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...
With the right that freedom of expression gives me and the communal statute as a member has given me, I give myself the opportunity to write a personal opinion about the future of the Indigenous Community of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán and its Annex of Tuxpán, the community that has given me a space in which to live, where to develop myself and that in gratitude I would like to express my sentiments for the space and for Our Mother Earth, Ta Tei Yurienaka.
My name is Bianca América Enríquez López, I am from Bajío del Tule, which is part of the community of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlan, in the state of Jalisco. I am a proud Indigenous Wixárika woman, and three years ago I moved to Guadalajara in search of new opportunities and to study law (Bianca América (Tanima) Enríquez López is a 2020 law graduate from the Universidad Enrique Rebsamen).
Hello, my name is Xóchitl Xitlalic Chanes Aguilar, a student of the Autonomous University of Nayarit, and a native of the Indigenous community of Rosa Morada, Nayarit. In my experience, I think it is important to support Indigenous youth who are low income because sadly we are the most vulnerable population but also one that has the most desire to move ahead.
We are pleased to announce the call for the third generation of scholarships 2020-2021 for Wixárika University students. This scholarship aims to help students with various university-related expenses such as school supplies and books, food, lodging or transportation. This year, the Wixárika Research Center, the International Friendship Club and VCEP will offer scholarships of $6,000 pesos for undergraduate students who have completed their first year of studies.
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.
By Dulce García — On March 19, in Matehuala, San Luis Potosí, 50-year-old Paulina Gómez Palacio Escudero was reported missing and on March 22, the Attorney General of Zacatecas confirmed that she was located in the municipality of El Salvador the body of a woman from the neighboring state of San Luis Potosí.
MEXICAN WATER, Ariz. — For Navajo spiritual leader Steven Benally, saving a Native American religion from extinction means preserving those diminishing lands where hallucinogenic peyote grows wild. “It’s a small but important step toward realizing a prophecy,” said the 61-year-old. Preservation also means battling activists in the California Bay Area and other cities who want to legalize consumption of the psychedelic cactus. “To these outsiders, we say, ‘Leave peyote alone. Please,’” Benally said. “Is that too much to ask?”
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.
