Wixarika Research Center

“Expenses office expense 964 internet 468 web hosting 299 bank charges 55 computer 229 po box rental fee 192 solar oven project 6,500 telephone 1,048 state registry 25 non-investment depreciation 199 total 9,979”

“Other depreciable asset 46,691 46,691 less accumulated depreciation 46,373 46,572 yarn paintings by jose benitez sanch 23,750 23,750 total 24,068 23,869”

“Advocacy for the huichol indians in mexico, and preservation and promotion of the huichol culture and artwork.”

“The wixrika research center maintains an online world-class archive of wixrika (huichol) indigenous art and culture to educate the public about this unique and extraordinary culture. Through the foundation's web site, we raise public awareness about the challenges these indigenous people are facing today due to their rapidly changing environment. It is our hope that the website will amplify their voices and add weight to their opinions and concerns. Our website, which is published in english and spanish, gives the public free access to images of an extraordinary collection of their traditional, sacred, and contemporary art and publishes news on relevant current events. We also maintain a facebook group called "huichol cultural survival" which now has nearly 3,000 members, including a large number of wixrika members. Here we post news articles almost daily, videos, and short films of interest and our posts are commented on and shared by many members of our group, which in turn brings in more new members. The work the wixrika research center consists of preserving, in digital format, photographs, documents, tape recordings and images of sacred, traditional, and contemporary art, collected or photographed by juan and yvonne negrin from 1970 to present. The paper archives being digitalized include copies of documents and news reports pertaining to past and present land disputes, the exploitation of the wixrika people's natural resources, and community documents and petitions drawn up at their general assemblies. Hundreds of color transparencies taken by juan & yvonne negrin have been scanned in high resolution for preservation. These photographs are unique because the wixrika communities rarely permitted cameras to be used to capture their way of life, their ceremonies, or their sacred spots by outsiders. An exception was made in the case of the negrns because of their dedicated work in defending the land and resources of the wixrika people and the non-profit nature of the work they carried out over several decades. This is an ongoing project expected to take substantial time to complete. The tape recordings consist of sacred chants, oral history as recounted by members of the council of elders, traditional music, community assemblies and interviews. The original recordings were made on magnetic cassettes and the digital conversion is necessary in order to preserve this important body of work. As we closed our fiscal year (april 30, 2015), our solar engineer, gerardo ruiz smith, was in the western sierra madre community of tuapurie putting the final touches on the new solar wood drying oven and running tests to make sure it functions properly. Once it has been run through all the tests, it will be covered with a heavy tarp for protection from hail and storms during the rainy season. The director of the preparatoriatamaatsi pritsika (autonomous community high school) decided it would be best to carry out the training in the fall of 2015 when classes resume which seemed very reasonable to us. We will coordinate the dates for the training between the director of the school in the sierras and dr. Ral rodriguez, the forestry engineer from the university of guadalajara's institute of wood, cellulose, and paper, to take place as soon as possible. During the course of the 2014 - 2015 fiscal year, we completed the digitalization of all the audio cassettes of conversations, yarn painting explanations, and interviews between juan negrn and different wixrika artists and mentors. Our next step will be to seek funding to cover the cost of having the audio cassettes of traditional music and sacred chants cleaned and digitalized in a professional studio to capture the highest quality sound possible. Our founder and director, juan negrn, spent the majority of his time in the later part of 2014 working on various aspects of the upcoming exhibit to be held at the muse d'arts africains, ocaniens, amrindiens in marseille, france, with the museum's dir”