The Blessing

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .

sova.nmai.ac.372_ref4

See more items in: Vita Rose photographs of Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios and family

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.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.

Scope and Contents: Portrait of Wixarika (Huichol) marakame, or shaman, Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios, blessing the gathering with a spray of sacred water from the spring at Tate Matinieri. At the closing ceremony of the annual Wixarika (Huichol) pilgrimage to Wirikuta (Wiricuta), held at the Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios ranch in Santa Mario del Oro, in Mexico.
Vita Rose Narrative: Tired, exhilarated and covered in sacred dirt from a week's travel through the desert of Wiricuta, 25 Huichol and Gringo pilgrims arrive back home to Tatewari (Grandfather Fire) and a closing ceremony a Doña Guadalupe's small rancho in Santa Maria del Oro. Here the marakame (shaman) blesses us with a spray of sacred water from the spring at Tate Matinieri. Doña Guadalupe knows that we Gringos are not used to having water sprayed at us by mouth and is enjoying introducing us to yet another Huichol custom that takes us outside our normal reality and comfort zone. Huichols love to laugh, and no ceremony is too serious for a joke. Perhaps the laughter is itself the sacred blessing.

Collection Restrictions: Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).

NMAI.AC.372_ref4

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv40037ba21-e529-45b4-9438-3081cf17baff

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.