tarahumara

Easter in Copper Canyon is the most colorful time of year. Small towns which are sleepy most of the year now are full of tourists—both Mexican and foreign—who have come to see the Easter celebrations of the Tarahumara Indians. The tourists cluster with their cameras in the Indian villages, but most of them have little idea of what is going on.

To begin to understand the Tarahumara ceremonies, one has to have a basic understanding of the Indians’ religion. The Tarahumara are outwardly Catholic, but their version of Catholicism is unlike any form we are familiar with.

In 1602, the Jesuits brought Christianity to the Indians, who adopted it, but interpreted and modified it to conform to their own customs and ideas. In 1767, King Charles III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from the New World, and the Tarahumara, on their own now, continued to develop their religious beliefs and rituals. Their resulting theology is as follows:

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Down in the little town of Batopilas, tucked deep within the folds of Mexico’s Copper Canyon, I am witnessing something that is typically missing in this day and age: a craftsman in the process of creating a custom product. In this case the craftsman, José “Che” Rentería, is creating a unique pair of huaraches, sandals, for me.

I arrive in Batopilas after an exhilarating drive down the winding dirt road from the mountain town of Creel and make my way over to the Plaza de la Constitución to find the sandal maker. His door is closed and the tools covering the two wooden workbenches in front of his house lie dormant. As with many things in Mexico, I must wait.

After dinner I return to find Che working under the harsh light of a bare incandescent bulb. He wears a white shirt with the words “Austin, TX” embroidered on the breast. The lines etched in his face reflect the rugged contours of the canyon in which he lives. I tell him that I want to buy a pair of his sandals. He measures my feet with a trained eye and says definitively, “Ocho.” He asks if I can come back tomorrow. I tell him I will return around noon, and he nods his assent. With that, I am off. No deposit, no order form…he doesn’t even know my name. It is comforting to know some people still operate on trust. Perhaps it is the result of living in a place where time moves very slowly.

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In the summer of 1993, two of our California Native guides, Doug Stewart and Tarahumara woman Lynn Reineke, escorted a small group of Indians from the depths of Mexico’s Copper Canyon to Leadville, Colorado, where they astounded the world of marathon racing by coming in first, second and fourth place in a 100 mile ultra-marathon race, wearing their native garb and sandals made out of discarded tires.

Who were these strangely-dressed people, who came from obscurity to outpace hundreds of experienced runners?

They call themselves the Rarámuri, the Runners, and they inhabit the rugged and remote area of mountains and canyons in Mexico known as the Barrancas del Cobre or Copper Canyon. They are known to the outside world as the Tarahumara.

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