The Huichol Center: A Model for Cultural Survival

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, anthropologist Susana Valadez and the non-profit organization she founded in 1990, the Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and Traditional Arts, support an endangered indigenous culture in the remote mountains of Mexico. For decades the Huichol Center has spearheaded numerous strategies aimed at bolstering the odds for the survival of this ancient Mesoamerican culture.  As this once isolated tribe is now forced to adapt to the realities and challenges of the invading modern world, their vast knowledge and important cultural legacy is in danger of being lost to future generations of Huichols and humanity at large. Their culture is at a tipping point, as they struggle against extreme poverty, the loss of their sacred lands, the disintegration of their native shamanic traditions, the disappearance of their indigenous language, disintegrating health and other ominous threats that can only be overcome with the help of the global community. The Huichol Center has proven to be a vital ally to help the Huichols prevail by creating an array of inter-related strategies that have produced favorable results.  These strategies include providing incentives for the conservation of their indigenous wisdom and shamanic traditions, creating a Huichol language school, promoting the elimination of hunger through permaculture practices that insure food and water security,  eliminating poverty by creating economic self-sufficiency through the production of native arts, training youth in computer literacy and many other positive programs to help the people thrive, rather than face extinction.