DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 421 414SO 029 038

AUTHOR Kennedy, Barbara AnnTITLE Spanish Language and Latin American Culture Opportunities

for Study in Mexico. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Abroad1997 (Mexico) .

SPONS AGENCY Center for International Education (ED), Washington, DC.PUB DATE 1997-00-00NOTE 18p.PUB TYPE Reference Materials Bibliographies (131)EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS American Indians; Culture Contact; Ethnic Groups; Foreign

Countries; *International Cooperation; *InternationalEducation; Latin Americans; *Mexicans; MulticulturalEducation; Secondary Education; Social Studies; *Spanish;*Spanish Culture

IDENTIFIERS *Mexico

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a description of programs for Spanishlanguage study in Mexico. The programs listed were chosen because of theinterest and beauty of the cities where they are located as well as for thecompetence of the instruction delivered. A substantial part of the paper isentitled "A Mesoamerican Worldview: The Huichol of Mexico. Lesson Plans toEnrich the Study of Native American Cultures." This part of the paperincludes student activities, a discussion of Huichol Indian culture, anintroduction to Huichol symbolism, and copies of masks and pictures. (EH)

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C)Rosalie

OcleAskime.nis..

Spanish Language and Latin American CultureOpportunities for Study in Mexico

Distributed by

Barbara Ann KennedyFulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Participant, 1997

Tennyson High SchoolHayward Unified School District

Hayward, CaliforniaOctober, 1997

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2

Language and Culture Study Opportunities in Mexico

Though cities such as San Miguel de Allende and Cuemavaca have long been known as

pleasant locales with well-developed programs for Spanish language study, many additionalopportunities for language and culture study exist in Mexico. The programs listed below arechosen because of the interest and beauty of the cities where they are located as well as for the

competence of the instruction delivered.

Universidad de GuanajuatoMeson de San AntonioAlonso 12Guanajuato, Gto.MexicoTel. (473) 2 90 29Fax (473) 2 40 40

Guanajuato is an intellectual center of Mexico. The small colonial city is filled with students ofall ages from all parts of the world. The city grows up steep slopes, and underground tunnelsserve as streets. The city's development is limited by its geography, and this is good! There is nopollution, and one has a feeling of calm and safety on the city streets. Open air restaurantssurround pleasant plazas. Guanajuato offers a rich cultural life with numerous concerts andtheatre productions, museums and festivals. Many of the participants in the Fulbright-HaysSummer Seminar in Mexico (1997) found Guanajuato one of the very most pleasant places we

visited. Furthermore, our academic program arranged by the administration at the universitywas among the most well-organized and well-presented forums of the trip.This suggests that U. of Guanajuato programs for foreign students would be of high quality.Perhaps most important: Guanajuato is truly beautiful... a place to spend several comfortable,

safe, happy weeks.

By the way, U.S. university credit for courses at U. of Guanajuato can be arranged through the

University of Arizona.

Universidad de las Americas(UDLA)PueblaAttention: Jaime Wong, International Studies CoordinatorE-mail: informa@udlapvms.pue.udlap.mx

UDLA has a well-developed Spanish language and Latin American culture program designed,foradult U.S. students who want a Spanish immersion experience. At UDLA the presentations forthe Fulbright-Hays group were especially well-done. The university personnel are veryprofessional; one can trust their ability to deliver a strong academic program, steer studentstoward important cultural sites and events, and help arrange housing.

Puebla is a fantastic city. Though it is important historically, it is not over-run with tourists.It is home to one of the most magnificent cathedrals in Mexico. As important as the city itselfare mountains, small towns and archeological sites very close to Puebla. Just outside town are

Popocatepetl and lztaccihuatl, the active volcanoes famous in Mexican folklore and favoritedestinations of mountain climbers. Tlaxcala is just north of Puebla; it has a beautiful(relatively small and quiet) plaza and fantastic murals depicting the town's history as the homeof supporters of Cortes against the Aztecs. Cholula, an easy taxi trip from Puebla, would be a

great place for a quiet week-end. The church of Santa Maria Tonantzintla is a magnificentexample of Catholic themes in indigenous imagery. (The walls and dome are covered withflowers, birds, pineapples...a welcome relief from the rather "heavy" imagery typical ofSpanish colonial churches.) The Puebla region is another locale to spend several very pleasant

weeks.

