The Museo de la Ciudad de Guadalajara has served as custodian of the city’s culture and heritage since its ceremonious opening in 1992. Even the site it occupies comes with a shred of history. The square yellow colonial building downtown began life as part of a convent in the 1700s, running through other uses over the centuries until City Hall purchased it in 1991. Currently, the museum is proudly showcasing a “Pilgrimage of the Huichol Indians to Wirikuta” exhibit.
Inside, the museum is arranged in rooms by historical period around a pleasant two-story arched courtyard. Treating such periods as the conquest, the eighteenth century and the Porfiriato, the museum contextualizes national historical movements by focusing on Guadalajara during each epoch. Each room has several plaques to read (in Spanish) that dole out tidbits about the economic, political, cultural, religious and racial development of the city. The narrative is supplemented by historical pieces (armor, coins, flagellation devices), maps, diagrams and paintings. There is also a well-stocked library off the second floor with books and videos covering Guadalajara.
As if that weren’t enough to soak up a morning or an afternoon, the current special exhibit documents the yearly religious gathering of the Huichol Indians in San Andrés Cohamiata, Jalisco and the pursuant 250 mile hike to Wirikuta in San Luis Potosi. Wirikuta is a sacred site near Real de Catorce where the Huichol believe the sun was created. Along the way they stop for religious cleansing rituals and to collect peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus that puts them in contact with their ancestor spirits.Much about this pilgrimage and Huichol culture was documented vividly in the 1970s by Kal Muller, a Hungarian academic and photographer who, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, was invited to follow two of these pilgrimages. Now the collection of bright photos, along with a documentary from the same time period by Muller’s friend, Mexican filmmaker Nicolás Echevarría and several instruments of ritual Huichol use, have been packed into an upstairs room in the Museo de la Ciudad. The images, arranged in groups and accompanied by (Spanish) text, do a good job of tracing and explicating the journey to the layman. Echevarría’s documentary, covering much of the same ground, nonetheless helps to thicken the experience with sound and movement.
“La Peregrinacion de los huicholes a Wirikuta” will be at the Museo de la Ciudad de Guadalajara until August 12, when it will travel to Guanajuato on its tour of the country. The museum is located downtown at Calle Independencia 684 (it shouldn’t be confused with Calzada Independencia), two and a half blocks east of Av. Federalismo and one block north of Av. Hidalgo. It is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Admission costs 15 pesos for adults and eight pesos for children, students and teachers. Some ability to read Spanish is required.