Culture

The ritual of the *amarrada* (tying) performed by peyoteros—carried out within the context of the pilgrimage to Wirikuta by the Wixarika people of western Mexico—goes virtually unnoticed in specialized studies. However, Dr. Olivia Kindl (France/El Colegio de San Luis) presents it as a classic case of a rite of passage—a process that, in this instance, appears lucidly materialized by a rope.

The 2011 Pan American Games, to be held in October in Guadalajara, Mexico, have three mascots. One of them is Huichi, a caricature of the sacred Huichol deer, and according to Emilio González, Jalisco state Governor, and the Games Organising Committee, a "worthy ambassador of the Huichol". However, far from being a “worthy ambassador”, for the Huicholes Huichi represents a sacrilegious misuse of sacred Huichol symbology. If the government had bothered asking beforehand – which it didn’t – it would have found that out. In another sleight, the Huicholes, whose artisanry is famous worldwide, formally proposed having a fixed space to sell their artisanry during the games, but this was rejected, all of this by which time Huichi had already been made public. 

The Wixarika, known as Huicholes in Spanish, and as Wixaritari in their own language, are recognized as one of the Mexican native cultures most resilient to outside influences. Unlike most other Indians, they did not allow Catholic priests to perform mass within the three main communities in the Wixarika mountains, except sometimes on Wixarika terms just before Easter, and in one community, at a couple of boarding schools.

The following exhibit can be applied not only to Wixárika (Huichol) but to any indigenous language, and is particularly dedicated to those indigenous languages in danger of becoming extinct. Only due to contextual and regional reasons have we decided to describe it and compare it in this manner. Furthermore, we are not trying to say that the Wixárika language is inferior to Spanish, to the contrary, we intend to make a fitting reflection regarding the preservation of indigenous languages. Let us thus begin.

With the aim of elucidating how contemporary Wixarika people employ aesthetic creation strategies that enable them to respond to the demands of contemporary reality, in this chapter Rodrigo de la Mora will present the case of *El Venado Azul* (The Blue Deer)—one of the most representative musical groups of this Indigenous people. Over the course of nearly twenty years, this group has traversed diverse spaces and contexts: from the Wixaritari communities of the Sierra Madre Occidental to towns and cities throughout Mexico and abroad, as well as the realms of radio, television, and the Internet. Based on this premise, he analyzes the significance of musical creation and change in relation to emergent contexts—specifically those in which connections between indigenous and non-indigenous communities are intensified by migration, urbanization, and the development of communication technologies. To this end, he draws upon both ethnomusicological frameworks regarding the study of musical change—as proposed by Blacking (1977) and Nettl (1985)—and theoretical reflections concerning the social and political dimensions of cultural and musical practices within social life, drawing on the perspectives of Bourdieu (1997), Turino (1989, 2003), Barthes (1980), and Bauman and Briggs (1990). In the first section, he provides a brief contextualization of the processes currently affecting the Wixarika people, along with a general characterization of their music—specifically, what is known as "regional music." In the second section, he describes the trajectory, discography, and distinct phases of the musical project under study; in the third, he characterizes the primary creative strategies employed in the formation and presentation of *El Venado Azul*’s musical practices and productions—including their songs, albums, and performances; and in the fourth section, he describes three recent instances involving the group’s participation, wherein the strategic establishment of social relationships—specifically those linked to the aesthetic realm—serve as focal points for analytical reflection. In sum, through the characterization and analysis of a case within the context of Wixárika regional music, de la Mora offers elements for understanding the manner in which certain social actors employ aesthetic resources as key strategies for sociocultural articulation.

The Wixarika tradition is rendered by three different terms: the first refers to our heart/ memory, tayeiyari- the second to how we develop, tanuiwari- the third to our life, tatukari, is transmitted by families, reinforced by communal living on extended family ranches and through clans at ceremonial centers, tukite (tukipa, sing.). Three places serve as the headquarters for what appear to be distinct Wixarika subgroups, with ritual and dialectical variants.

The nierika is represented among the Huichol Indians of northwestern Mexico as a focal point on which powerful beings concentrate their energy. This may be as primordial as a well-crafted deer snare that induces the sacred animal’s willing self-immolation. It can be a symbolic spider’s web or threads attached to a wooden loop.

After independence was achieved from Spain in 1810, the laws of the reform passed under Benito Juárez during the 1850’s, restrained the power of the Catholic Church, but they also stopped recognizing Indian colonial land rights. Soon the Huichol, Cora, Tepehuano and Mexicanero Indian groups of the Western Sierra Madre were further dispossessed of their territory by their mixed blood neighbors. They rebelled, eventually uniting under Manuel Lozada, who joined French invading forces until they were stopped at Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1873.

Article written by Nayarit-born anthropologist and specialist in Naayeri culture, Jesús Jáuregui, for the magazine, Arqueología Mexicana.

Read full Spanish-language essay here.