 |
|
|
 Travel & Outdoors | November 2005 
The Living Past
 Irene Woodbury - St. Petersburg Times
| | Photographer and ethnologist Arturo Gutierrez captures the rituals of the Huichol people in an exhibition he staged in February in Mexico City. The Huichol, thought to be direct descendants of the Aztecs, live in isolation. |
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - It is only a few hours by bus from the beach-and-buffet ambience of this Margaritaville to a pre-Columbian civilization.
My husband, Dick, and I wanted a change from the empty glitter and booked the four-hour ride to a Huichol Indian settlement northeast of Puerto Vallarta. We visited El Potrero de la Palmita, at 4,500 feet altitude in the rugged Sierra Madre. There, a group of Huichol, thought to be direct descendants of the Aztecs, live in isolation, among the last indigenous populations of the world.
Most of the Huichol (pronounced WEE-chol, it means "healers of the Earth") live as their ancestors have for hundreds of years, without running water or electricity. They sleep in adobe or thatched straw huts and use the sun for light. Their main links to the modern world are through exquisite yarn paintings and bead art, which they have produced for at least 200 years.
The Huichol number about 26,000. Though some live in the cities of Tepic, Puerto Vallarta and even sprawling Guadalajara, most live in the Sierra Madre on about 400 small settlements called ranchos. These villages are in the north-central Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit and typically are inhabited by one, or just a few, extended families.
Because their homes are scattered over remote and rugged mountains, the Huichol have maintained their distinctive language, culture and traditions.
They speak a dialect called Uto-Aztecan. At the center of their lives is a religion more personal than institutional; it is based on a profound respect for the Earth and for the gods believed to protect their crops.
We stumbled into our adventure when we had come across a downtown Puerto Vallarta store and gallery in which Huichol artisans labored. They wore their traditional clothing.
Beyond their worktables were shelves brimming with figurines of hand-beaded iguanas, deer, wolves, turtles and jaguars. Glaring from the walls were ceremonial masks with contorted smiles. We were dazzled and intrigued, and we learned that a daylong tour of a Huichol settlement was offered once a week.
By Bus And Motorboat
Onboard the bus were about 25 Americans, most of them looking sleepy as we pulled out about 8 a.m.
After a steady climb past sugarcane and pineapple plantations and through craggy pine forests, we arrived at a huge, artificial lake, Lake Agua Milpa, which means corn water. It is surrounded by blue-green mountains, the tallest of them nestled in fog and clouds.
Our German-born guide, Tanja, and her genial assistant, Santos, a Huichol dressed in brightly embroidered white cotton pants and tunic, loaded us into three small motorboats. Off we went, bouncing across choppy waves for 15 minutes.
We reached the rocky shore of El Potrero de la Palmita, where a dozen small boys with dirt-smudged faces greeted us as we were helped off the boats. Although most Huichol settlements are more private and inaccessible, this group has allowed once-a-week tour visits since 1996.
After Tanja and Santos led us up a steep, pebbled, dirt path lined with leafy trees and dense brush, we encountered a medicine man, who needed to cleanse us of evil spirits before we could enter the settlement.
He wore the traditional Huichol outfit of white, elaborately embroidered pants and tunic. I was mesmerized by the symbols on his red-bordered shawl and his wide-brimmed straw hat, festooned with scarlet ribbons, beads and feathers.
To save time, Tanja and Santos suggested a group cleansing, but the medicine man wouldn't hear of it and proceeded to cleanse us individually or in pairs. He waved a feathered stick around our bodies while uttering blessings.
The contrast between the luxurious resort we had left that morning and this rancho was stark. Living conditions here were rustic: no public restrooms or restaurants, no telephones or televisions. In place of the seaside bustle, here was a simple setting framed by the panoramic stillness of the Sierra Madre.
The Huichol sleep in huts elevated to keep out scorpions and other vermin. They cook on wood-fired stoves, as we saw in one hut we visited. There, a large pot of coarsely cut corn kernels simmered on a black stove. Corn is both the major crop and a sacred symbol for the Huichol, who also grow beans, squash, chilies and melons.
We saw pigs, dogs, cats, donkeys, roosters and chickens roaming freely. Tanja explained that they wander homeward by evening or are found and brought back by their owners.
She reminded us that we could not photograph the elders because they believe their souls are stolen if their images are thus captured. We were allowed to snap the lively children, animals, adobe huts and scenic marvels, including 12-foot-tall candelabra cactus.
