Wixárika women and gender in the Indigenous 21st Century
Vehicle access was first cut into the highlands in the 1980s and little by little more villages have been connected to mestizo towns and cities, although it would be almost four decades before any of these roads were paved. Ease of access in and out of the highlands has seen more women and men migrate to sell their artwork, study or work on agricultural plantations.
Women selling woven bags and bead jewellery at artisan market, Nueva Colonia 2016
Although not without controversy, the new millennium brought electricity, gradually connecting most towns and hamlets with mains or solar power. Primary level health clinics were provided with ambulances and doctors working in the highlands learned that more people would use the services if they were open to Wixárika ways. Allowing mara’akate or local shamans into the clinic to assist with births fosters trust and encourages women to use the services, while bilingual nurses, doctors and health promoters support women and men with translation.
Social development programmes have largely focused on women because of their domestic and child-care role, reinforcing patriarchal gender stereotypes. However these cash payments have put money in women’s pockets and grocery and general stores began to flourish. The bonus payments given for each girls school attendance school saw an increase in female literacy and now nearly equal numbers of boys and girls finish primary and secondary school. Many girls now also continue to bachelorette or university and although some stay to work in cities and towns, many return to their highland homes and are employed locally as teachers, doctors or engineers.
Crusade against hunger
Woman also run shops in their communities as well as making chaquira -bead jewellery- and are able to buy cloth for making clothes, creating demand for haberdasheries, stationers and tortillerias. These changes have come alongside greater participation in the traditionally masculine public domain of politics and leadership.
Woman also run shops in their communities as well as making chaquira -bead jewellery- and are able to buy cloth for making clothes, creating demand for haberdasheries, stationers and tortillerias. These changes have come alongside greater participation in the traditionally masculine public domain of politics and leadership.
Crusade against hunger
Many women talked about the role of education in changing the lives of women and girls in their communities.
Four Generations
Women And Social Actions
Women queuing for their Prospera conditional welfare payments.
When the post-revolutionary state brought in agricultural reform, ejidos were brought under the Ministry for Agriculture and all community members were to be registered. In 2016 it came to the attention of the Ministry for Agriculture that very few Wixárika women were listed on their communal land register and communities were ordered to change this. This top-down state led requirement brought gender to the discussion table in the community of Tuapurie. A series of changes aimed at addressing historical gender inequalities, including establishing a community women’s commission within their governance structure and making it easier for women to hold ejido land titles were brought in.
Wimari Women’s health collective 2016: Yolanda, Claudia with daughter Monterrat, Sauwi , Jovita and baby Brisa América)
From 2013-2016 the Wimari Women’s health collective worked across Tuapurie to gather experiences of pregnancy and childbirth and organised community events aimed at improving maternal and infant health outcomes (findings from this research can be found here ***this should be a link to publications***)
For some women this was their first experience of speaking at a community meeting. Women are now increasingly taking on roles in the traditional government and with many more completing high school and university, they have a greater capacity to challenge men in private and public spaces.
Women also told the Tuapurie Oral History project about how education and interventions such as gender equality training had played crucial roles in increasing their participation in the public and political life of their community.
“Well, I think it’s because of the study, the school. Now women have more knowledge.” (Lucia, 2022)
Pues yo creo que es por el estudio, la escuela. Ahora las mujeres ya tienen más conocimiento.
“Well, it’s the teiwarixi [mestizo/non indigenous people] who are involved in all that. Because the phrase “woman has the same values as a man” is from the teiwarixi and they have trained women to defend themselves” (Lucia, 2022)
“Pues más bien son los teiwarixi los que están interviniendo en todo eso. Porque la frase “la mujer tiene los mismos valores que un hombre” es de los teiwarixi y pues han entrenado a las mujeres para que se defienda”
From 2014-2018 The Wimari collective worked with women throughout Tuapurie to understand what problems women were experiencing in relation to pregnancy, birth and infant survival.
In 2016 they worked with artists to make life size hangings of the nine months of pregnancy. These are on display in the community.
Women also told the Tuapurie Oral History Project that relationships with their ancestors, gender inequality and adultery all play a role in maternal and infant wellbeing.
Nine months of pregnancy made by the Wimari collective, 2016
Women talking, Nueva Colonia 2016
The textile cooperative Fábrica Social worked with Wimari to run training sessions for women on how to calculate the value of their work.
Learning how to calculate a living wage with Fábrica Social.
A New Female Leader
Maria Concepción Bautista was appointed as the first ever President for Communal Property for Tuapurie in 2022.
Gazing at the event
Over the decades social and welfare projects have come and gone, bringing different benefits and constraints to Wixárika communities.
In 2022 the Plan de Justicia (Justice Plan), a development programme for the for the Gran Nayar region, was signed with leaders from Cora, Tepehuan, Wixárika and Mexicanero Indigenous communities.
Although the plan recognises the problems of gender equality and violence against women, the proposal to resolve these issues with gender equality workshops and actions to promote and guarantee the rights of Indigenous women do not go nearly far enough. In continuity with previous Indigenous development programmes these proposals reflect the absence of women’s voices in their design, with political decisions still being made man-to-man, as they were in the colonial era.
Signing of the Justice Plan
Maria Concepción Bautista taking office
The ceremonial ‘cambio de varas’ ceremony in January 2023 when Maria Concepción Bautista took office.
Attitudes to sexuality are also changing and men and women in same sex relationships are also getting organised.
Adolfo De La Torre Carrillo, pictured here with his sister Claudia who led the Tuapurie Oral History Project, recently initiated ‘Ta niuki LGBT Wixárika’ the first LGBT group for Wixaritari and he runs a youtube channel with videos on LGBT activism.
