Catherine Finerty, former New York advertising executive, lived with the Wixárikas (members of the Wixáritari or Huichol people) on tribal land in the Sierra Madre Occidental, the first non-Huichol permitted to do so.
She was normally the only source of modern medicine available for many Sierra Huichols. This account was first published April 2, 1983.
The three days before Easter are called simply “The Holy Days” by the Huichol indigenous people as they observe this time with prayer, silence and self-denial. From midnight on Wednesday until 4 a.m. Saturday, the Huichol celebrants who congregate in remote San Andres Cohamiata, the chief tribal ceremonial center of the Sierra Madre Occidental on the Jalisco-Nayarit border, play no violin, no guitar, listen to no radio, no tape recorder, mount n mule, horse or burro, ride in no jeep, truck or plane. Violation of these tribal Holy Day rules means time in jail, for Easter, in the Huichol Sierra is a uniquely complex and serious time of veneration.
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