S2 #2.2 | Defending Land & Lineage from Psychedelic Tourism | Wirikuta Preservation Project (ENG)

The End of Tourism

The Wirikuta Preservation Project is an internationally-run endeavour to protect 500 acres of land for the Wixarika Nation in Estacion de Catorce in the state of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Their mission is to preserve Wixarika sacred lands & cultural heritage while supporting future generations to continue living their traditional way of life by purchasing threatened land in Estacion de Catorce.

Our guests today are Maria Guadalupe Valazquez, Santiago Alonso, and Kristen Alyra Hughes from the Wirikuta Preservation Project. For our English language interview, we’re speaking with Kristen Alyra Hughes.

Kristen Alyra Hughes has lived and worked in Indigenous communities throughout the Guatemala, Peru, Mexico and Indonesia for the past decade, building bridges between the transient spiritual communities and native peoples of the land. Currently, Alyra is the Secretary and Project Coordinator for the Wirikuta Preservation Project team of For Goodness Sake. It is one of her greatest passions and dreams in life to see First Nations People receiving their land and creating a future for their generations to comes which fosters sustainability of their culture and way of life.

In this episode, we discuss land and institutional betrayal, heritage as intangible, the impacts on Wirikuta territory, lack of respect from foreigners, cultural appropriation, land privatization, the invasion of tourists, and how to support the project.

Season 2 is dedicated to our late friend and mentor Gustavo Esteva, grandfather, sage, and co-founder of the University of the Earth in Oaxaca, Mexico. These episodes have been planned and organized in collaboration with our colleagues from the Unitierra Oaxaca.

They are dispatches from the resistance.

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Website: Wirikuta Preservation Project (English)

Wirikuta Preservation Project: GoFundMe

Wirikuta Preservation Project Video Trailer

Huicholes: The Last Guardians of Peyote

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