National Autonomous University of MexicoTaxco, Mexico

Centro de Ensenanza para Extranjeros TaxcoApartado postal 7040200 Taxco, Gro.MexicoTel./Fax (762) 2 01 24

The UNAM in Taxco offers six-week programs in Spanish language and Latin American culture.Each level of Spanish consists of 90 hours (two courses) of class work; each culture class

consists of 30 hours (one course) of class work. Students take 6 courses: two in Spanishlanguage and four in L.A. culture. The university can arrange housing and meals.

Taxco is another Mexican town truly worthy of a visit. It is a colonial city on a series of hills.The houses have bright red roofs. The streets are so steep that there is little traffic and nopollution. Taxco is Mexico's main silver center. You won't be able to get out of town without

buying something lovely! The Hotel Monte Taxco, accessible by tram, is located high on a

mountain on the less busy side of town. You shouldn't miss the sunset over the hills and a

wonderful dinner in the hotel's restaurant. The federal government has declared the entire city

a national historical monument. Archeological sites are near-by, and Acapulco is two and a half

hours away. Taxco is truly a treasure. Who wouldn't enjoy a few peaceful weeks of language

study in such a beautiful place?

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4

A Mesoamerican Worldview: the Huichol of Mexico

Lesson Plans to Enrich the Study of Native American Cultures

Barbara Ann Kennedy

Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Participant, 1997

Tennyson High School

Hayward Unified School District

Hayward, California

October, 1997

5

A Mesoamerican Woridview: the Huichol of Mexico

Student Activities

1 As an introduction to Huichol culture, students view an original yarn painting, original

beaded sculptures, various Huichol designs, a feathered wand and a traditional woven wool man's

sash. Students are invited to think about the people who created these artifacts. What can one

infer about the culture of the people who created them? The teacher records students' ideas on

the board. The art and artifacts are displayed in the classroom along with additional materials

from indigenous cultures of the Americas.

2. Students locate Huichol territory on the map of North America. Students discuss the

importance of the geographical location of Huichol territory; students think about how the

geography of Huichol territory might have effected the development of the culture.

3. Students read the short study guide with a partner.

4. In groups of three to five, students discuss the following questions. One student in each group

takes notes; a second student prepares to report to the whole class his/her group's responses to

the questions.

a) How would you characterize Huichol values? What seems to be important to these

people?

b) Do the Huichol have anything to teach members of modern technological societies?

What? ....or Why not?

c) How is the Huichol 's ceremonial use of peyote similar to drug use in our society?

How is their use of peyote different from drug use in our society?

5. Clearly the Huichol include imagery of their most important symbols in their yarn paintings

and beadwork. The class discusses how the Huichol express their values through art.

6. Students consider images representing their own cultural values. Students plan a mask or

disk using these images in a symmetrical pattern. Using pencil and paper they sketch their

designs. Students plan how they will use strong, vibrant color following Huichol style in the

final stage of the creation. When students have carefully planned a Huichol-style mask or disk

expressing their values, they complete their final product outside class. (If necessary, students

may borrow classroom supplies during free periods or after school.)

7. Students meet in groups of three to five to share and discuss the imagery in their pieces.

8. As homework students write a description and explanation of the imagery in their pieces.

The short essay should include a paragraph discussing color and design and a paragraph

discussing the meaning of the imagery included in the piece.

9. Students hand in to the instructor the final product (mask or disk), planning drawings, final

short essay on the artwork, evidence of prewriting and planning of the short essay.

10. As part of a commemoration of Columbus Day, student art is exhibited in a public display

case along with original Huichol artifacts.

7

A Mesoamerican Worldview: the Huichol of Mexico

The Huichol Indians of Mexico's Western Sierra Madre today number some fifty thousand

and live in northern Jalisco and Nayarit. Best known outside their homeland for their colorful,

symbolic yarn paintings and beadwork, the Huichol are of particular interest to those studying

Mexico's pre-Columbian past. Anthropologists find them among those people least affected by

Western culture. Their home in the rugged Sierra Madres made them inaccessible to the

Conquistadores as well as to missionaries arriving in Huichol territory two hundred years after

Cortes. In some Huichol districts Catholic missions date back to no later than the 1950s.

