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.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 19 color photographic prints taken between 1996 and 1999. The majority of the photographs are of Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios during pilgrimages to the sacred high desert site of Wirikuta (Wiricuta). Rose titled each photograph and included a narrative description for each image based on her personal experiences with de la Cruz Rios and her family. Additional family and community members photographed by Rose include—Dona Manuela and her great-grandson Cristian; niece Maria Felix and her children Oscar, Laura, Umberto, and Matchua; and Xochil with her Aunt Doña Cuca. The photographs also include Wixarika (Huichol) ceremonial practices and items used during the pilgrimage to Wirikuta (Wiricuta).
Guadalupe de La Cruz Rios:
Guadalupe de La Cruz Rios: Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios (1917-1999) was a Wixarika (Huichol) maraka'ame (shaman) and internationally renowned artist and musician. She was known as a gifted teacher, healer, singer, artist, and ceremonial leader who led yearly pilgrimages, Wiricuta, the sacred land of the Wixarika (Huichol) community. She died on Mother's Day, 1999.
Vita Rose:
Photographer Vita Rose first encountered Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios in 1996 while traveling to Nayarit, Mexico with a group of pilgrims from California. The group accompanied a Wixarika (Huichol) pilgrimage to Wiricuta, and Rose was invited to take photographs by Doña Guadalupe. Rose subsequently participated in two additional pilgrimages to Wiricuta and stayed with the de la Cruz Rios family on their ranchos and homes in town. She went on to live in Nayarit, Mexico for two years before returning to the United States and settling in Arizona.
Related Materials:
The National Museum of the American Indian has four yarn paintings attributed to Guadalupe de la Cruz Ríos. These include catalog numbers 26/2619, 26/2624, 26/2626, and 26/6986.
Provenance:
Gift of Vita Rose, 2007.
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).
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.
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.
Portrait of Wixarika (Huichol) marakame, or shaman, Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios, holding gladiolas in a room in the Hotel Boganvilia in Tepic, Mexico. The photograph was taken a two months before her passing.
Vita Rose Narrative:
Doña Guadalupe, Huichol marakame (shaman) and internationally renowned artist, blesses us two months before she crossed over into the realm of the ancestor. While spending a few weeks at the Hotel Boganvilia in Tepic, Mexico, she told us that they were waiting for her in the parking lot, and that she was very happy to see them. I believe that mi abuela (my Huichol Grandmother) is transmitting, as she looks out at us from this photograph, the wisdom and compassion that she exemplified during her lifetime.
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).
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.
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.
Portrait of Maria Felix, niece of Wixarika (Huichol) marakame, or shaman, Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios, holding her son Oscar at their home in Tepic, Mexico. They are seated under a United State flag with Native American imagery superimposed on it.
Vita Rose Narrative:
Maria Feliz and Oscar stand beneath a Native American flag in their home in Tepic, Mexico. Huichols feel a kinship with indigenous people worldwide. According to one version of their history, Huichols were once part of the greater Aztec nation, but split off when the Aztecs became warriors and conquerors. There is no record of engagement in war in Huichol history; their strength lies in their shamanic relationship to the spirit world.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
View of Laura and Umberto, children of Maria Felix, weaving God's eyes. Maria Felix, niece of Wixarika (Huichol) marakame, or shaman, Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios, uses the God's eye weaving to mark the number of journeys to Wirikuta (Wiricuta), in Nayarit, Mexico, her children have taken.
Vita Rose Narrative:
Huichol older children and adults take vows to travel five times to Wiricuta, the sacred high desert in Central Mexico, and the younger children accompany them. Maria Felix uses God's eye weavings to keep records of the number of journeys each of her seven children has taken. Each child is represented by a specific color combination. Laura and Umberto are weaving God's Eyes for their younger brothers and sisters. Huichol children begin to make their traditional artesania, which has its basis in their ceremonial practices, from as early as 2 or 3 years of age.
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).
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.
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.
View of a young Wixarika (Huichol) woman winnonwing corn kernels from last year's harvest as part of a ceremony on the small family racho of Dona Manuela in Nayarit, Mexico.
Vita Rose Narrative:
Like a nymph pouring out a stream of sacred water, a young Huichol matron winnows corn kernels saved from last year's harvest. Another woman will next toast the corn a few grains at a time in a comal, roasting pan, directly over the flame of Tatewari, Grandfather Fire, while her nephew feeds wood to the God. This is very hot and tiring work. The women then make hundreds of small corn tamales to place as offerings before the altayn the Tuki, temple, on the small rancho of the family matriarch Doña Manuela. Don Mariano, the marakame (shaman) guiding the ceremony, commented that it was the women in this extended family who were guarding and preserving the ancestral traditions.
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).
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.
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.
