Xochil and the Machetes

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Collection Citation: Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Vita Rose photographs of Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios and family, image #, NMAI.AC.372; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.

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Scope and Contents: View of Xochil, a young Wixarika (Huichol) girl, sitting with her maternal aunt Dona Cuca during a fertility rite in Nayarit, Mexico. Xochil receives machetes that have just been used to clear out weeds from the milpa (corn field) of her grandmother Dona Manuel.
Vita Rose Narrative: Huichol Xochil, with the guidance of her maternal aunt Doña Cuca, receives the machetes that have just been used to clear out the weeds from the milpa (corn field) on her grandmother Doña Manuel's rancho in Nayarit, Mexico. As the men of her extended family hand her their precious tools, they are enacting an ancient fertility rite, combining the male and female elements of spring planting. Together they pray to the Goddess Tatel Urianaka, "the moist earth waiting to be plowed," for a successful harvest to provide them with corn for tortillas, and therefore life-giving sustenance, for another year. Xochil's special status is granted to her as the oldest girl not yet entered into menarche. She will lead the procession in a counterclockwise circle around Tatewari, Grandfather Fire, and from there into the tuki or temple where she will carefully lay the machetes in for of the altar to be blessed.

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NMAI.AC.372_ref11

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv41deaaabc-c02f-4438-a5f2-e28ac9f08297

NMAI.AC.372

NMAIA

Vita Rose photographs of Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios and family

Creator

Rose, Vita

Summary

This collection includes photographic prints made by Vita Rose circa 1996 of Doña Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios and her family in Nayarit, Mexico. Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios was a Wixarika (Huichol) visual artist, musician, and spiritual leader.