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8: Little Jesus of the Peyotes
- University of New Mexico Press
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When the two brothers did not show up the next day, or the day after, I went in search of Matsiwa. I had no trouble finding him with the other Huichols at the Plaza de la Veracruz. Jesús was not there, but Matsiwa sent a Huichol boy out to see if he could locate him. Matsiwa said that his brother wanted to continue the tale.They were working on a nealica down in the old refectory,so I should bring my equipment there.I took a pesero back home for my recorder,some tape,and a long extension cord. Electricity would be a problem. By the time I returned, Jesús was there. Both of them were working on the large Huichol yarn painting that Jesús had designed. By now I could quickly identify his style. They were twisting brightly colored threads into the wax to fill in the outline that Chucho had made. There was a low table where Matsiwa said I could set up the tape recorder, and while I did so, half the women and children there came over to watch. I put on a little tape of Huichol music just to test the machine, and some of the children immediately began to dance to it. It was great fun.Then I set up the microphone and let them hear their own voices.That was even more fun. Finally Jesús came over and asked if everything was ready.He shooed the women and children away,pulled up an uweni, and sat down a few feet from the microphone while I adjusted the volume.The Huichols were more used to the tape recorder unlike the first day at the monastery. “Is it ready?” he asked.“Can I begin?” 46 | viii Little Jesus of the Peyotes “And now,while Matsiwa works here,I will begin to tell you of the way my thread was spun,” he said.“How my iyari has been formed, my soul spun.How the yarn has been twisted and the course that my river, my life, has followed. I will tell you how the net has been woven and the design has been set.You will not forget it. No one has heard this story. And remember, at the end, a machine is mine, isn’t that so, Matsiwa?” “It is,” Matsiwa answered. “Chucho will tell you the truth, the one true story, how his thread has been spun,but he isn’t telling this for you.He wants the‘Other,’the One who is the Wind, the Nightwind to hear it.The Brother of the Deer will hear it,then perhaps he will be safe,”Matsiwa said,still working on the yarn painting. I still did not understand for whom Chucho was telling his tale, but Matsiwa’s reference to theWind,the Nightwind,should have been clear. It was Kieli,the Sorcerer,the“Tree of theWinds,”the Nightwind.I was more interested in just getting the story at that time than in Chucho’s motivation for telling it. “Matsiwa,wait a minute,you are doing that wrong,”Jesús said,turning toward his brother,who had begun to fill in the black-and-blue sky designs on the painting.“Put these on the way I made it. Let me show you.” Jesús got up and went over to where Matsiwa was working.He began speaking rapidly in Huichol as he showed Matsiwa how to fill in the yarn painting. I couldn’t quite hear them but something was said about Kieli. He came back to his seat, but continued talking to Matsiwa. “Can you speak into the microphone, Jesús?” I asked.“I cannot hear what you are saying unless you speak into the microphone.The tape will not have anything on it.” “I will speak and you will listen,” Jesús said rather gruffly. “And I don’t want any more of your words in that snake,” he added. “I will tell you about my mothers and where they came from,” he started out. “They were sisters and they lived on the rancho of José Santero, who was their father. José’s ranch was on the mesa beyond La Colonia above Mesquitic, and he had four wives. He moved to Pochotita when the tewalis took our land on the mesa. Everything VIII | Little Jesus of the Peyotes| 47 [44.200.249.42] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:48 GMT) even beyondTenzompa and Mezquitic was once a part...