Wixarika

Project: An intercultural calendar that comparatively presents Wixárika and western concepts of time. The design solution visually documents one Wixárika community’s (San Miguel Huaixtita, Jalisco, México) oral tradition of time in the community’s own words.

Funding: Universidad de Guadalajara Cátedra de Biodiversidad, UF Center for Latin American Studies and School of Art & Art History, CONACYT

Background: Westernized Mexicans in central Mexico know little about the Wixárika (commonly called Huichol) culture. Once common misconception or misunderstanding is in relationship to time. For example, many Wixárika must return to their community during the summer to plant, yet find it difficult to leave a 40-hour per week job in a city because others perceive their actions as unnecessary or frivolous. We considered how to use communication and design methodologies to teach Mexican youth concepts central to the Wixárika community (“others” in this region). Additionally, the international component of this project required students, most who had never been to Mexico, to think outside the box in terms of representation, language, economic and cultural disparities, and “otherness.”