Dear Friends, Donors, and Subscribers,

We hope everyone has been in good health and is enjoying this season wherever you may be. As always, we are grateful for your ongoing support and interest. These past several months have been busy for the Wixarika Research Center and we have good news to report.

Wixarika Sacred Pilgrimage Route Added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List

After years of hard work by the Wixarika people, their authorities, organizations, lawyers, and many allied organizations around the world, the defense of Wirikuta finally bore fruits.  On June 12, 2025, 20 sites sacred to Mexico’s Wixarika people were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, becoming the first such recognition for a living Indigenous tradition in Latin America. “This recognition is of the utmost importance for Mexico because it is the first time in all of Latin America that a cultural expression linked to a living and active Indigenous tradition has received this international recognition”, Mexico’s Minister of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, said. UNESCO highlighted the route—which connects sacred sites from the Pacific Ocean to the Chihuahuan Desert—as one of the most representative pre-Columbian pilgrimage routes still in use in the Americas. The route’s inscription on UNESCO’s list requires the creation of a management unit and the implementation of a Comprehensive Plan for Management, Conservation and Safeguarding, with direct participation from the Wixarika authorities and elected representatives. “Our people hope that this registry will be one more tool for the protection of our sacred territories that will allow us to eradicate the extractive and agro-industrial threats that harm our territories and culture,” the Wixarika Regional Council said in a statement.

Continue reading full illustrated Summer 2025 Newsletter