Spread across the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental range, the Wixárika are an Indigenous people with an estimated population of 45,000. Within their culture, peyote is far more than just a hallucinogenic cactus. Every year, Wixárika communities make a several-hundred-mile pilgrimage to a sacred place called Wirikuta, near the northeastern city of Matehuala. Groups travel — these days by car, trucks and buses — under the direction of a leading shaman, or maraka’ame. Under Mexican law, only Indigenous groups are authorized to harvest and ingest peyote.

Source: New York Times July 05, 2021 09:00 UTC