The heart of all the manifestations of the carnival is the cult to the Virgin, "Virgin de la Candelaria", Virgen del Socavón that appears in the time of the Spanish colonization, when the workers of Mita (obligatory work, slavery disguised) began to worship at the end of the XVII century.

A legend counts that Wari, an Andean old god, identified as the underground fire, it slept in the mountains of the Mountain range of Andes. One day realizes that Urus (inhabitants of the area of Oruro) offers a cult to Pachakamac, deity benefactor represented by Inti, the Sun. Wari becomes jealous, and it imagines to imitate the light of the sun with the underground fire.

In the process it falls in love with Dawn, the own daughter of the Sun, but she rejects it and Wari decides to retaliate with furor on the town of Urus. Of the South, it sends an enormous snake so that it devours Urus and, while the monster comes closer to the houses, a beautiful Ñusta (Inca Princess) appears and it cuts in two the reptile with its radiant sword, transforming it into a rock formation that one can observe in the region of Chiripujio, rock to which the inhabitants of Oruro surrender homage every first Friday of the month.

From the North, Wari sends a gigantic toad that Ñusta becomes stone with a sling blow. The lord of the volcanos is not left for conquered and from the east an unsightly lizard that Ñusta beheads. Their blood forms immediately the lagoon of Calacala. Of the open throat of the lizard millions of ants come out and go toward the town of Urust. A sling blow of the princess's transforms them in dunes of golden sand. To finish with their mission, Ñusta plants in the head of the snake on the Redeemer's cross. Wari, definitively conquered, returns to the world of the depths, every time that its anger wakes up again, it sends to the sky some dark powder clouds and it lights in flames to compete with the light of the sun.

Ñusta was tranformed little by little on the Virgin of the mines, Virgen del socavón, Saint patron of Orureños (inhabitants of Oruro). The divinities created by Wari, the toad, the snake, the lizard or the ants also receive a homage like that of the ancestral deities. Wari, little by little was transformed into the Devil, it received "Uncle" nickname; with relationship to "Pachamama", Goddess Mother of Earth), Andean main divinity, the Uncle is still is being honered, worshipped and feared by the miners. It continues being the master of the mines and of the underground world, to who is requested benevolence and protection.

In the time of the colonization, the miners offers their cult dancing, colored of red, what gave light to the dance of Diablada, traditional dance that combines all the characters of the legend.