The Indigenous Cultural Center of San Miguel de Allende

To Raise Awareness of the Importance of Cultural Conservation and Environmental Stewardship

The San Miguel de Allende Guanajuato region of Mexico is home to many native people such as the Otomi, Chichimeca, Nahua, Purépecha, and others, as well as tribes from neighboring states such as the Wixárika (Huichol) people of Jalisco. These tribes carry vital traditional knowledge and languages which are now endangered because of poverty and lack of resources, and these pressures constrain these people from passing their cultural heritage on to their youth. The museum and ecological demo-site that we are proposing would be a discovery center and pillar of support, providing a multifaceted master plan to mitigate the threats facing many of these tribal nations. It will do so by safeguarding and disseminating age-old indigenous wisdom and cultural legacies that would otherwise succumb to the destructive forces of the modern world. In addition, it will educate the public about food and water eco-technologies based on native techniques rooted in environmental stewardship.

Why is the Preservation of Indigenous Wisdom Important?

“Before it is too late, the diverse cultures, languages and ecosystems of endangered indigenous populations can be brought back from the edge of extinction. However, a concerted effort is required to safeguard the ecological consciousness and native spirituality of these age-old cultures whose ways of life have protected not only seeds of corn, beans, and squash, but seeds of wisdom, providing alternate possibilities for humanity’s future.”

--Susana Valadez, Founder and Director, the Huichol Center

This concerted effort is the impetus for the creation of a model project that exemplifies what the world can become when education instills reverence and respect for life on earth. Indigenous wisdom can show us how to be mindful stewards of our planet rather than exploiters of it. 

There is much to be learned from cosmologies that are based on the intimately respectful relationship indigenous people have with the land, water, plants, and wildlife. For thousands of years traditional societies have flourished because their value system is rooted in the reciprocity between humans and the life forces of Mother Earth.  Their ancient spiritual beliefs demonstrate a deep ecological consciousness, that when awakened on a larger scale, will help to promote food and water security, earth-friendly livelihoods, and climate change resilience on a local and global scale.

Are we going to be the generation that will stand by and witness the last cultural guardians of ancient wisdom and patrimonies get consigned to the basement of a museum or worse... disappear altogether?

An Innovative Approach to Cultural Conservation

This “discovery center” will utilize an innovative, state of the art approach to teach visitors of all ages about the tangible and intangible heritage of ancient tribes.  It will utilize groundbreaking IT innovations, and other educational approaches to inspire a global appreciation of indigenous peoples and their age-old native wisdom. While working to safeguard imperiled legacies, this project will provide multiple options for disappearing cultures to implement economic and ecological solutions that could guarantee their self-determined futures. 

The site, which will become recognized for its 21st century pyramid design, will feature a diverse array of exhibits and pavilions that provide interactive learning experiences. All exhibits will be designed to instill a respect and love for indigenous ways while promoting the ideals of planetary stewardship with classes, seminars, and hands-on immersive educational experiences.

The Purpose and Goals of the Indigenous Cultural Center of San Miguel de Allende 

1) Preservation of Indigenous Peoples and their Wisdom

The purpose of the ICCSMA is to serve as a catalyst for a global movement that embraces endangered indigenous populations and protects their legacies. Their teachings which place human values of respect for Mother Earth over material values, can guide us all to a new paradigm about how we live on this planet.

The indigenous discovery hub will be a wonderland of information for the public. It will also serve to motivate indigenous youth to value and instill pride in their traditions, retain their languages, and pass on the wisdom and skills of their ancestors to future generations. 

Breakthroughs in contemporary museology will guide the curatorial team in the creation of exhibits that educate, entertain and challenge museumgoers of all ethnicities and ages. For example, Information Technology will provide immeasurable ways for indigenous people to share their knowledge with visitors on the site, or online, with a diverse, multicultural platform. As guests enter the exhibit halls, they will be able to use a phone app for detailed information on each exhibit.  Access to the museum’s database of knowledge will provide a gateway to a universe of fascinating information, translated into the language of their choice by digital guides. 

2)  Focus on Children and Youth

If endangered indigenous cultures and their legacies are to survive, it is the children and youth who must be motivated to learn the wisdom and heritage of their ancestors, and to find ways to incorporate these teachings into their daily lives. 

The Discovery Centers on the site will help them to do so by utilizing  innovative ways for museumgoers to access information from the repositories of knowledge contained in its databases. Fun and inspirational digital activities for inquiring minds will be tailored to each exhibit and age-group. In addition, the ICCSMA Educational Outreach Program will create digital curriculum accessible on-line for indigenous classrooms, many of them in remote communities, and for use by students worldwide.

