“We are here to reaffirm that we are still standing, resisting, defending what belongs to us.” Sitlali Chino Carrillo

Mothers pushing baby carriages, grandmothers and grandfathers in their 70s and even a man in a wheelchair joined the ranks of the 200 Indigenous Wixárika people making their way nearly 1,000 kilometers along the sweltering highways of México in a generations-long battle to recover their stolen lands. The Wixárika Caravan for Dignity and Justice departed from the Western Sierra Madre on April 25 and has been walking ever since, camping alongside the highway and rising at dawn to carry on.

Los constituyentes mexicanos decretaron que la justicia en el país sería gratuita y expedita, aspiración que casi nunca se corresponde con la realidad y mucho menos para los pueblos originarios de esta nación.

“Let’s Talk About Hikuri” (‘Hablemos de Hikuri’) is a project that was designed to create spaces for dialogue about hikuri (Lophophora williamsii), or peyote, in order to provide debates and reflections on the use and consumption of this cactus and consider proposals for its protection and use.

In 2007, during the construction work of the Amatitán-Huejuquilla el Alto highway, the government of Jalisco buried the sacred site of the Wixárola known as "Paso del Oso", between Tenzompa and Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlán. This happened at the beginning of the term of former governor Emilio González Márquez, who did not have the manifestation of environmental impact.

TEOTIHUACÁN, Mexico —  On December 18, Mexico City and neighboring Mexico State entered a weeks-long coronavirus lockdown for the first time since the spring. The next evening, I hid in a sleeping bag surrounded by people vomiting in a small park near the famed Teotihuacán pyramids outside the capital, as dozens consumed the psychedelic peyote cactus at a clandestine ceremony.

Wirikuta is one of the most important natural sacred sites of the Wixárika (Huichol) indigenous people and the world. The Wixárika people live in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Durango and are recognized for having preserved their spiritual identity. They have continued to practice their cultural and religious traditions for thousands of years. Wirikuta is the birthplace of the sun and the territory where the different Wixárika communities make their pilgrimage, recreating the route taken by their spiritual ancestors to sustain the essence of life on this planet. In this desert springs the peyote or jicuri, the cactus that the Wixárika ritually ingest to receive the “gift of seeing”.

Round Table Discussion - September 11th & 12th 2020. Since the mining concessions were announced in 70% of the Wirikuta Natural Protected Area, a sacred territory for the Wixárika people and peasant peoples, a diverse and complex transnational struggle has been articulated. We want to reflect on what has been achieved, what the threats continue to be and how we can collectively work to defend this sacred land... Watch the videos of this event

COMMUNICATION REGARDING CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 The communities that make up the Wixárika Regional Council for the defense of Wirikuta express our great concern about the global pandemic caused by COVID-19. The foregoing, mainly because historically we have not been guaranteed adequate access to healthcare. Throughout the state and federal governments, over the years, the Wixaritari communities have constantly denounced, and without favorable response, the lack of access to adequate health facilities, specialized doctors, medicines, and basic supplies. Let us remember the context of remoteness that exists between our communities in relation to the nearby municipal seats.

In April, I joined the two-day Psychedelic Liberty Summit, where the voices of several Indigenous participants from Colombia, Brazil, and several tribal nations in the United States discussed their concerns over the parallel trends in decriminalization efforts and the expansion of the use of sacred plant medicines. These medicines and the cultural practices that have sustained their safe and sustainable use are now, more than ever, being consumed by a global public, and many Indigenous peoples argue that these plants and their spiritual practices are being appropriated while their native territories continue to be encroached upon for other global consumption items like minerals, fuel, and beef.