Uayemat+ Ta Kiekari Tatéi Niwetsikak+: Urban Wixárika Healing Practices and Ontology
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Te ‘uayemat+ ta Kiekari Tatéi Niwetsikak+: Urban Wixárika Healing Practices and Ontology A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance Studies by Cyndy Margarita Garcia-Weyandt 2020 © Copyright by Cyndy Margarita Garcia-Weyandt 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Te ‘uayemat+ ta Kiekari Tatéi Niwetsikak+: Urban Wixárika Healing Practices and Ontology by Cyndy Margarita Garcia-Weyandt Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor David Delgado Shorter, Chair This doctoral dissertation provides data from ethnographic fieldwork among Wixárika in the city of Tepic, Mexico and neighboring towns to demonstrate how Tatéi Niwetsika (“Our Mother Corn”) prescribes the health of Wixárika families. Maize ceremonies are a crucial aspect of maintaining well-being. Families cleanse, cultivate, and harvest the land through the cycle of Our Mother Corn in their efforts of maintaining good health. Families often discuss health and well-being in relation to cultivation practices. During the cultivation of Our Mother Corn, the labor of men and women contributes to the overall reproduction of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). In each ceremony, the family learns from Corn their responsibilities during cultivation. Our Mother Corn provides individuals with the vitality to maintain the physical and metaphysical balance of the holistic body. By examining the ontological relationship between Wixárika families and Our Mother Corn, this research shows how healing within Wixárika families encompasses more than just the body of a human person. Through active participatory observations, audio and video documentation, interviews, and surveys, I demonstrate how ii Wixárika ways of healing comprise a holistic approach to cure physical and metaphysical bodies in which Our Mother Corn is a central figure in the well-being of the community. Thus, the ontological relationship between Wixárika families with Our Mother Corn nurtures inter-species connections to homelands and all ancestors in Wixárika ways of knowing. iii The dissertation of Cyndy Margarita Garcia-Weyandt is approved. Paul V. Kroskrity Allen F. Roberts Kevin Terraciano David Delgado Shorter, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 iv DEDICATION Wa+ritsika ne Kaka+ma Tatei Niwetsika metá Tamatsika, ne nuiwari, ne paapama, ne ’ukilai tsiere ne niwé. Yeme matsi ne nuiwari Y+rata kiekatari ne taatama Muwieri metá ’Ut+ama. Ne kumarima, yemematsi K+p+ri metá ne ’iyarima. Nep+wareuye h+wá wa+kawa ne ’iyarik+. ¡Pampariyutsi! v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ....................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... ix VITA ............................................................................................................................................. xii NOTE ON WIXÁRIKA ALPHABET, PRONUNCIATION, AND ORTHOGRAPHY ............... 1 GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION: CONFLICTING ONTOLOGIES ................................................................... 6 CHAPTER ONE: TATÉI NIWETSIKA ...................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER TWO: WIXÁRIKA WAIYA METÁ KIEKARIEYA ............................................... 73 CHAPTER THREE: TATÉI NIWETSIKA METÁ ‘IKWARIKA ............................................ 108 CHAPTER FOUR: KAKA+YARITE METÁ KAKA+MA WAMAWARIKA: STABILIZING RELATIONS AND RE-CENTRALIZING PRACTICES ......................................................... 135 CONCLUSION: ‘ITSANAXA ................................................................................................... 178 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. 185 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................. 186 APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................................. 187 APPENDIX D ............................................................................................................................. 188 APPENDIX E ............................................................................................................................. 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 200 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Common Names Related to Corn ................................................................................. 102 Table 2: Stages in Wixárika ........................................................................................................ 123 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Drawing of the Tewi Wai …………………………………………………………184 Figure 2.2 Drawing of the Tewi Wai………………..………………………………………...184 Figure 2.3 Drawing of the Tewi Wai………………………………………………………….184 Figure 2.4 Stage of Corn Tura…...……………………………………………………………185 Figure 2.5 Stage of Corn Neika.….…………………………………………………………...185 Figure 2.6 Stage of Corn Y+ra………………………………………………………………..185 Figure 2.7 Stage of Corn Y+ra Huta………………………………………………………….185 Figure 2.8 Stage of Corn K+paima..………………………………………………………….185 Figure 2.9 Stage of Corn Zit+ama…………………………..………………………………....185 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am thankful for all the help and guidance of my advisors, friends, and family who have contributed to my academic growth and understanding of the scholarship. Since my undergraduate education at the University of California, Los Angeles in Anthropology, my advisors, Dr. David Shorter and Dr. Paul V. Kroskrity, have guided my research. Dr. Shorter and Dr. Kroskrity’s research inspired me to pursue my research in collaboration with Indigenous communities. Thank you, David Shorter, for your guidance and your support in the past ten years of my academic life. I could have not conceived this dissertation without your guidance, mentoring, and support. Additionally, I am grateful to my advisor Dr. Allen Roberts and his encouragement to write poetry and include my creative writing in my dissertation. The poetry in my dissertation allowed me think creatively about my research process. Finally, I thank my advisor Dr. Kevin Terraciano for the encouragement to think about Our Mother Corn in all possible ways. I am also grateful to my UCLA family in AAP, specially to Dr. Carolina San Juan and Dr. Liliana Islas who provided me with the strength to continue working on my dissertation in these extraordinary times of COVID-19. Thank you, Carolina, for helping envision my work in a broader sense, for allowing me explore my teaching pedagogy in the ArtsIN program, and for seeing the relevance of my art making in this research from the “heart.” You named and understood what I was feeling since the MA, and for that I cherish your friendship. Lilie, thank you for your kind words of encouragement and the long nights of companionship while working from 1202 Campbell Hall, prior to our confinement and self-isolation. You both gave me the courage to finish this dissertation strong. To my friends Christian Ramírez, Luis Felipe Avilés González, and David Feldman, who encouraged dialogues about Mexico, Indigeneity, Indigenous languages, history, and healing in ix many of our Nahuatl classes together. To all of you tlazcamati miac! Also, I want to thank my friends Dr. Jacinta Arthur and Dr. Ryan Koons for their guidance and support while developing ideas on personhood, ontology, and world view. Jacinta and Ryan, I deeply admired your research. Moreover, I am grateful to my friends América Martínez and Norma Fajardo for their support and inspiration in my academic life since my undergraduate studies. Finally, to my writing group of Indigenous scholars and mothers in academia (NTV Mama Writing Club), Thalia Gómez, and Brenda Nicólas for the long nights in Zoom meetings. You both motivated me to continue pushing through the difficult times. This body of work is dedicated to all of you! I am also appreciative for Wixárika thinkers, philosophers, educators, community leaders, and activists who collaborated with me in this research. Special thanks to Maestro Tutupika Carrillo de la Cruz and his family. I am grateful for allowing me to take your language classes and for introducing me to other members of the community. Additionally, I am grateful to my comadre Felipa Rivera, Maestra Edisa Altamirano, Maestra Leticia Carrillo, Maestra Odalys Marbella López de La Rosa, Maestro Dagoberto Robles González, and Politólogo y Activista Ubaldo Valdéz Castañeda. To all of you, thank you for your warm and long conversations about Our Mother Corn. Special appreciation to Maestro Dagoberto and my comadre