3)  Eco-Center Demonstration Sites

The Eco-Center demonstration site design and green infrastructure will help the public to envision practical solutions to the degradation of worldwide environmental and water sources. Renewable and breakthrough energy solutions, combined with other  past and present eco-technologies will demonstrate the best practices of sustainable agriculture and water conservation. 

“Eco-Innovations” will be demonstrated throughout the 18-acre site we have selected for the museum and various pavilions. Installations on the grounds will showcase the many ways that the cosmology and eco-spirituality of Mexico’s original people intersect in this day and age with recent permaculture innovations. A model for sustainable food production will be created based on the blending of ancient traditions that honor the spirit of the land, while combining with modern cost-effective ways to increase yields. Biodynamic gardening techniques work hand in hand with ancestral indigenous practices to ensure abundant food and water security for generations to come. 

For example, rainmaking shamans and permaculture designers who harvest rainwater, will share their knowledge with each other and participants in workshops on the land. Shamans will perform water rituals, and others will teach about onsite water systems, storage ponds, and native irrigation systems.

4) Native Survival Skills

Visitors will have the opportunity to practice native horticulture firsthand, while learning to harvest and save seeds in seed banks. Indigenous guides, herbalists and ethnobotanists, who are experts in survival in the wilderness, will practice their skills, designing botanical gardens and orchards where edible, medicinal, decorative, and useful plants and fungi will be grown.  Participants will be taught wildcrafting and explore the plants in the vicinity that indigenous people have utilized throughout generations as sources of food, medicines, and raw materials for everyday life. An interactive exploration into bees and beekeeping will educate the public about Mother Nature’s pollinators and the gifts bees bring to our planet.

5)  Chinampas Comeback 

There are many ways to combine the best practices of the past with sustainable community development and nature-based technologies for the future. For example, there is a lake on the property which is the perfect place to create a demo site to illustrate the brilliant Aztec technology for the right use of water resources.  This lake will bring back the Aztec system of floating gardens, “chinampas”, an efficient sustainable technique to grow vegetables and flowers, create fisheries and fertilize crops simultaneously. This hallmark of Aztec culture is fast being forgotten in the modern world and will make a strong comeback as a focal point of the many green initiatives on the site. 

Water conservation methods such as rainwater catchment on all the buildings, water wheels to generate electricity, permaculture techniques for irrigation and water filtration systems will demonstrate valuable lessons about the right use of water.

6)  The Cactus Conservancy to Teach Climate Change Resilience

Another prominent feature of the Eco-Center is its location. It will be situated in a high desert ecosystem, demonstrating practical solutions to address climate change concerns that are prevalent across the globe. 

A Cactus Conservancy will be created to propagate and cultivate drought resistant cacti and succulents.  This pavilion will be a real epiphany for people who have never had the opportunity to learn about the versatile uses of these plants as sources for: food, medicines, forage, habitat for animals, and natural building materials. More importantly, the Cactus Conservancy will become a resource to supply cactus seeds and plants for people to create their own cactus gardens or create larger scale farms in order to enhance the productivity of their land with drought resistant vegetation.

7) A Great Way to Recycle Plastic: Eco-brick Production Center

In keeping with indigenous architectural traditions, the main building of the Indigenous Cultural Center will consist of a large multi-tiered pyramid, specifically designed to create ample gallery space for each exhibit. Throughout the land, other buildings and pavilions will be constructed with bricks. A special area on the land will be designated for brick making, with a demo-site that teaches how to make Eco-Bricks out of compressed plastic bottles and ground up glass. 

8) Establish a Permanent Safe Home for the Huichol Center Collection and Ethnographic Archive

For almost fifty years, anthropologist Susana Valadez, Founder and Director of the Huichol Center (full bio below) has amassed an unparalleled collection of Huichol art and ethnographic documentation. As a cultural insider through marriage into the tribe, she has had open access to wisdom keepers who have provided her with obscure information, unavailable to other academics.  Susana’s extensive research into Huichol life and cosmology consists of a world class collection of thousands of items and extraordinary artifacts, along with drawings, and countless taped interviews with artists, shamans, elders, tradition keepers, midwives, and more. Also featured in this extensive documentation are rare photographs, videos, recordings of music and songs, linguistic studies, archeological and historical information, ethnobotanical knowledge, traditional recipes, child rearing techniques and substantial research into natural sciences. 

