"Today's conquistadors are 'development', advertising, the media and tourism...[This] spread of the industrial mono culture is a tragedy of many dimensions. With the destruction of each culture, we are erasing centuries of accumulated knowledge, and as diverse ethnic groups feel their identity threatened, conflict and social breakdown almost inveritably follow." Ancient Futures: Learning From Ladakh by Helena Norberg-Hodge

Tesgüino is a thick low alcohol beer made from mashed sprouted corn. It is consumed during religious rituals and for work parties or other community events.

Kórima is the
"Tarahumara custom requiring the better-off people to share with the less fortunate in times of hardship...No lasting debt is engendered...Kórima serves its purpose of redistributing food under famine conditions and of protecting members of the group from starvation." From The Tarahumara of the Sierra Madre by John Kennedy

Mestizo is the name given to the Mexicans of the Sierra, whose population is concentrated in the larger mountain towns. Inter-ethnic relationships are generally cooperative but each group holds negative attitudes about the other.

The Jesuit presence, beginning in 1607, has played an important role in Tarahumara culture. Before being expelled by the King of Spain in 1767, they had introduced Christianity, domestic livestock, fruit trees and the plow. The Jesuits returned in 1900 and maintain missions and boarding schools for the Tarahumara. Both church and government sponsored education programs have had mixed results, producing partially acculturated individuals who are unable to return to their homes or to assimilate into the Mestizo culture.

          The Tarahumara "have been the subject of heavy doses of myth and romanticization ever since 1902, when Norwegian explorer Carl Lumholz pronounced the Tarahumara 'many times better off, morally, mentally, and economically, than his civilised brother.' More recent writings have described the Tarahumaras as 'Neolithic noblemen' or 'selfless and innocent people' living a Walden Pond sort of existence."
From the Northern Mexico Handbook, Joe Cummings.

© Bill Yahraus

Flight was the Tarahumaras' initial response to western acculturation when the Spanish arrived 400 years ago. They left the fertile plains for the rugged and inaccessible Sierra Madres, adapting to the stringent conditions by farming the mesas in the summer rainy season and moving to the lower elevations for the winter. They prefer to live apart, even from each other, coming together for tesgüinadas and religious rituals that combine Catholic and pre-contact beliefs.

The traditional subsistence lifestyle persists in the most remote areas, but a sustained drought is now forcing many to leave their ranchos for the relative ease of city life, men working as laborers while women and children ask for Kórima.

The ejido is the system of communal land ownership that was instituted after the Mexican Revolution to restore lands taken from the peasantry during Spanish colonization. From the capitalist production and profit oriented perspective, the system has been a failure. But the ejido system has proven to be the cornerstone of the subsistence economy and has enabled many of Mexico's Indigenous groups to preserve their cultural identity. The Agrarian Reform Law of 1992 has paved the way for the privatization of ejido lands. Now, with only 1/3 ejido members' vote, the ejido can be divided among individual members who then have the right to sell, lease, or rent the land. Ejidos may choose not to subdivide, but the decision will seem less like a choice if there is outside pressure (sustained drought, tourism, logging and mining interests) to sell. This law may speed the process of assimilation into the global economy for the Tarahumara and other Indigenous groups.

The illegal drug economy is a destabilizing force in any culture. In the marijuana growing canyons of the Sierra, young Tarahumara have abandoned their traditions, adopting the lifestyle and values of the Mestizo culture, also being transformed by drug culture and profits.

The ills of the mining industry, which in the early days included the use of forced labor, have left their imprint in the Sierra. The industry is not currently operating at its full potential due to the relatively low price of gold and silver. The tailings remain, and at La Bufa, are leaching arsenic and other heavy metals into the Rio Batopilas.

The mountain ejidos are economically dependent on the logging industry. The early nineties produced a plan to increase logging, retooling the industry with a World Bank development loan, but the project was abandoned. A February 2000 BORDERLINES report on logging in the Sierra states "The removal of control mechanisms under the 1992 Forestry Law has led to an increase in illegal extraction of timber, large numbers of questionable logging permits, and a rapid proliferation of lumber mills in the Sierra Tarahumara." New road construction has stimulated the mainstream economy, increasing the mestizo population.

There is some speculation that tourism may replace logging as a development strategy in the mountains. Unfortunately, the development model SECTUR is now promoting may be equally damaging to the culture and environment. Ecotourism isn't always eco-friendly. As Martha Honey points out in Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, "sophisticated marketing techniques often allow the travel industry to appear "green" without making the fundamental or costly reforms."

Adventure and ethnic tourism are having an enormous impact on the Tarahumara whose magnificent home and culture have become an active traveler's destination. In the current dialogue on sustainability, local control of tourism is believed to be the key to minimizing impacts.

Santiago believes that a small responsible tourism project can have positive impacts like slowing the drought induced exodus from rural communities. Responsible tourism can create opportunities for volunteerism and cross cultural exchange, reinforcing local identities and traditions. Also created are the opportunities for self-determination that are essential to maintaining cultural integrity and sustainability for future generations.