Who are the Wixarikas?

Who are the Wixarikas?

The Wixárikas, also known as the Huicholes, are one of the most fascinating living cultures in our country, who have not only caused a stir in Mexican lands, but also abroad and with tourists who visit the regions where they live. The Huicholes live in the Sierra Madre Occidental, in Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango and Zacatecas, where they still speak a language that comes from the oldest Mesoamerican languages, Tewi Niukiyari, which means 'words of the people'. There are several elements that stand out about the Huichol culture, and perhaps the best known are their clothing, their handicrafts and the relationship they have with peyote in a religious sense. Their traditional dress is very colorful. Traditionally the men wear pants and shirts made of blankets, which are embroidered with colored threads and symmetrical patterns, on top of this they wear a cape that can have embroidered animals or flowers and of course the traditional hat that is adorned on the edges with colored beads. For their part, women wear colorful embroidered blouses and a mantle with colorful flowers to cover their heads. 

The Huicholes (Wixarikas) are one of the ethnic groups that have managed to remain pure since the time of the conquest. They refer to themselves as Wirrarica or Wirraritari

With the urbanization of certain areas of the highlands, the Huicholes have chosen to develop handicrafts that have a commercial purpose, ranging from pictures of stamens, embroidered clothing, musical instruments and figures decorated with colored beads, the latter perhaps the most famous nationally and internationally. Finally, their relationship with peyote is fundamental in the religious aspect of this culture, since they consider it a god, descendant of the sun 'Tau'. When drought comes to the area, the community travels to Wirikuta, a place where peyote abounds and they consider it to be where the gods live. In this place they collect peyote, necessary to officiate the religious ceremonies and 'maximize their spirit, until achieving a temporal transformation through spiritual exaltation', as some explain it. These ceremonies are performed on Mount Quemado in San Luis Potosi, where the Blue Deer will cure their physical, soul or heart illnesses. The Huichol are one of the few cultures whose cosmogony, traditions and practices remain almost intact since Mesoamerican times. They preserve their language and their social and political structures, and are a sample of the enormous and beautiful mosaic that is our country.The Huicholes are part of the Mexican people. They currently live in the north of Jalisco, part of Nayarit, Zacatecas and Durango, above the mountains that cross these states; they live quite isolated. They still preserve very ancient customs, of which they are very proud.