Who Are The Rarámuri
The Rarámuri/Ralámuli, meaning “The light-footed ones” or “Those with light feet,” are a group of indigenous people living in the Northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Settled in the mountain range of the Sierra Tarahumara, they became known around the world as the barefoot runners of extreme long distances. Their main activity is corn agriculture, a fundamental part of their livelihood and ceremonial activities.
Women wear their handmade typical clothing, full of vibrant and colorful patterns, their traditional clothing was made from canvas and palm weavings. Their arts and crafts are expressions of a way of life which emphasizes harmony and balance, as seen in their basket weaving, pottery and textiles which are earthy and spiritual, a veneration of nature.
Women used to wear triangular pieces of shell, and strings of red and blue beads. They made necklaces, called Kologa, and earrings, called Welaka, out of the seeds of Coix lachryma-jobi, a plant known as Job’s Tears, it was worn by men and women, mainly for medicinal purposes. The men put on a single string of these seeds, but women wrapped them several times around their necks. The astrologer or fortune teller, who is both a doctor and a priest, would always have one of them in ceremonies.
Some settlements have been displaced from their original land and now live in marginalized areas in the city and have been forced to work and assimilate to urban life as a survival strategy. They have been a displaced culture that fights to maintain their traditional ways of life, a culture that values above all their relationship to the natural world.
References:
El Mexico Desconocido by Carl Lumholtz
Cronicas de la Sierra Tarahumara by Luis Gonzalez Rodriguez
Pueblos indígenas del Mexico Contemporaneo by Ana Paula Pintado Cortina
Photos by:
Ximena Natera
Pedro Tzontémoc
Bob Schalkwijk
Eduardo Saucedo
Rashide Frías