We are currently working to build a school that aims to teach Wixarika to our children, our community and all those who have an interest in learning our language, about our traditions and our culture.
Our future school will initially have a classroom and will tend to approximately 20-25 students and run a few classes running per day. The classes will be designed to develop basic to advanced speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, and to develop knowledge and understanding of the elements of traditional and current culture, as well as the importance of language to the community.
Our team will focus on Elders teaching the young, interactive speaking of Wixarika ensuring that all traditions and aspects of culture are passed and handed down from old to young, so that our new generations will always strive to keep our culture, traditions and our mother language strong.
We are currently building a Ceremonial Center which will also assist in teaching our tractional customs and cultural ceremonies, which in addition to the language is also a great part of the tradition of our people.
The project Maxa Yuavi will in essence function from two main buildings that we wish to build on Don Chabelito's land: a Classroom and a Ceremonial Centre. The classroom will be approximately 25m 2 and will receive up to 20 students per class. The Ceremonial Centre which is at the beginning of construction and needs to be completed, is a round building and will be the space for traditional and cultural custom exchanges in connection with the ceremonies and the Maize Festivals. This space will not only be used for the learning, but also for the traditional sacred ceremonies, and customs of the Wixárika community.
In addition to these main building we also seek to improve the infrastructure of all the building on the land as some families are living under black vinyl plastic sheets and when it rains water ends up in their homes. We would like to build a smaller type building where food such as grain and the maize that is harvested may be stored safe away from the elements.
And finally, we would like to build a water tank that can hold clean water for the site and the community so they no longer have to buy water from Coca-Cola.
An incredible man with incredible wisdom who from childhood was recognized by his community as a healer and teacher and also works extensively with youth. Since then, he has traveled transmitting his teachings, knowledge, wisdom and culture. His teachings open the door to a broader perspective on the delicate interconnections and complexities between humanity, indigenous agriculture, terrestrial flora and fauna..
Don Chabelo has been invited to speak on many occasions in many indigenous communities, universities in Canada, Europe and in Latin American communities to share his knowledge about Ethno biology, botany, sustainability, tradition and connection of humanity to land, animals, plants and the environment. ritual of sowing the sacred seed, as well as the traditional ethics and morals behind coexistence with the earth, natural wisdom, agriculture, traditional culture and indigenous medicine.
Don Chabelo is a speaker at the Latin American international ethno-biology conference in the Americas, where elders and representatives of indigenous communities in Central and Latin America meet with farmers, permaculture groups, environmental scientists, anthropologists, and others interested in discussing a variety of topics related to environmental protection, land management, climate change, permaculture strategies, culture and traditional forms of cultivation. The last conference was held in Morelia in 2018 with the previous conference held in Ecuador in 2017. Please contact us if you are interested in attending the next conference and would like more information + 52 1 311 117 1140.
Don Chabelito is one of the few who know more about the ancient Anthropology and Archeology of Mexico's Wixáritari indigenous community and is much sought after by the Anthropologist to answer his questions about his studies and discoveries. Books and articles on teachings and information provided by Don Chabelo on Wixarika art and culture that are currently being studied at universities in Canada have been published.
The Wixáritari people's traditional territory spans across the major Western Sierra Madre mountain range in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Zacatecas, and Durango.
The Wixárika their ancient spirituality, cultural traditions and language are under grave threat of becoming extinct. Wixárika is a musical language with complex morphology (particularly in its long, agglutinative verbs.) The Wixáritari have remained totally faithful to their beliefs even in the midst of this modern technological era in which they are immersed. They struggle every day against adversities, trying to preserve their clothing, their rituals, history, language, art and that sacred place known as Wirikuta.
Now under threat from foreign mining activities, including an open-pit, cyanide leaching silver mine operated by the Canadian company First Majestic Silver Corp.
The isolation from mass culture and the modern consumer society, has helped the Wixáritari preserve the purity of their race, their customs, traditions and festivals, their own social organization and their characteristic and peculiar art. The Wixarika continue to hold on to a custom of completing an annual pilgrimage to Wirikuta to honour the four sacred cardinal directions and pass their traditions on to the next generation. There are four main divinities, the trinity of Corn, the Blue Deer the Peyote and the Eagle which descended from Tao Jreeku their Sun God creator of all the sentient beings on Earth. The colours used in Wixáritari artwork carry lots of symbolism. For example, blue is taken to mean water or rain and associated with Lake Chapala to the south. Black symbolizes death and is linked to the Pacific Ocean in the west. Red, the colour for mother, is usually reserved for sacred places such as Wirikuta in the east. White (clouds) is associated with the north.
Unfortunately societies pull towards assimilation and modernisation of the Wixáritari people's and the combination of the many social issues faced which include displacement, evangelical, Cristian, Johobas witness and Christianity religions luring people with in communities in to leave cultural traditions to join new faiths, poverty, unemployment, exploitation and the struggle between modern education and culture, modern technologies, social trends are putting extreme pressure on this ancient culture. Young people are beginning to lose interest in their culture and becoming more interested in modernising. One of the major crises being faced is that the young are no longer speaking their traditional language.