Website and Archive Project
In the latter half of 2017, we began working on the design of this new website and database that will be capable of handling the large volume of historical documents from the personal archives, art collection, and library of our Founding Director Juan Negrín. Although it will be an important resource for students and teachers, it will be most important for the Wixaritari and especially for the younger generation as it tells the story of a transition from relative obscurity to their rise on the world stage. Our work on these archives is dependent upon the participation of the Wixaritari who have been coordinating with us over the past year.
This new website has a gallery which highlights some of the finest yarn-paintings produced by five outstanding Wixárika artists from 1970 through the early 1990’s. There will be numerous examples of traditional art including beaded objects and fine examples of weaving and embroidery. Examples of sacred art include votive objects, stone sculptures, shaman’s chairs, decorated gourd bowls, arrows and temples and shrines within Wixárika territory and at locations where they make sacred pilgrimages.
Our section on resources will be very labor intensive since it will contain scanned documents from the archives collected by Juan Negrín during more than 43 years of working with Wixárika artists and documents from his political work on behalf of the Wixárika communities when he was involved in the defense of their land and natural resources. We have made good headway in the scanning of documents although there is much work remaining to be done, including uploading them to this website. The importance of these documents cannot be understated as they begin just before the very first roads penetrated the sierras and document the changes that occurred as a result. When this project is finally finished, it will tell the story of the dramatic changes that took place during these years.
Ongoing will be our news section where we will be continually uploading press reports to keep our readers up to date with the Wixárika people’s efforts to recover territory, their ongoing defense of sacred pilgrimage sites, and the challenges the they face today in a world that is rapidly changing all around them.