Wirikuta Defense Front TAMATSIMA WAHAA | No a la Minería Tóxica en Wirikuta y la Sierra de Catorce

The Wixárika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta denounces an illegal and belligerent harassment campaign orchestrated by the Board of Directors of the Wirikuta Ecological Reserve

by Admin on Jul 4, 2013 • Comments Closed

To the sources and officers of the Press: To members of the media: To the organizations and groups sympathetic to the defense of Wirikuta: - The Wixárika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta denounces an illegal and belligerent harassment campaign orchestrated by the Board of Directors of the Wirikuta...

INFORMATION / NEWS

Action: send a letter to the authorities in Mexico to demand cancellation of mining Concessions Wirikuta

by Admin on Apr 25, 2013 • Comments Closed

Action: send a letter to the authorities in Mexico to demand cancellation of mining Concessions Wirikuta http://www.redtdt.org.mx/d_acciones/d_visual.php?id_accion=273 ¡We demand cancellation of concessions affecting the Wirikuta Protected Natural Area! Enrique Peña Nieto President Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal Secretary of Economy Mario Alfonso Cantu Suarez General Coordinator of Mining...

INFORMATION / NEWS

WIXÁRIKA PEOPLE SUBMIT AN APPEAL FOR CANCELLATION OF MINING CONCESSIONS

by Admin on Mar 13, 2013 • Comments Closed

Press Release WIXÁRIKA PEOPLE SUBMIT AN APPEAL FOR CANCELLATION OF MINING CONCESSIONS Illegal exploration activities are performed with complete impunity According to the mining law, not having permits and environmental authorizations is a cause for cancellation of concessions. On Friday, March 1, 2013, integral authorities of the Wixárika Regional...

INFORMATION / NEWS / PRESS RELEASES

URGENT SECOND LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO, THE PEOPLES AND GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD

by Admin on Feb 14, 2013 • Comments Closed

Mr. Enrique Peña Nieto Constitutional President of the United Mexican States To the Peoples and Governments of the World We the undersigned, traditional and agrarian authorities from the communities of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán, Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlán and Bancos de San Hipólito, Wixárika Regional Council members, come to make known to...

INFORMATION / PRESS RELEASES

THE NATIONAL MINING RESERVE WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF MINING AND AGROINDUSTRIAL CONCESSIONS IN WIRIKUTA

by Admin on Aug 6, 2012 • Comments Closed

RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL MINING RESERVE WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF MINING AND AGROINDUSTRIAL CONCESSIONS IN WIRIKUTA The Wirikuta Defense Front – Tamatsima Wahaa, given the recent announcements that the Federal Government has released as measures for the protection Wirikuta, declare...

NOVEDADES

Press Release by the Wixárika Regional Council

by Admin on May 26, 2012 • Comments Closed

PRESS RELEASE *On the eve of the Wirikuta Fest concert, the government’s announcement for the protection of Wirikuta is considered by Wixárika authorities to be incomplete and filled with false information that distorts the reality of the sacred place. *Mining in the sacred territory of Wirikuta is not canceled. *First...

PRESS RELEASES

Press Conference – The Regional Council Wixárika

by Admin on May 25, 2012 • Comments Closed

Mexico City, May 24, 2012. For the editors, reporters and columnists in the national and international media and the general public. The Regional Council Wixárika through The Wirikuta Defense Front – Tamatsima Wahaa has the honor to invite you to the Press Conference which will take place at the Human...

CULTURE / MULTIMEDIA

The words of our deities

by Admin on Apr 23, 2012 • Comments Closed

In the coming weeks we will have English subtitles. Now we share the English text with the intention to know the message of the deities Good morning to all those present who hear me. I am going to relate the words of our deities, who flourished during last night’s chant. Tatewari Tutsi (the Grandfather of the Fire) speaks...

NOVEDADES

On the Conventions for the protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage and of Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO

by Admin on Apr 9, 2012 • Comments Closed

The territory of Wirikuta, considered Natural and Cultural Reserve of Wirikuta with more than 350,000 acres, since 2004 is in the tentative list to become World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site of UNESCO. This protection, established by the “Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of UNESCO”, is...

INFORMATION / NEWS / OPINION

Mining and the Huichol Ancestral Landscape

by Admin on Mar 29, 2012 • Comments Closed

In the last year, author Paul M. Liffman has provided comments about the Wixarika (Huichol) people’s fight for cultural rights and a ban on large-scale silver mining near their principal sacred sites to the southwest of the historic town of Real de Catorce in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico....