Taste Of The Modern World
Some Huichol children are educated for six years and learn Spanish as a second language. On our tour, we looked through the window of a school, where children ate beans, rice and tortillas off Styrofoam plates. I felt silly peeking in at them, but they smiled indulgently.
After a 90-minute stroll, we reached our final stop: the thatched-roof market tended by women in brilliantly colored cotton dresses embroidered with ancient symbols. On sale were yarn paintings, bead art and jewelry.
From cluttered tables that hid shy toddlers, I selected two large, hand-carved wooden frames, an inch of beading embellishing each, for $50, and an 8-inch-tall beaded deer with a long tangle of graceful antlers, for $45. (The prices are comparable to those in Puerto Vallarta stores, and the proceeds go to the Huichol.)
We also glanced at beaded hair clips, combs, earrings and bracelets, coin purses, dolls dressed in hand-sewn ceremonial costumes, and feathered sticks similar to the one the medicine man had held during our purification ceremony.
Huichol art resonates with ancient symbolism, mythology and references to deities or tribal history. Often depicted are Grandfather Fire, Grandmother Growth and Deer Person.
The artwork is replete with colorful, compelling images that represent the Huichols' complex beliefs about life and death and that convey sacred messages from ancestors through common motifs of corn, mountains, God's eyes, the stimulant peyote, water, deer, feathers, arrows, eagles and flowers.
About 200 years ago, the Huichol began producing yarn paintings by rubbing beeswax or pine resin on wooden canvases and affixing colorful yarns in vibrant, elaborate designs. The motifs are almost mazelike, simultaneously basic and byzantine, contemporary and ancient.
The Huichol began selling bead art about 40 years ago to generate income because they could no longer sustain themselves solely by farming. After carving wooden symbols, animals or fish of spiritual significance, they cover the wooden forms with beeswax or pine resin and apply bright seed beads, one by one from a needle, to form dynamic patterns.
I was struck by what appeared to be strong emotions imbued in the bead animals. Crouching jaguars looked ready to pounce; open-winged eagles appeared serene and all-knowing; iguanas perched on sticks seemed alert and poised.
The glass beads, which come from the Czech Republic, are known for their high quality and are similar to those brought here by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries in the 18th century.
The Huichol, who have no written history, avoided Spanish colonization and Christianity because their population was spread over thousands of square miles in these mountains. Their remote location has also helped the tribe resist absorption into modern society, despite interest generated by the research done by Norwegian explorer Carl Lumholtz in the 1890s.
Many of the proud and private Huichol continue to live a rigorous mountain life, resisting the encroachment of mainstream society and modernization. One example is the spinning wheel, introduced in recent decades so raw wool would no longer have to be woven by hand. Some of the Indians have embraced the idea; others reportedly used the wheels for firewood.
Irene Woodbury is a freelance writer living in Denver.
GETTING THERE: Tours to visit the Huichol settlements are offered by the Huichol Collection stores, hotels and travel agencies in town. There are both bus and airplane tours to see the ranchos. Two main companies offering the tours are:
Harris Tours, Sierra Pirineos 69, Col. Olimpica, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico C.P. 48321. To call from the United States, dial 011-52-322-22-25373 or 011-52-322-22-3-29-72; www.harristours.com Departures on Thursdays for "The Living Past, Huichol People" tour, which lasts from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and costs $70.
Vallarta Adventures, Edificio Marina Golf Local 13-C, Calle Mstil, Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico 48354. Call toll-free 1-866-256-2739; www.vallarta-adventures.com
This is an airplane tour to San Andres Cohamiata, a large, remote community at 7,500 feet in the Sierra Madre. The tour, including the flights of about one hour each way, runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday from December through April and costs $247 per person.
WHERE TO BUY: In Puerto Vallarta, Huichol art is sold primarily at two Huichol Collection stores in the center of town: 490 Morelos Col. Centro, phone 011-52-322-223-2141; and 732 Paseo Diaz Ordaz, Col. Centro, phone 011-52-322-223-0661. Both stores are open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Items are also sold at Peyote People, 222 Calle Juarez, Col. Centro, phone 011-52-322-222-6268, www.peyotepeople.com Open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Mexico Tourism Board toll-free at 1-800-446-3942; or www.visitmexico.com |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us