The Tarahumara, "people of the edge, " live on the boundaries of civilization, in the mountains and canyonlands of Mexico's Sierra Tarahumara. There, in southwestern Chihuahua, terrain terminates at the edge of canyons; there mountains border the sky. In these pages, words by W. Dirk Raat and images by George R, Janeck are testimony to the endurance of the Tarahumara people.
Today, roughly fifty thousand Tarahumaras continue living in ways similar to those of their ancestors retaining many customs from their pre-Colombian past. At the same time, as outside forces modify the environment, the Tarahumara have adapted their culture in order to survive.
Contemporary Tarahumara culture is a product largely of the Jesuit era from 1607 to 1767. The native people responded to the Spanish either by trying to live beyond the influence of the Church or by becoming Christianized Indians and seeking Church protection. This distinction still can be seen. However, even those who became Christian did not succumb to attempts to eradicate traditional religious and cultural practices. Rather, they incorporated Christianity into their own world view.
The nineteenth century saw the arrival of gold and silver miners and of American promoters seeking to extend their commercial empire into northern Mexico. The twentieth century has witnessed the Mexican Revolution and the emergence of the "mestizo age." In the canyon homelands of the Tarahumara railroads and electricity have facilitated extensive timber and copper mining enterprises an well as increased tourism.
This evocative photohistory captures dramatic contrasts as well as the underlying continuity in the lives of the Tarahumara people.
W. Dirk Raat is Professor of History at the Sate University of New York, Fredonia. He has traveled to the Sierra Tarahumara every year since the mid-1980's, and has written seven books about Mexico. George R, Janeck is a widely published photographer who has spent six years traveling and researching the Sierra Tarahumara.
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