NOVEDADES

Documentaries about the Wixarika culture and the defense of Wirikuta in the National Museum of the American Indian, New York

by Admin on Mar 28, 2012 • Comments Closed

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, in cooperation with Cinema Tropical and the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, presents At the Movies: Huichol Journeys Thursday, March 29, 6:00 pm Saturday, March 31, 2:00 pm Auditorium, George Gustav Heye Center National Museum of the American Indian One Bowling Green, New...

NEWS / PRESS RELEASES

The judiciary grants the Wixarika people a suspension to detain mineral exploitation by the La Luz project in the Catorce municipality of San Luis Potosí

by Admin on Feb 27, 2012 • Comments Closed

* No permit may be granted as long as the core of the matter remains unresolved * The intention to exploit natural resources through 38 mineral concessions in the sacred territory of Wirikuta is suspended. Feb. 26, 2012 The federal courts have definitively granted the suspension of the violations claimed...

INFORMATION / NEWS / PRESS RELEASES

Wirikuta Statement

by Admin on Feb 10, 2012 • Comments Closed

San Luis Potosi, Real de Catorce “Wirikuta” on February 7, 2012 Brothers and sisters from the states of Durango, Jalisco and Nayarit of the following ceremonial centers and communities: Santa Catarina, Pochotita, Las Latas, San Sebastian, San Andres Cohamiata, Ocota de la Sierra, Tuxpan de Bolaños, las Guayabas, Cohamiata,...

INFORMATION / NEWS / PRESS RELEASES

A Survey on Wixárika Tradition

by Admin on Feb 6, 2012 • Comments Closed

To the Native Peoples of Mexico and the world To Mexican an Worldwide Civil Society To the Media To the General Public A Survey on Wixárika Tradition Period: February 1st to 10th, 2012. Today the People Wixárika gladly welcomes you to the sacred land of Wirikuta, the heart...

NOVEDADES

Protection for Indigenous Peoples and Environment. The CNDH requests cautionary measures to protect Sacred Huichol Area in SLP.

by Admin on Jan 26, 2012 • Comments Closed

Mexico, Jan. 24 (Notimex).- The National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) requested cautionary measures to preserve the natural reserve and the Wixarika people facing the mining operations in Wirikuta, San Luis Potosi area, considered sacred. The organization asked the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) and the National Water Commission...

NEWS

The Vatican, the Huichol people and President Calderón

by Admin on Jan 20, 2012 • Comments Closed

By: Lydia Cacho – January 12, 2012 Translated by Sol Levin What would the Vatican say if the French government decided to grant concessions for the exploitation of precious minerals in the sacred path each year thousands of pilgrims walk to Lourdes, where the spring water is considered holy...

INFORMATION / NEWS

Wirikuta: where the Sun rises. Interview with Tunuary Chávez (AJAGI), JALISCO

by Admin on Dec 6, 2011 • Comments Closed

Panoramic view of the Sierra de Real de Catorce in San Luis Potosí © Mercedes Aquino Ever since the creation of the Wixárika world, our heart, our life, and our ancestors are in Wirikuta. We make a pilgrimage every year to honor and make offerings to our ancestors, so that...

NOVEDADES

Famous Writers Petition Against Mexico Silver Mine

by Admin on Dec 1, 2011 • Comments Closed

MEXICO CITY December 1, 2011 (Asociated Press) More than 150 internationally known writers and artists are urging Mexican President Felipe Calderon to cancel mining concessions in an area of northern Mexico considered sacred ground by the Huichol Indians. The list of petition signers released Thursday comprises a who’s who of...

CULTURE / INFORMATION

What is Wirikuta?

by Admin on Nov 14, 2011 • Comments Closed

Wirikuta is one of the most important natural sacred sites of the Wixárika (Huichol) indigenous people and the world. The Wixárika people live in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Durango and are recognized for having preserved their spiritual identity. They have continued to practice their cultural and religious traditions...

INFORMATION

Activities carried out during the campaign “Save Wirikuta, the Sacred Heart of Mexico”

by Admin on Nov 4, 2011 • Comments Closed

During the last days of October the Wixarika people performed a series of actions and demonstrations in defense of the Sacred Land of Wirikuta, during which thousands of people expressed their support for the preservation of this sacred area, one of the main indigenous prayer centers in the world and...

NEWS / PRESS RELEASES

Letter to the President of Mexico – Save Wirikuta, Sacred Heart of Mexico – October 27th 2011

by Admin on Oct 29, 2011 • Comments Closed

Mexico City, October 27th 2011 Felipe Calderon Hinojosa Constitutional President of the United Mexican States Present We are the Wixarika Nation. All our communities together. All the Wixaritari Communities agreed to come with you to demand urgent compliance with the following requests which are based on our constitutional rights and the word...

