Last Updated on April 8, 2025
Julio Parra, a Huichol Medicine Man, talks about the Cerro Quemado, sacred mountain of the Huichol People, and why we should help protect it from a Canadian mining company.
In October 2010, the Huichol (Wikárika) People took a stand against the Canadian mining company First Majestic Silver, demanding a moratorium on mining activities and the cancellation of the company’s 22 mining concessions in the Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
The Real de Catorce, known to the Huichol as Wirikuta, is home to several sacred sites including the Cerro Quemado, “the site where the sun rose for the first time, according to Huichol tradition”, notes The Esperanza Project. The region is also “home to several sacred springs [and it is] where their ancestors are buried and important ceremonies must be conducted each year. Here is the desert where they collect the sacred hikuri that they use for their prayers and ceremonies.” Wirikuta has itself been designated a Protected Natural Area and it is a recognized UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.
Despite the protected status of Wirikuta, and its spiritual and cultural importance to the Huichol, the Mexican government has told First Majestic that in can go ahead with their 22 mining operations as early as January, 2011.
That is, unless we work together to stop it.
Interview recorded at the Vision Council – Guardians of the Earth gathering in November 2010, by Leticia Rigatti and Ryan Luckey of the Común Tierra project.
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