History

Photograph © Consejo Regional Wixárika 2018

Wixarika detain high-ranking state officials in Mexico

Agustín del Castillo
| June 2018
Wixaritari communities of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán (Wuaut + a), have detained first and second level government officials from Jalisco State in the town of Mesa del Tirador, in protest of the lack of answers to their demands—in particular, the issue of land restitution in Huajimic, in the neighboring state of Nayarit. The state government officially denies that the officials are being ‘forcibly’ detained. Sources from the state executive and from the community, confirmed to MILENIO JALISCO that there are several secretaries who are being held after attending a meeting the community called with them to discuss and resolve various problems relating to education, health, road infrastructure and poverty. Officials have been warned by the communal leaders that as a means of pressuring the officials to resolve these issues—but above all, due to the federal government’s neglect of the issue of land restitution—they will remain in Mesa del Tirador.
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Antología de Textos

The Huichols or Wixáritari: Between Tradition and Modernity. Anthology of texts 1969-2017

Marina Anguiano Fernández
| June 2018

The present anthology gathers the work of Marina Anguiano Fernández (1945-2023). Born in Mexico City, she studied her Bachelors of Arts in Ethnology and Masters in Anthropology from the National School of Anthropology and History with the honors of Cum Laude. She worked as a  full-time researcher in the Direction of Ethnology and Social Anthropology in the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH for its Spanish acronym). She obtained several national and international grants from the UNAM, Mexico; French Government; Fulbright, United States; and from the Complutense of Spain.

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Taller de telares en la comunidad de Tuapurie

Apprentice and Philosopher: The Wixarika Archive of Juan Negrín

Diana Negrín da Silva
| May 2018
En 1982, un escritor francés, Jean-Paul Ribes, viajó a México para escribir un artículo para la revista Actuel1 sobre el chamanismo y los psicotrópicos, tomando a los wixaritari (huicholes) como ejemplo de uno de los últimos pueblos chamánicos vivos. Por entonces, mi padre, Juan Negrín Fetter, figuraba como uno de los principales estudiantes de la cultura y el arte wixárika, por lo cual le llegaban solicitudes por parte de académicos, funcionarios y psiconautas con la esperanza de que él les pudiera facilitar un vínculo con las comunidades wixaritari. Mi padre apenas llevaba unos diez años trabajando con artistas wixaritari en Jalisco y Nayarit, pero en ese lapso de tiempo había logrado crear amistades íntimas con varias familias, asesoró brevemente al Instituto Nacional Indigenista y había unido su interés por el arte con la defensoría territorial de los wixaritari ante la deforestación y otras amenazas contra la autonomía de este pueblo originario. 
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Los llamados lugares sagrados

The So-Called "Sacred Places": Territoriality, Identity and Alterity Among the Tepehuans of the South

Antonio Reyes Valdez
| May 2018
Article written by Mexican anthropologist, Antonio Reyes, about the concepts surrounding sacred places from the perspective of the O'dam/Audam/Tepehuan people.
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El Quemado, Anaroza Creative Commons

Wixarika People Won't Allow Ballot Boxes in Their Territory

| May 2018
The community of San Sebastian Teponahuaxtlan declared they will boycott this year's elections if the government doesn't return their ancestral lands to them. The Wixarika people of San Sebastian Teponahuaxtlan and Tuxpan, installed checkpoints around their communities to stop any candidate, politician or electoral authority to come into their territory until the Mexican government returns them the Huajimic ancestral lands that were seized by ranchers in 1952.
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The Wixaritari Cleansing Themselves during Easter - Photograph ©Juan Negrín 1979 - 2025

Notes on Wixarika History: Post-Hispanic History

Juan Negrín
| October 2017
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.
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Juventudes Indigenas 2017

University Voices: Trajectories, Gains and Challenges in Western Mexico

Lisbeth Bonilla, Ana García, Antonio García, Isaura García, Marina Carrillo, Tutupika Carrillo, Maximino Muñoz, Diana Negrín
| January 2017

Co-authored text for an anthology on the experiences of Indigenous university students in Mexico and Brazil. The text was coordinated by Diana Negrín da Silva and written with Lisbeth Kupuli Bonilla (Wixárika), Ana García (Ñuu savi), Antonio Hayuaneme García (Wixárika), Isaura García (Ñuu savi), Tukarima Carrillo (Wixárika), Tutupika Carrillo (Wixárika), and Maximino Muñoz (Wixárika). It was published by E-Files in Rio de Janeiro in the year 2017 and the anthology was edited by Assis da Costa Oliveira and Lucia Helena Rangel.

Download and read full chapter here.

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El indio que todos quieren Negrín

The Indian Everyone Desires: The Consumption of 'Huichol' Goods After the Battle for Wirikuta

Diana Negrín da Silva
| July 2015
The following article explores the interaction between the commercial uses of indigenous visual culture, philanthropy and profit in products that use features of Wixárika culture (also known as Huichol). I argue that the commercialization of Huichol goods is achieved through symbols that demarcate and commercialize otherness through visual languages that appeal to a global consumer public. In particular, I analyze how the boom in products inspired by Wixárika culture has intersected with the defense of Wirikuta, the sacred Wixárika pilgrimage route located in the state of San Luis Potosí, which has been the object of controversy due to several mining projects.
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Defense of Sacred Ancestral Land

Wirikuta: Defense of the Ancestral Land of an Indigenous People

Frente en Defensa de Wirikuta Tamatsima Wahaa
| January 2013
El presente documento hace pública la opinión de los miembros de la Mesa Técnica Ambiental del Frente en Defensa de Wirikuta Tamatsima Wahaa y de un grupo de cientificos e investigadores asesores con gran trayectoria nacional e internacional, respecto a la posibilidad de que el lugar sagrado de Wirikuta sea declarada una Reserva Biósfera,publicado por el gobierno federal mexicano a través de la Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP),
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Evaluación Sociocultural

Sociocultural Evaluation for Investment Projects in Wixarika Communities

José G. Vargas-Hernández, Ernesto Guerra García, María Eugenia Meza Hernández
| January 2013

This paper analyzes aspects of the problem that occurs in the social evaluation of investment projects for Wixarika communities. A project in this context make particularly complex the evaluation. On the socio-economic perspective with which it is evaluated comes into play the incommensurability of social and intercultural issues that cannot be ignored. It is addressed the questions that have arisen in the development of this type of project and presents a theoretical framework for the methodological proposal of socio-cultural evaluation.

Read Spanish language article here.

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