The Huichols (Wixaritari in their Wixárika language) belong historically and culturally to the Meso-American civilization, one of the six autochthonous civilizations which flourished in antiquity. They live in the Nanayari, their ‘residential territory’, which is situated in the Western mountain range of the Sierra Madre Occidental. They operate however in a much bigger ‘ceremonial territory’, the Kiekari, where according to their mythology the gods created the cosmos which, up to this date, is still their universe. This spiritual territory is twenty times larger than their territory of residence and is the setting for many of their rituals. It extends from the Pacific Ocean to the southern point of the Chihuahua desert, north of the Otomi people, at the western flanks of the Sierra Madre Oriental.
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The Huichol identity is determined by their mythology, the creation stories from times immemorial that are memorized by each Huichol and are still very much alive and omnipresent. Western history, which started for the Huichols only with the 16th century Conquista of Meso-America, was the dominant force in the Huichol political environment for the last 500 years. The substantial potential for ideological contamination by this foreign invasion was neutralized by a two-track policy. There was a splendid physical isolation, high up in the small mountain rancherias where the Spanish army was no match for the strong, barefooted and lithe Huichols, accustomed to run after the divine deer. And there was the ingenious complementary tactic of overpowering history by mythologizing its lasting positive contributions so that these are no longer invasion obstacles but can be experienced as intrinsic to the Wixárika mythological identity. They became an integral part of a living cosmogonic body of mythology that is permanently restored and expanded. This mythologizing may come as a formal recognition or as an intuitive conclusion never to be formalized nor even to be formulated. An example of the former is the incorporation of the hydroelectric dam in Aguamilpa, built in the 1990’s, but according to living Huichol cosmogony a feature that emerged along with the great rivers of the sierra, in those “remote times ¹.
A convincing example of intuitive myth forming is the acceptance of the Mexican state, whereas the Huichol society itself is a textbook example of Clastre's “society against the state”. The state as excuse for uncontrolled authoritarian forces within society to acquire dominating power over others is the antithesis of the ideal of individual sovereignty which defines the Huichol quest for reciprocal relations. The Huichol society thereto disposes of a system of checks and balances to neutralize lasting power concentrations of elites that can attack the personal autonomy of its members. As fearful as the Huichols are for such internal power accumulation, as self-assured they accept the state power of the Mexican state. It allows them to export the responsibility for a number of tasks as well as the associated power struggles, to other groups in society and to get, in case of external aggression, the assistance which is devised and stored for them on States' levels on a continuous basis, like international treaties and national laws. The 1989 International Labor Organization's Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention C169 is since its ratification in 1990 by Mexico part of its national legislation and systematically invoked by the Huichols on critical moments of outside attacks. It may be assumed to have a distinguished place in the Wixárika mythology.
Neo-liberal modernity hit the Huichol people full force in 2010 when, against all agreements, concessions were granted to Canadian transnational companies for mining in Wirikuta on the semi-desert plateaus of San Luis Potosi. There, near the town of Real de Catorce, the Wixaritari visit each year to meet with their divine ancestors and collect the peyote cactus to bring it back home, 500kms to the west, for their ritual consumption in the year ahead. If the mining operation were to be effectively carried out, it would mean the end of the peyote fields in Wirikuta and of the Wixárika culture that is formed on the basis of the communication of the Huichols with their gods with the aid of the consciousness altering peyote. An immense and spontaneous support movement from the outside world came to the Wixárika rescue. The Wixaritari themselves confronted this state of national emergency head-on, convened for once with the mara’akate (shamans) of all the autonomous ceremonial centers assembled at their most sacred place, the Cerro Quemado (Burned Hill) in Wirikuta, and decided in consultation with the divine ancestors to stick together and save Wixárika and the world. For the moment (2018) the outside threats seem to be contained. The real challenges currently come from the inside where after the national upheaval and the associated exceptional measures of defense, a new organizational balance has to be agreed upon. A difficult exercise of nation building as it needs to include all the mythological actors and to claim Wixárika autonomy while simultaneously trying to retain a maximum of outside support.
Modern man is again looking for an ecological bond with our environment but is still devoid of a spiritual bond with the invisible, a mythological bond with the past. His view on the future departs from the present and the material certainties it offers. The Huichols depart from mythology, to a large extent the past that only survives through their unconditional solidarity with a reality invisible to modern man. The future of the Huichol begins in a present that contains the very beginnings of our consciousness. In order to understand the view of the Wixárika people on the world, we will start in their mythological past. ² To try to get a chance to look into a world which, since that start, is all-encompassing, in time and space. As they have shown us, peacefully and sustainably. Looking at eternity.
¹ "At the occasion of the construction of this hydroelectric plant, Enrique Krauze published a text entitled "History arrives in Aguamilpa". Apparently, he refers to the importance that historians should give to great engineering works, although it also seems to allude to modernization of a backward region. Be that as it may, the Huichols would not agree with his statement. The dam was incorporated into their Cosmogonic mythology." From: Neurath Johannes, “Ambivalencias del poder y del don en el sistema político ritual wixarika”, p. 119, in ”Los pueblos amerindios más allá del Estado”, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 2011
² This section on ‘The Huichols’ borrows heavily from Leobardo Villegas’ very accesible article ‘DIOSES, MITOS, TEMPLOS, SÍMBOLOS: El universo religioso de los huichol’, (Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas), Americanía. Revista de Estudios Latinoamericanos. Nueva Época (Sevilla), n. 3, p.4-48, ene-jun, 2016
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