Because of their self-chosen isolation Huichols have been successful in preserving a vision of

life and nature very much like the worldview of the indigenous inhabitants of ancient

Mesoamerica. Thus Huichol culture is a particularly clear reflection of pre-Columbian ways of

life and systems of values.

The Huichol migrated from the north along either the western or eastern side of the

Sierra Madres. They learned agriculture, planted corn and hunted deer. Old Huichol

communities were far apart. According to a myth, the gods ordered the Huichol to live far apart

so that their women would not argue! More likely, the great distances between Huichol

communities is explained by the mountain slopes where the Huichol could grow corn and beans.

These arable mountain slopes are widely scattered, so the Huichol were forced to settle in

scattered communities. In current times the Huichol have relocated to find work in tobacco

fields on the coast or in cities such as Guadalajara. However, each year they return on

pilgrimage to their original home and most important natural sanctuary, Wirikuta.

The Huichol are well-known for their ritual use of peyote, a species of cactus known for

its hallucinogenic effects. For the Huichol the jicuri or peyote is the plant of life. According to

8

Huichol myth, the deer was the incarnation of God on earth. When man first saw the deer, it ran

away and hid, and the jicuri sprang up from every hoofprint it left in the sand of the Wirikuta

desert. The jicuri promotes harmony. It also represents the original ear of corn because peyote

and corn share colors of white, yellowish green, red and blue. In Huichol symbolism antlers of

the deer represent the first jicuri. Thus, corn, deer, and peyote are one and the same in the

Huichol mythological system.

The Huichol cannot raise peyote on their land because the soil and climate are

unfavorable. For this reason they go on pilgrimage to bring back the cactus central to their

religion as well as to gain initiation into the spiritual realities understood by their elders.

Along the way pilgrims visit and leave offerings at sacred places. The pilgrimage to Wirikuta

becomes a feast of the spirit, and its ceremonies are communions with the Huichols' guardian

gods. Novices accompany the maraca'ame or shaman, a leader who sings, cures, has prophetic

visions and guides the community according to his experience during peyote-induced trances.

While on pilgrimage the novice in art or shamanism leaves his offerings and asks the gods to

grant him the gift of artistic ability or the priesthood. Then the novice spends several days in

the desert hunting and communing with peyote. In this way he receives instruction about how to

develop his vocation. When initiates learn how to use the powers available to them, they are

only beginning a path filled with hardship and sacrifice including periods of fasting, sexual

abstention, further pilgrimage and offering. As initiates approach old age, they become

respected elders in the community.

The vocation of the shaman is central to Huichol culture. When shamans become elders

their training has given them a vast knowledge of physical and spiritual worlds. The shaman has

vast botanical knowledge and is frequently sought out today by researchers in pharmacology.

With their powers to heal, change the weather and restore imbalance to equilibrium, Huichol

shamans are the "keepers" of the sacred knowledge of their people and guardians of their

traditions. Every detail of sacred ceremony, every sacred object, every prayer and deity is

carried in the shaman's memory. The Huichol shaman is a repository of his culture.

Huichol religion is polytheistic and based on an effort to maintain a balance among the

forces of nature. Land is sacred space; gods take the forms of plants, animals, rocks, caves,

springs, mountains and the various forces of nature. The sun is believed to be the father of

human beings; the rain or sky is mother; the wind and the deer are the brothers of humans.

Huichols believe that life is a system of contrary forces, like a fight between adversaries: life

and death, sickness and health, abundance and misfortune. In the primal struggle three elements

of nature changed into gods: corn, peyote and the deer. Through attention, prayer and offerings

to this trinity, the lost balance of nature can be restored. Fertility can be restored to the earth,

and health can return to humans. For the Huichol the purpose of life is to seek a vision

(nierika) through which harmony is established with the elements of nature. Because of their

reverence for the forces of nature, the Huichol have maintained an attentive relationship to

their environment. This awareness of nature is highly respected by members of industrialized

cultures struggling to re-establish harmony in their degraded ecosystems.