INFORMATION / NEWS

Cascabel and Golondrina; now Lake Shore Gold corp in Bernalejo, the heart of Wirikuta

by Admin on Oct 19, 2011 • Comments Closed

Once again Wirikuta…. now it’s not just First Majestic Silver Corp., who with the concessions it acquired for more than 6,000 hectares in the Sierra of Catorce plans to exploit silver reserves at the expense of the Wixarika people, the campesinos of the region, the environment and all of humanity....

INFORMATION / NEWS

A new threat to Wirikuta

by Admin on Oct 9, 2011 • Comments Closed

In the community of Las Margaritas, municipality of Catorce, Virikuta, the mining company “Golondrina” – a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company “West Timmins Mining” based in Hermosillo, Sonora – is planning an open-pit gold mining project in the area called Kauyumaritsie. The veins of gold that the mining company...

CULTURE / INFORMATION

Respect for Nature. Legacy of the ancestors Wixarika

by Admin on Oct 2, 2011 • Comments Closed

Introduction The modern and ancient Indian thought is filled with images of respect for nature. The deep respect for life is beautifully expressed in the love for nature. As Wixaritari Indians we believe that every element of this territory (land, plants, animals, etc.) is sacred. We never forget Wimakame, our Mother Earth: “We are part of the Earth and the Earth is part of us. The flowers that smell in the air are...

INFORMATION / NEWS

UN Special Rapporteur Dialogues with Mexican Officials on Mining in Wirikuta Reserve

by Admin on Sep 14, 2011 • Comments Closed

James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, recently published a report on his correspondence with the Mexican government regarding mining concessions within Mexico’s Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve, an area that is sacred to the Wixárika (Huichol) people. Anaya presented the following facts to the...

PRESS RELEASES

Urgent letter from the Wixarika People to the President of Mexico and to all the Peoples and Governments of the World

by Admin on May 16, 2011 • 9,895 Comments

To the President of the United States of Mexico Felipe Calderón Hinojosa To the People and Governments of the World PRESENT We come personally from the Western Sierra Madre to deliver this urgent letter to demand that you keep your word that you publicly announced when you committed to...

PRESS RELEASES

Declaration of the Wixárika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta

by Admin on May 3, 2011 • 8,082 Comments

April 9, 2011 To the Wirikuta Defense Front of Tamatsima Waha’a To the Civil Society in General To the Three Powers of the Mexican State Will they understand in time? The governments and corporations that control the material order of the world be capable of understanding in time that the...

PRESS RELEASES

Declaration of the Authorities of Tatei Kie

by Admin on May 2, 2011 • 9,653 Comments

The authorities of the Wixarika indigenous community of Tatei Kie (San Andres Cohamiata) represent on this occasion the hopes of all the Wixarika People that the millennial traditions of our people be respected, as well as the sacred places that our people have cared for since times immemorial, singing, praying...

INFORMATION / NEWS

Endangered: Wirikuta Cultural Center

by Admin on Mar 6, 2011 • 8,250 Comments

Sábado 5 de marzo de 2011 por Fernando Camacho Servín The opening of mines of gold and silver in the Huichol ceremonial center Wirikuta, in San Luis Potosí – under the auspices of the Canadian mining company First Majestic Silver – would put at grave risk the subsistence of the...

Latest entries

CULTURE / INFORMATION

Let’s support: “Desert’s Skin”, photographic and literary chronicle on “Peritaje tradicional” (FEB/2012) of Wixáritari.

by Admin on Jul 8, 2013 • Comments Closed

What is “The Skin of the Desert”? “The Skin of the Desert” is the title of a photo-literary chronicle in a bilingual edition (Spanish-English). This chronicle tells the story of what happened during the “Traditional Report” conducted by the representatives of the wixárika people (Huichol) in the Cerro Quemado, near the Mexican town of Real...

INFORMATION

Injunction filed to halt illegal exploration drilling in Wirikuta

by Admin on Jul 5, 2013 • Comments Closed

© Frente en Defensa de Wirikuta By Tracy L. Barnett of The Esperanza Project Against a backdrop of heightened tensions in the region and other worrisome developments, Wixarika leaders have filed an injunction to stop the illegal drilling in exploration for gold and silver in their ancestral sacred lands of Wirikuta. Since March 1 of...

INFORMATION

The traditional, civil and agrarian authorities of the different Wixárika communities represented by the Wixárika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta and the Wixárika Union of the Ceremonial Centers of Jalisco, Durango and Nayarit AC, gathered in the Town of Pueblo Nuevo in the community of Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlán, municipality of Mezquitic, state of Jalisco, concerned about the attacks that we are experiencing against our heritage and cultural identity, analyzed and discussed the situation and the search for alternative solutions.

by Admin on Jul 4, 2013 • Comments Closed

TO THE AUTHORITIES OF THREE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES (MEXICAN STATE). TO THE CIVIL SOCIETY. TO THE MEDIA. TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. PRESENT The traditional, civil and agrarian authorities of the different Wixárika communities represented by the Wixárika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta and the Wixárika Union of the Ceremonial Centers of Jalisco, Durango and...