The Centro Indígena Huichol in Huejuquilla el Alto, Jalisco houses the Ethnographic Archive created by anthropologist Susana Valadez

The Ethnographic Archive has been compiled over decades at the Centro Indígena Huichol in the remote town of Huejuquilla El Alto, Jalisco, in proximity to the vast Huichol homeland. Susana’s life’s work documenting the Huichol culture for posterity is undoubtedly the most comprehensive body of research ever amassed on this culture. However, Huejuquilla, where the center is located,  is not easily accessible to the public or to researchers because of bad roads and few facilities for visitors. The Huichol Center Collection and Ethnographic Archive must be properly protected and will find a safe new home as a major attraction of the Indigenous Cultural Center of Miguel de Allende, where it will be shared with the world and experienced by large numbers of visitors to the area.

   Income Generating Activities 

• This “must see destination” for local and worldwide eco-cultural tourism will generate funds from multiple business ventures on the site. Many of the businesses will be owned and operated by indigenous entrepreneurs. Some possible examples of such businesses, that would both help support the museum and provide new sources of income for indigenous people, include:

• Trading post that sells a variety of products with our logo and brand

• Website sales of products, online classes, videos, seminars, and conferences

• Multimedia phone apps with Exploratorium content

• Art gallery where works can be sold on-site and commissioned by featured artists

• Indigenous Heritage Bookstore and Literary Sala with special events featuring native authors and poets and books in native languages

• Botanical Gardens and Cactus Conservancy Bookstore with instruction manuals for Ecovillage and eco-technologies practiced on the site, cactus growers’ guides, etc.

• ICCSMA publishing company to print exhibit catalogs, children’s books, activities and games, schoolbooks, native cookbooks, arts and crafts manuals, native language learning tools, photographs, anthropological and ethnobotanical documentation---also cards, posters, digital art and souvenirs. 

• Sacred Flow Water workshops featuring chinampa building, aquaponics, and native water conservation techniques.

• Equinox and full moon ceremonies to honor Mother Earth throughout the agricultural cycle, with regenerative planting and harvest rituals.

• Healing demonstrations, events, and retreats lead by esteemed medicine people who will inform about healing techniques and medicinal plants.

• Sacred Ancestral Plants, Fungi and Cacti conferences and retreats led by medicine people.

• Rites of passage, special events honoring newborns, coming of age festivities, life milestones and transitions.

• Weddings performed by shamans on top of a pyramid.

• Public and private special events i.e., community gatherings, celebrations, conferences, conventions and more.

• Survival skills workshops led by elder hunters and gatherers

• Native language courses and tutorials for language conservation

• Restaurant featuring farm-to-table native cuisine including farm products, fish from pond, edible flowers, insects, wildcrafted foods

• Indigenous cooking classes on-site, and online 

• Native astronomy planetarium with star gazing events 

• Multimedia I-Max theater for special presentations

• Movie-night theater for films with indigenous themes and actors

• Virtual reality portals to the Huichol psychedelic landscape, underworld, inside a beehive, journey to sacred sites

• Performance pavilion for indigenous musicians 

• Traditional dances and dance classes

• Indigenous music and dance festivals

• Native dress fashion shows featuring contemporary fashion designs

• Farmer’s markets for food and other products produced on site that can also be marketed to local stores i.e., cactus jam, blue corn pancake mix, prickly pear ice cream, agave syrup, blue kernel popcorn

• Artisans’ marketplace with traditional and contemporary arts

• Annual large scale indigenous art fairs

• Children’s Festivals as celebrated in indigenous cultures, with plays, pageants, and storytellers

• Elder story-tellers events featuring venerated elders from various tribes

• Inter-tribal gatherings and pageants

• Tours to nearby related attractions such as archeological sites, museums, botanical gardens, cactus farms and permaculture projects

• Commercial nurseries for plants, seeds, seedlings, mushroom spores

• Agave products

• Animal husbandry courses

• The world of birds and bees: apiary and aviary classes from indigenous teachers

• Donkey and donkey cart rides around the property

• Eco-brick production yard

• Guest and intern lodging facilities

• Curator and conservation classes

• Traveling exhibits

 An Economic Boost for the Region: Jobs

This facility will provide employment to large numbers of people in many vocations throughout the region and elsewhere.  Locals with practical skills will benefit as members of the job force with good paying jobs that raise the quality of their lives and provide good futures for their families.  Jobs requiring more specific skills will involve a professional team with expertise in administration, project management, digital data uploaders, digital artists, human resources, construction, green technologies, education, exhibit designers, conservators, salespeople, restaurant team, IT experts, public relations, tourism and more. We are targeting indigenous youths to be trained for these positions.

The Immediate Need

The immediate need is to purchase the ideal land near San Miguel de Allende where the museum and ecological demo site can get underway. This property suits all of the needs of this monumental project. It is on the market now, and we are eager to acquire it before someone else buys it.