The religion of the Huichol, known intimately by their elder shamans, is expressed in

symbolic art. The Huichol sing their myths, embroider them on clothes and carve them on

masks, gourds and their musical instruments. They use beads, yarn and wood as their basic

materials. Eagles, deer, peyote, flowers, corn and snakes are depicted in a symbolic,

symmetrical style. Their art, based on principles of shamanism, reveals a world in which the

struggle for life is influenced by the reverence and offerings of humans.

The Huichols' contemporary art forms are derived from ceremonial offerings they have

made for centuries. Huichols offer their gods symbolic arrows, feathered canes, offering bowls

(jicara), miniature animals, sacred disks, and sticks and straws covered with woven wool or

cotton. Through the symbolic representations of their art, the Huichol reconstruct the

relationships between three realms: the human, the natural and the cosmic. Through art the

Huichol document their spiritual knowledge. Employing the system of symbols that represent

inhabitants of an invisible world, Huichol art becomes a vehicle of ancient healing and wisdom.

Objects created with feathers, wood, animal pictures and symbolic colors are closely

identified with a particular god and are a form of prayer. Different colors and representations

are associated with different deities. Mesquite wood and the color reddish brown are associated

with Tatewari, or Grandfather Fire, who lives on the earth and appears to the Huichol in their

peyote visions. His animal messengers are the coral snake and the rattlesnake. The wood of the

Brazil tree and mahogany are related to Tayuapa, or Father Sun, who lives in the sky. Tateis is

the god of life and the chief ally of the shaman; he represents health and the spirit of the fire

that cures. The golden eagle, the guacamaya, and the cardinal belong to him. He is represented

by those animal figures or by the flames of a bonfire in front of a ceremonial temple.

Kauyumari, the older brother who shaped the world , appears as deer, coyote, pine tree or

whirlwind. Takutzi Nakahue is the mother of all gods and of corn. Because she is so old, prayers

for longevity are addressed to her. The salate, or sacred tree, the armadillo, the water serpent,

rain and the bear are her symbols. Of great significance are the colors and forms associated

with peyote. These include kaleidoscopic patterns called neakilas, often seen in the center of

yarn paintings. These neakilas are shamanic power objects symbolizing doorways through

which the shaman passes into the spiritual realm.

As the Huichol artist depicts his deities, persons from technological societies can

glimpse a special, very different knowledge of the interaction of the physical and spiritual

worlds. The Huichol are able, through artistic expression, to convey to members of very

diverse cultures realities and values that might well enrich those who have lost their grounding

in nature.

12

An Introduction to Huichol Symbolism

Birds Messengers from the gods, feathers used ceremonially

Corn Principal symbol of life, associated with peyote, Earth Mother's symbol

Deer Spirit guide who leads shamans on visionary path

Blue Deer Peyote

Eagle Embodiment of a goddess known as Mother Eagle, healing

Snake Protector of corn and peyote, intermediary between humans

and spirit world, healing

Scorpion Protection from evil and bad luck

Candles, arrows, Various offerings to gods

bowls, disks,

mirrors

Lizards Healing, close allies of shaman

Red serpent Earth Mother

Flowers Used in all ceremonies, considered sacred

Wolves Huichols are descended from "wolf people" who inhabited the

earth in primordial times. Wolves are respected as carriers of

spirits; they are honored in all peyote ceremonies.

References

Mata Torres, Ramon. La Vida de los Huicholes. [ Guadalajara]: n.p., 1980.

Muller, Kal and Guillermo Garcia-Oropeza. Mexico. Hong Kong: APA Publications, 1989.

Rios Uribe, Carlos. "In the Track of the Deer." Americas, 48 (1996), 6-13.

Toledo, Victor Manuel, Mexico: Diversity of Cultures. Mexico City: CEMEX, 1995.

Valadez, Susana and Mariano Valadez. Huichol Indian Sacred Rituals. Oakland, California:

Dha. rma Enterprises, 1992.

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