INFORMATION

The Wixárika Regional Council in Defense of Wirikuta presents an injunction demanding that the Ministry of Economy respect the right of petition, due process and the rule of law.

by Admin on Jul 1, 2013 • Comments Closed

To the sources and officers of the press: To the organizations and groups sympathetic to the defense of Wirikuta: Press Release - The Wixárika Regional Council in Defense of Wirikuta presents an injunction demanding that the Ministry of Economy respect the right of petition, due process and the rule of law. -Closing of the Urgent...

PRESS RELEASES

Press Release, WIRIKUTA SACRED PLACE FUNDAMENTAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF THE WIXARIKA PEOPLE AND TO HUMANITY

by Admin on Feb 14, 2013 • Comments Closed

PRESS RELEASE Mexico City. February 7, 2013. WIRIKUTA SACRED PLACE FUNDAMENTAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF THE WIXARIKA PEOPLE AND TO HUMANITY CONTINUES TO BE SERIOUSLY THREATENED BY THE IMPUNITY OF MINING AND AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. • Despite attempts to divide us, the Wixarika people maintain a single voice: “The cancellation of all mining concessions.” And they...

INFORMATION / NEWS

Project Universo, the New Threat to Wirikuta

by Admin on Feb 28, 2012 • Comments Closed

RECENT TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON THE Wirikuta CASE The Tamatsima Wahaa Front for the Defense of Wirikuta reiterates once again that Wirikuta is not confined to specific sites where the Wixarika people deliver their offerings, but Wirikuta is the full collection of stones, springs, cactus, snakes, scenery, etc., comprised in a continuous stretch of land over...

NOVEDADES

Huichol ‘cosmic portal’ peyote ceremonies threatened by silver mine

by Admin on Feb 15, 2012 • Comments Closed

The Washington Post, February 13th, William Booth REAL DE CATORCE, Mexico — For the Huichol Indians, the desert mountains here are sacred, a cosmic portal with major mojo, where shamans collect the peyote that fuels the waking dreams that hold the universe together. For a Canadian mining company, these same hills look like a billion...

NEWS / NOVEDADES

Ugly Canadians? The strange culture of First Majestic

by Admin on Jan 19, 2012 • Comments Closed

There is widespread concern that the Canadian mining company First Majestic will destroy an area in northern Mexico that is sacred to the Wixárika (Huichol) Indians. In fact, late last year over 150 internationally known writers and artists made a direct plea to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, urging him to cancel mining concessions that...

NOVEDADES

Revolution Signs Formal Agreement with Lake Shore Gold for Mexican Property Portfolio

by Admin on Dec 24, 2011 • Comments Closed

December 14, 2011 2:37 PM EST Revolution Resources Corp. is pleased to report that it has signed a formal option agreement with Lake Shore Gold Corp. to acquire up to 100% of Lake Shore Gold’s four large properties in Mexico formerly held by West Timmins Mining Inc. (Lake Shore Gold acquired West Timmins Mining in...

CULTURE / NEWS

Huichol Art Sale and Auction at 25th anniversary MAPS Conference

by Admin on Dec 6, 2011 • Comments Closed

Huichol Art Sale and Auction at 25th anniversary MAPS Conference in Oakland Marriot City Center, Dec 8th to 12th, 2011. Conference Website- http://www.maps.org/conference/25/ Conference Fb event -http://www.facebook.com/events/204264342954590/ The Huichol people are an indigenous group in Mexico that are unique in their way of living in a deep respectful relation with life and nature. They currently live...

INFORMATION

Wixáritari Indians Fight Mining in Sacred Desert Site

by Admin on Nov 1, 2011 • Comments Closed

(IPS) – Some 200 Wixáritari or Huichol men, women and children travelled 20 hours from western Mexico to the capital to defend their sacred ceremonial sites from silver mining. Dressed in their colourful traditional attire, the demonstrators came from their mountain villages in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Durango to hold protests...

NEWS / PRESS RELEASES

Press Conference – Oct. 26 -10:30 a.m. The Wixarika (Huichol) People in defense of their sacred territory, Wirikuta, gravely threatened by Canadian miners and agroindustrial corporations

by Admin on Oct 25, 2011 • Comments Closed

To the editors, reporters and columnists of the national and international media and to the public in general. The Wixarika Regional Council via the Wirikuta Defense Front of Tamatsima Waha’a has the honor to invite you to this Press Conference which will take place at the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Center for Human Rights, on...