What are the traditions of the Huichol people?

Shamanism and continued communication with their gods and ancestors is the primary motive driving many aspects of the Huichol people’s day to day. Part of this is a pilgrimage groups take to Wirikuta, a long journey to a desert in the state of San Luis Potosi. Shamans and priests will go wearing special clothes and taking special objects with them to serve as offerings to the gods. Once they arrive at the desert, they harvest the sacred peyote cactus that is used as a sacrament or aid in ritual practices of all kinds. The Huichol pilgrims consume the peyote and the hallucinogenic effects act as a way to commune and talk to ancestors, gods and the spirit world.(2)

“There’s a long-standing tradition of using colored yarn and fabric as a way to represent and interact with divine supernatural figures,” said Patrick A. Polk, curator of Latin American and Caribbean popular arts at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

They do not have a written language, only oral tradition to pass down important mythological stories and religious meanings. So Huichol people learn how to communicate with the spirits through symbols and offerings. Objects called Nierika, are small tablets with a hole in the center. Both sides of the object are covered in a beeswax to serve as a glue for different colored threads to be pressed into. These objects contain ancient wisdom or represent entrances to the spirit world as they are revealed to those who consume the peyote. Common symbols in contemporary yarn paintings are deer, corn and peyote. 

Huichol Art

A direct outgrowth of the tradition of the Nierika is yarn painting. Huichol artists saw the technique as perfect for preserving and sharing the visual tradition that contained all the important mythological and historical stories of the culture. In the 1960’s folk art began taking off in Mexico and interest for these pieces also increased in America due to the rise of psychedelic, ‘hippie’ counterculture. The Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City held a groundbreaking exhibition in 1986 by showing contemporary indigenous art for the first time. Also an archeologist named Ken Davis living in Guadalajara in the 1950’s started a collection of these larger yarn paintings that used more commercialized material like wool yarn and plywood backing. An interest in helping Huichol artists sell these yarn paintings worldwide was born and because a collector saw the importance of the aforementioned collection staying together, it was purchased and documented for the Wixarika Research Center in Berkeley, California.  There are many contemporary huichol artists and there are good markets to buy the art from more tourist-like items to fine art items that are sold in galleries. Brightly colored beads have replaced threads for some artists but they still decorate important symbols within the community. Non-authentic items and representations are made as well, like the incorporation of modern technology or even the jaguar head which is actually a symbol of importance to mesoamericans.

Jose Benitez Sanchez ran a workshop in Tepic, Nayarit making these yarn paintings as a way to record and share the cultural and sacred stories he grew up with. His work was at the very beginning of the practice expanding from its votive/religious purposes into more accessible decorations. (3)

A website called Marakame celebrates current Huichol artisans living in rural communities in Jalisco, Nayarit, Chihuahua and more and their works by giving them space to present and show work as well as sell it. 

artemarakame.com

1. Lumholtz spent several years living with and learning from indigenous people in Mexico for the American Museum of Natural History in the late 1800’s

2. Transcendental Visions in Wixárika Art, the Nierika.” Center for the Study of World Religions, cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/transcendental-visions-wixarika-art-nierika. 

3.  “José Benítez Sánchez.” José Benítez Sánchez | Wixárika Research Center, www.wixarika.org/artists/jos%C3%A9-ben%C3%ADtez-s%C3%A1nchez. Accessed 26 Apr. 2025. 

4. Arte Marakame. “¿who We Are?” Arte Marakame, en.artemarakame.com/pages/about-us. Accessed 26 Apr. 2025. 

Bibliography

• “Huichol Art.” Anton Haardt Gallery, www.antonhaardtgallery.com/pages/huichol. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025. 

• “Mythic Visions - Huichol Yarn Painting.” Penticton Art Gallery, Penticton Art Gallery, 10 Aug. 2022, www.pentictonartgallery.com/exhibition-archive/mythic-visions. 

• “In the Track of the Deer.” The Free Library, www.thefreelibrary.com/In+the+track+of+the+deer.-a018750154. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025. 

• “Symbolic Glossary.” Omeka RSS, pennds.org/spanishatpennmuseum/items/show/20. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025. 

• Lumholtz, Carl. Unknown Mexico, Volume 2: A Record of Five Years’ Exploration among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre. Cambridge University Press, 1903. 

• “Past Exhibitions.” Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, indianartsandculture.org/past-exhibitions&eventID=6..&eventID=497. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025. 

• 11, Mar, et al. Ornament Magazine, www.ornamentmagazine.org/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2025.

• “Yarn Paintings: Wixárika Research Center.” Yarn Paintings | Wixárika Research Center, www.wixarika.org/object-medium/yarn-paintings. Accessed 19 Apr. 2025. 

• “Transcendental Visions in Wixárika Art, the Nierika.” Center for the Study of World Religions, cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/transcendental-visions-wixarika-art-nierika. Accessed 19 Apr. 2025. 

• Culturas, Conoce de. “Huichol Clothing for Men and Women ▷➡️ Postposmo.” Postposmo, Postposmo, 13 Mar. 2025, en.postposmo.com/Huichol-clothing/.