Sheinbaum highlighted the importance of the Wixárika Route's inclusion on the UNESCO list.

▲ At the podium, Claudia Olivia Morales, president of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, a member of the Wixárika people and special guest at the morning conference. Photo courtesy of the Presidency.

Emir Olivares and Georgina Saldierna

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, p. 4

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo celebrated the inclusion of the Wixárika Route, which leads to the sacred territory in search of the blue deer, on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO).

"It is a very important event for the Wixárika people, for the people of Mexico ," the federal leader said yesterday, opening the people's conference.

On Saturday, the international organization inscribed the Wixárika Route along the sacred paths to Wirikuta Tatehuarí Huajuyé (The Path of Our Grandfather Fire, in the Wixárika language) on its World Heritage List.

I don't know if this is the first time, or at least one of the few times, that a sacred place of living indigenous peoples has been recognized, not from the history of great civilizations, but rather what this sacred place means to the people today, from before and now. It's very important , the head of the Executive emphasized.

To recognize the significance of this inscription, Diego Prieto, head of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), presented a video highlighting that five states of the Mexican Republic make up the sacred geography of the Wixárika nation, which is shared with the Na'ayeri, O'dam, and Mexikan peoples.

This is part of an ancestral route that remains alive and well today over a length of more than 500 kilometers, crossing regions and ecological niches, from the west to the northern part of the Central Highlands, with Wirikuta as its destination, at the eastern end of its sacred territory, where the sun rises and the hikuri sprouts, the incarnation of the blue deer, mythical ancestor of the Wixárika people .

It was added that the members of this town define this route as a braid of paths that includes sacred places and sites where practices are carried out that start in Nayarit and Jalisco, passing through Zacatecas and Durango, until reaching Wirikuta, in San Luis Potosí: The site where the first deer hunt took place from whose tracks the sacred hikuri (peyote) of wisdom was born .

The INAH director emphasized that with this listing, Mexico now has 36 properties on that list, making it the country in the Americas with the highest number and seventh in the world.

These include archaeological sites, colonial cities, cave painting sites, modern architectural structures, unique historical monuments, biosphere reserves, and mixed sites that combine natural and cultural values.

But this is the first time in Mexico that we are witnessing an expression, a cultural tradition, that harks back to a living Indigenous culture; an Indigenous tradition that, while having ancestral origins, is still practiced and recognized by the Wixárika people in a sacred geography .

For her part, the president of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, Claudia Olivia Morales, a member of the Wixárika people, who attended the morning press conference as a special guest to celebrate the international recognition of the sacred route, emphasized that it is the result of the political will of the 4T governments.

First, Andrés Manuel López Obrador introduced justice plans for indigenous nations, while Sheinbaum Pardo established the Constitution that indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples be full subjects of public law.

"There has undoubtedly been decades of struggle. Political will was necessary. If it hadn't been for this Fourth Transformation government, we wouldn't be celebrating this registration today, which is a joy for the Wixárika people ," Morales concluded.

▲ Teacher, choreographer and dancer Gloria Contreras (1934-2015), founder of the UNAM Choreographic Workshop, during a practice in 1954. Photo taken from the Danza UNAM Facebook page.

Fabiola Palapa Quijas

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, p. 5

The Palacio de Bellas Artes' Diverse Dances, Diverse Bodies season, which runs from today through August 7, includes the Danced Autobiographies series, which pays tribute to five essential women in the development of the Mexican dance scene: Gloria Contreras, Nieves Paniagua, Rossana Filomarino, Lidya Romero, and Sunny Savoy.

This is a showcase of performances that address the art of the moving body from a variety of perspectives and languages.

Choreographer and director of the group El Cuerpo Mutable/Teatro de Movimiento, Lidya Romero, commented that this series has become a festival of plurality, representing a wide variety of styles, languages, and bodies.

Romero emphasized: the Danced Autobiographies cycle will be an exercise in history and memory for the construction of this heritage that is part of our identity and how we have grown together, audiences and creators .

Reflection tables

The dancer explained that the series consists of two discussion panels that will take place on July 19 and August 2 at 1:00 p.m. in the Manuel M. Ponce Hall. Specialists, critics, and academics will participate, discussing the unique characteristics of the work, the aesthetics, and the poetics of each honoree.

A discussion with the performers and stage creators who shape the work, the choreographers' ideas, and the images is scheduled for July 30th. A photography exhibition will be held in the lobby of the Palacio de Bellas Artes from July 15th to August 9th.

On July 19, Romero and her company will celebrate 50 years of dancing on stage with the work Luna de Shanghai, presented as a nonlinear cinematic narrative and supported by abstract images that suggest relationships and disagreements, intrigue, decadence, and eroticism.

Choreographer Rossana Filomarino is another of the honorees at Diversas Danzas Diversos Cuerpos for her 80 years of life and 60 years of artistic career. DramaDanza, the company she founded, will perform the large-scale work Migrantes on August 2nd, in which she offers a perspective that portrays the global phenomenon of migration, with its encounters, disagreements, problems, and desires that drive people to leave their places of origin.

Filomarino, who recently became a full member of the Academy of Arts, expressed: "I hope to do something for dance ." He thanked the head of the National Dance Coordination, Alonso Alarcón Múgica, for the tribute to his career.

Folklore and poetry, present

The Danced Autobiographies series also pays tribute to Gloria Contreras, founder of the UNAM Choreographic Workshop. She will be honored on August 5th with the program 90 Times Gloria, which will include choreographies such as Brandenburg No. 3, Nereids, Almost a Fantasy , and Huapango.

On July 24, the National Folk Dance Company of Nieves Paniagua will give a special performance in honor of its artistic director and founder, who passed away on May 30. This will also mark the 50th anniversary of the group's dedication to spreading the dance traditions of indigenous peoples.

Sunny Savoy, director of the group that bears her name, will present the choreography Another Place, inspired by a Navajo poem, on July 31.

Diverse Dances, Diverse Bodies will begin today with the participation of the Contemporary Dance Production Center (Ceprodac), which, under the direction of Cecilia Lugo, will premiere the piece "Se nos quedan ellos" (They Were Left Behind), by Guanajuato-based choreographer Francisco Córdova. The piece revolves around the inherent changes in human life.

Also part of the season is the Circo ContemporáNEO multidisciplinary dance, directed by Mauricio Nava, which on July 26 will offer a performance of the piece NO (proposal #56), in which it reflects on the behavior of modern society in response to that word.

The Mexico City Folk Dance Company will bring the choreographic program Semblanzas de México, directed by Alejandro Vázquez, to the Historic Center on July 29.

Meanwhile, on July 17, the public will be able to attend a flamenco gala, featuring Elisa Pérez, María Martha Rodríguez, Marién Luévano, and Érika Suárez.

The detailed schedule can be found on the website https://palacio.inba.gob.mx/