A smaller dam, called Aguamilpa, has caused devastating effects on a higher branch of the same river. Local Huichol ranches were inundated and the ecological landscape famous for its caimans was transformed. The catfish that spawned there have disappeared along with the sea bass further downstream. Potable water is now imported in plastic bottles. According to recent statistics, Mexico is privatizing its water resources at the second fastest rate in the world, which makes this new dam all the more likely to destroy an ecosystem that Mexico's Indians have preserved for millennia and for its common future. The Indians continue to surround this area with their resilient presence. A new road will now link the southern end of the Wixárika communities of Tuxpan de Bolaños, with the land grants of Mesa del Tirador and Puente de Camotlán, leading to Tepic, Nayarit. The current administration recently returned the above mentioned 'land grants' to the Wixarika commumity of Tuxpan de Bolaños, after a 50 year dispute.
In my 35 years of going to the Huichol mountains, I have seen the abundant cultivation of amaranth practically disappear, thus depriving the natives of an essential nutrient. With the invasion of African bees, the cultivation of honey has also become a practice of the past. Sheep have disappeared from the landscape too, and this has put the traditional art of weaving fine woolen crafts such as bags and belts with natural colors in danger of being lost. Equally apparent is the decline of Wixárika traditional ritual and language, which is not transmitted in government sponsored schools. Outsiders are not welcome among most Huichol, but the construction of roads is changing their options for development.
A Huichol representative was selected at the general assembly to accompany Patricia Díaz as a witness to the community's opposition to the use of pesticides by tobacco companies in Nayarit. The three of us traveled to Tepic, Nayarit, where the major cigarette companies have their headquarters in Mexico. The offices looked like prison barracks, with barbed wire at the top in some cases, but they had to receive Patricia Díaz and accept her petition, which had been approved by the Mexican Congress that agreed on higher standards of security for tobacco workers.
After delivering the petition, we visited Tutukila's widow, Margarita Carrillo, and one of his daughters, Romelia, to give them a copy of the magazine and a tape recording of Tutukila playing the violin and singing, which was recorded in 1973. They were pleasantly surprised to see us and receive the mementos of Tutukila's art and music.
From there, Patricia and I traveled by dirt road to a Huichol settlement about an hour away from Tepic. Along the way we saw trucks loaded with chemicals for spraying pesticides traveling to and from that area. We heard of a woman whose exposure to these chemicals had left two of her unformed fingers attached to each other. It was here that I learned about the death of Francisco Taizán de la Cruz four days earlier. For many years Francisco and his brother Pablo guided me on journeys to sacred spots in the high sierras, the canyons and the eastern desert. He had recently worked laboring in tobacco fields and subsequently suffered dizzy spells that caused him to pass out.
On a second trip to Nayarit, I went to see Pachita, the widow of Guadalupe González Ríos, and their son Fermín. They were impressed by the magazine as a tribute to the memory of Guadalupe and his art because of the beautiful illustrations of his paintings, and it seems to be inspiring Fermín, as well as other Huichol I met in that region.
There is no doubt the Huichol found the material published in Artes de Mexico, and on the Wixarika Web site authentic and an accurate window into their culture. Some computer savvy Huichol want to spread this information and participate in its further development. Therefore it is our urgent aim to make this a bilingual Web site with current information regarding the ecology of this region, which is as relevant to the Wixaritari, as it might be to us.
In the course of my trip I contacted important ecologists and lawyers who alerted me to the importance of next year's international conference on water resources that will take place in Mexico in March 2006.
On December 3rd I returned to California, after having made two trips to the Sierra Madre in Jalisco, and two trips to locate Wixaritari living in Nayarit. Due to time constraints I was unable to take a copy of the magazine to the community of Tateikié, or to the children of the late artist Juan Ríos Martínez, whose widow is also deceased, although I was able to send a copy to the authorities of the community of Wautüa.
We are thankful for the help we received from friends in Zacatecas, in the community of Tuapurie, and in Nayarit.
Juan Negrín, January 2006
©Wixarika Research Center
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