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Santa Catarina Church
Sierra Madré, Mexico
Santa Catarina Church.
Close-up of Church doorway.
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SACRED SITE Franciscan missionaries contrived in the Huichol Sierra from about 1730 to 1860 to eradicate the traditional Aztec religions and to replace them with Catholicism. Although they failed in this effort, they did leave a legacy of folk Catholicism that continues to be practiced, without missionaries, in a few places in the Huichol Sierra. This "Huichol Catholicism" is under the control of the Mara'akate, the traditional religious leaders. Huichol Catholicism does not replace "traditional" religion, nor does it mix with traditional religion to produce a "syncretic" religion as occurs in other parts of the Americas. Effectively, the Huichol have adopted the Catholic Sacred Beings (Jesus, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Saint Joseph and a few others) as a separate set of Deities, parallel to their own traditional pantheon. One Huichol shaman said that these two sets of sacred beings "work together as a winning team." Huichol oral history recounts negotiations between the Mara'akate and the introduced Deities in which the Catholic Deities agreed to adapt themselves to local ways. Today, Huichol ceremonies look much like traditional Church practices. The Christian Saints are given the same sort of blood sacrifices and prayer arrows at the same festivals as the traditional Deities. They are called upon for health and abundance blessings, as are the traditional Huichol Deities. As a result of the adaptation of Franciscan religion to Huichol ways, the church that the Franciscan Fathers constructed at the Huichol community of Santa Catarina (circa 1850) continues to be important in the community's religious life. The Huichols gather there for ceremonies, led by Mara'akate several times during each year. GOAL The structural integrity of this church was in jeopardy when community authorities requested the Landmarks Foundation's outside help to assess and repair the Church. Our goal was to stabilize the Santa Catarina Church. We provided the funds necessary to evaluate the problem and repair the structure before the damage became irreversible. SUCCESS The Landmarks Foundation's funding and engineering expertise resulted in the successful stabilization of the Church's structure. Not surprisingly, Huichol tradition has been re-imposed upon the visitation of outsiders. The Landmarks Foundation is not, however, contented with this one intervention. The ancient tradition of Pilgrimages across the Landscape is still a prominent aspect of Huichol life and practice. We hope to use our success with the Church of Santa Catarina as a tool to influence Government agencies to protect and preserve the annual Pilgrimage route which covers over 500 kilometers of specific sacred places. Privatization of land is beginning to inhibit freedom of travel by the Pilgrims and we hope to insist that unlock able gates be installed to enable the tribe access to fenced areas and provide laws that protect their right to do so. |