Huichol page 23

Hold mouse arrow over pic for caption 
(only works with internet explorer browser) 

We finally got a Costco  8' table up here so everyone can commune 
in one place when we eat. However I need a second one as we're still 
short two places and the women still go sit on the ground away from the 
men when they eat. This bothers me. Keep in mind that even though 
the men love their women here, in Huicholiville women are definitely really treated as second class citizens. I don't think the men get the picture when 
I keep telling them how important our women are to us. Dago looks at me 
when I do this and smiles as if ,"do you really think you are going to 
reach these guys on this issue?".  If I had one more table, at the least the women could sit at the far end of it, still be separated from the men, but feel more a part of things. Actually these Huicholis have come along ways 
compared to the other Huicholis. If a man comes to another man's house usually the women have to disappear; go outside, be scarce, hide, raining or not. It's unheard of for them to greet any man. When Dago and I come to camp here, the women come up to us and greet us and give us a big hug. It's family
here, however I am very careful about being too forward with the Huicholi women from Aguamilpa and visiting families; smile and distance is the norm.
 
 

I didn't get a good shot of this part but the women moved their mud table 
over to the other side of the hutch and rebuilt a firepit on top of it for their 
secondary stove, and when Dago cut down a large tree where we felt it 
could blow down onto the community center, they cut all the branches off 
and made a nice palapa for some shade out of it. There isn't much for 
greenery here yet until rainy season starts which will be very shortly.

Tebrucio assembled the solar path lights we got from Costco. Although 
I bought them to light the pathway to the outhouse at night, they are bright enough to use as flashlights (torchlights) for finding your way around at night. 
Amazingly they last all night. They have come a long ways in these devices since the first ones I bought 6 years ago. The led lights in them truly offer significant light. They have a photocell in them that shuts the light off during 
the day and they automatically come on at night. 

Since we are so close to rainy season we had a meeting to discuss 
whether or not they wanted to continue with the community building or 
start on building their own individual houses. The majority consensus 
was to finish the community center first. Now you can think of the Huicholis 
as being rich because they own two homes; a summer home and a winter 
home - most of them. But the sticky part comes in the definition of a home. 
To you and I , whether it be a summer home or winter home, it would consist 
of a kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom(s), bedrooms, utility room, maybe a family or rec room, etc. Not so for the Huicholis. They use their 
homes to sleep in, and for nothing else. Every other activity is done outside. 
Below is the most typical example of their stick built summer home and 
adobe built winter home. You can see the man in the hammock underneath 
the raised summer home. 

Huichol page 24 pics

Huichol homepage