival searches for the oldest woman in the community and elects her the Pachamama Queen of the Year.