Culture

The Huichol (wee-CHOLE), 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 Huichol mountains, except sometimes on Huichol terms just before Easter, and in one community, at a couple of boarding schools.

El huichol, llamado wixárika en su idioma, o huicholes, llamados wixaritari, han sido reconocidos por mantener una de las culturas nativas mexicanas más renuentes a las influencias forasteras. A diferencia de otros indígenas, no han permitido que los curas católicos digan la misa en las tres comunidades nucleares de la Sierra Huichol, a excepción del sábado de gloria en la comunidad de San Andrés Cohamiata.

As archaeologist Phil Weigand puts it, the Wixarika and their Na'ayeri neighbors had deep roots in the area where they are now settled in a sequence that had begun by the Mesoamerican Classic period (ca. 200-700 A. D.). The Corachol branch of this Uto-Aztecan language family leads linguists like Valiñas, cited by Weigand to consider the relative antiquity of this language group in the area.

Los wixáritari llevan muchos siglos viviendo en los estados de Nayarit y Jalisco del centro occidental de México donde están asentados ahora. Según el arqueólogo, Dr. Phil Weigand, ellos y sus vecinos lingüísticos, los coras, ya habían establecido sus raíces en esta zona cuando empieza la temporada clásica mesoamericana (200 a 700 de nuestra era). La rama corachol de estos idiomas de la familia uto-azteca lleva a lingüistas como Valiñas, citado por Weigand a considerar la relativa antigüedad de este grupo de idiomas en esta zona. “Esta rama del uto-azteca está mucho más emparentada con las ramas del tarachitán y del tepimán habladas en el norte y el oeste que con los idiomas nahuas hablados más al este y al sur.”

The Huichol were distinguished as xurute, according to a geographical map published in 1579, in the Atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (reproduced in various sources: Rojas, Neurath). The term vizurita is used by Father Tello, in his Crónica Miscelánea, written in 1652. The first reference to the huicholes as guisoles appears in a briefing to the bishop Ruiz Colmenares (between 1640 and 1650). Father Antonio Arias y Saavedra used the terms xamucas and huitzolmes in his chronicle (1673), the first ethnological work on the Indians of this area of the Sierra Madre, according to historian Gutiérrez Contreras.

The Huichol were distinguished as xurute, according to a geographical map published in 1579, in the Atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (reproduced in various sources: Rojas, Neurath). The term vizurita is used by Father Tello, in his Crónica Miscelánea, written in 1652. The first reference to the huicholes as guisoles appears in a briefing to the bishop Ruiz Colmenares (between 1640 and 1650). Father Antonio Arias y Saavedra used the terms xamucas and huitzolmes in his chronicle (1673), the first ethnological work on the Indians of this area of the Sierra Madre, according to historian Gutiérrez Contreras.

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 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.

La siguiente exposición se puede aplicar a cualquier idioma o lengua indígena, no sólo del wixárika (huichol), lo dedico en especial a aquellas lenguas indígenas que están en peligro de extinción, sólo por razones contextuales y regionales hemos decidido describirla y compararla de esta manera. Tampoco estamos diciendo que el wixárika (huichol) sea inferior al español, al contrario, pretendemos hacer una reflexión oportuna en el asunto de la preservación de las lenguas indígenas, comencemos pues:

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.