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 Editorials | Opinions | March 2006 
A Modest March for the Huicholes
 Peter Gray - PVNN
This is not my usual kind of 'press release' for Becas or the Navy League or Toys for Tots. It is a more personal article about the visit to PV this March of a large group of Huicholes, who created a month long Festival which must have been a heavy committment for them.
Perhaps because I personally have been interested in their culture for over thirty years, I may be over-reacting to what I felt was a rather sad lack of interest and support by those in our our community who could have best given it. Hence the article below which may spark a little interest in seeing things are better done - should another opportunity present itself.
- Peter Gray
| | Tomorrow they will be going home. I wonder what will be going through their minds. The location they were provided with was so hidden away at the end of Plaza Caracol that it made it very hard to attract passers-by. No signs were provided to help people find where the Festival was taking place. No visible support from the city authorities. Surely the city could have provided banners and space in the Plaza honoring these people. And let them do something to draw attention to their presence for the month. |
A very unique event occurred here in Puerto Vallarta this March. For the very first time a community of Huichol Indians, specifically from the Comunidad Wixarika de San Andres Cohamiata, Mesquitic, Jalisco, banded together to travel from their remote village high in the Sierra Madre mountains, to present a Festival here in Puerto Vallarta. The long journey in itself was a challenge.
During the festival I was introduced to a couple of Wixarikas, as they prefer to be called. They must have been away from home around four days. The wife was sitting on the ground nursing her new baby - just thirteen days old! Meanwhile a two year old brother was trying to play with his new sibling. To make the journey easier, three other children had been left behind. Just one clue as to the toughness of their lives and their personal resilience.
Why did they go to all this effort - bringing around sixty people with their shamans and their ceremonial gear and their handicrafts and their musical instruments and their personal effects? Two reasons. Firstly, because last year's harvest failed, there is a desperate need to raise money to buy food for the village since it cannot be self-sufficient and feed itself this year.
Secondly, on a longer term view, the Wixarikas want the Mexicans to have a better understanding of the cultural heritage they represent. The soul of Mexico was formed in the pre-Hispanic past. The only way to come close to knowing it is to probe down deep, piercing the layers of Colonialism until you reach the bed-rock of indigenous life.
The Huichol culture has existed essentially unchanged for over five hundred years. The Spanish conquest of Mexico did not disturb these communities, isolated some seven thousand feet up in the mountains. So the people maintained their own language (uto-aztecan), their social systems, their laws and their spiritual beliefs.
The spiritual life of the Huicholes is rich almost beyond belief. as their well-known yarn paintings bear vivid witness. The spiritual world and the observance of the customs that perpetuate it from generation to generation are an everyday part of their life. The Huichols are humbly confident that their culture has much to offer the outside world. For that reason, during this festival the elders and shamans enacted ceremonies that have never been exposed to the outside world before. This was a dramatic break from their centuries' old tradition of absolute privacy. And who knows how much longer these beliefs will live on, dependent as they are on oral tradition and a continuance of the same discipline and faith among the next generation.
Offering up these ceremonies seemed to me a heartfelt cry for better understanding and acceptance. Thus, I detected a moment of intense frustration when one of the organizers spoke before introducing a ceremony dealing with the annual transfer of powers - when new leaders are chosen to govern the community. 'It is very strange,' he said, 'that foreigners seem to know more about us than the Mexicans, whose land we share.'
Tomorrow they will be going home. I wonder what will be going through their minds. The location they were provided with was so hidden away at the end of Plaza Caracol that it made it very hard to attract passers-by. No signs were provided to help people find where the Festival was taking place. No visible support from the city authorities. Surely the city could have provided banners and space in the Plaza honoring these people. And let them do something to draw attention to their presence for the month.
This is after all, a culture that deserves a world heritage ranking. What's more, it is a culture that flourishes here in the State of Jalisco. In all seriousness, this was a far more significant event than the visit of Luis Miguel - with all due respect to him. But, alas, it did not get equal billing.
The private sector did not seem to be proactive either. One might have thought that all the stores that make money out of selling Huichol made or inspired articles might have put their shoulder to the wheel to draw the crowds, as a way of paying their respects.
My wife did her best to spread the word and several of our friends did go to the festival and made some purchases. In the last days, my wife and I donated some sleeping bags because they were on a 'wish list' we had been given. Cheo, who works for us, donated some National Geographic magazines which, interestingly enough, were also on the list.
If the Huicholes decide to come back next year, I hope our community will be better organized to make their visit a more significant and widely-appreciated event. |
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