It was a sunny Saturday morning at the quiet traffic circle outside the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara. Drivers slowed to take in the hand-painted signs — No Tyrants, Resist, Only You Can Prevent Fascist Liars. A few honked in support, one gave a thumbs-up. From the grassy median, a small crew of Mexican landscapers paused […]

Thick clouds covered the unusually lush, green lands of San Luis Potosí as campesinos and their Wixárika guardians gathered at the edge of the barbed wire. Back home in their adobe kitchens, women prepared huge skillets of scrambled eggs, steaming pots of beans and warm, fresh tortillas. Those savory flavors of the Wirikuta region would […]

When Tran Dang is asked why her nonprofit is called The Rhizome Center for Migrants, she doesn’t hesitate. “Rhizomes sprout more roots and more shoots in unexpected ways. A rhizome symbolizes growth that has no origin or end. It represents, for us, resilience across borders and interconnected journeys.” For Tran, founder and director of The […]

In the moonlit circle above Teotihuacán, a mother confronts her lineage of pain and finds renewal in community and ceremony. Editor’s NoteThis is the third and final part of our Moon Dance series, published as the women of the Danza de la Luna prepare for their fourth and final night of ceremony at Cerro Gordo, […]

The drum’s deep heartbeat reverberated through the clearing, steady as the women swayed in flowing white garments beneath the waning moon. From the slopes of Cerro Gordo, the pyramids of Teotihuacán could be glimpsed faintly in the haze below, reminders of another era of ceremony and community. Voices rose from the Casa de Cantos: “Hey, […]

Amidst songs, prayers and fasting, participants find strength and community in this nocturnal ceremony. Story by Tracy L. BarnettFotografía por Rogelio Martínez Cárdenas Women from across Mexico gather in a camp on the slopes of Cerro Gordo, overlooking the ancient city of Teotihuacán. They arrive after weeks of fasting, ceremony, and preparation—many having saved money, […]

The scent of sizzling pupusas and hot tamales mingled with the smoky tang of pho-seasoned chicken wings. Music spilled into the courtyard of a 400-year-old monastery-turned-Secretariat of Culture headquarters in downtown Guadalajara, where a crowd gathered beneath colorful banners. On stage, a Chicano rapper who goes by Wombay welcomed the audience with a freestyle, his […]

The auditorium at the ITESO university was filled to capacity on the evening of September 2 as students, faculty, civil society leaders, and an international delegation from Loyola Marymount University gathered for the inauguration of Guadalajara’s new Clínica Jurídica de Migración Binacional (Binational Migration Legal Clinic). Applause broke out again and again as speakers underscored […]

At 8 a.m. on a sweltering Saturday morning, a convoy of pickups and cars rumbled out of the mountain town of Bacoachi, banners fluttering in the desert wind. Families leaned out of windows waving signs that read “No to dams!” as the “Megacaravan” began its 262-kilometer trek through the whole mountainous region. Along the way, more […]

As part of Green Action Week 2025, Guadalajara’s Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco is rallying citizens to confront the plastic waste crisis with science, creativity, and community action — from global treaties to neighborhood parks.

For The Guadalajara Reporter The people of San José de Tateposco still tell of the day their patron saint wandered through the village. Some said they saw him in the fields, others glimpsed him barefoot among the mezquites, his robe shining green in the sun. “Suddenly, he disappeared and went back to his temple,” recalled […]

Dawn takes its time in the Chihuahuan desert. By the time the first light brushes the hills above Wirikuta, Wixárika pilgrims are already moving, with gourd bowls and candles in hand, and stories carried in footsteps along a 500-kilometer thread of sacred sites that ties mountains to springs, desert to sea, and families to their ancestors. Last month, UNESCO wove that thread into World Heritage. 

All Photos by Tracy L. Barnett COLUMBIA, Mo. — “No Kings, No Hate; We don’t want ICE in our state!” The cries filled an overflowing Courthouse Square and rallied the ranks still flowing in from the streets as one of thousands of cities around the country commenced its largest protest in many years. The “No […]

Mexico’s first presidenta pledges full restitution and recognition of sacred sites as Wixárika leaders celebrate long-overdue justice in the mountains of Nayarit. LA YESCA, Nayarit — Under a blue sky and the watchful eyes of the Sierra Madre mountains, Mexico’s first woman president made history on May 8, 2025. Claudia Sheinbaum arrived in Wixárika territory […]

In this jubilee year of International Mother Language Day, a new generation of Indigenous artists, creatives, and educators is passionately working to promote the resurgence of Native languages. As we reflect on the alarming statistic that a language dies every 40 days, it becomes clear that preserving these languages is crucial for maintaining cultural identity […]

I recently sat down with Gabriel Meyer Halevy in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where the mountains meet the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. As we spoke, I was reminded once again of how much Latin America has to teach us about weaving together spirituality and resistance. Gabriel carries forward a powerful legacy: his […]

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, USA — On a bitter January afternoon, hundreds of citizens crowded into a community room in this college town, their winter coats piled in corners, their breath still visible from the cold. They had come to weave their resistance to an administration about to take power in Washington – though inside, the atmosphere […]

Yesterday, in an explosion of celebration, dance, music and pure love, the Peace and Dignity Journeys runners from the North — the Route of the Eagle — met their counterparts from the Route of the Condor. It was a long-awaited encounter south of Bogotá, Colombia, with runners that started their journey in Alaska in May, […]

Para leer este artículo en Español ir a Defendiendo lo Sagrado en Colombia: Un Llamado a la Acción Today I write to you from the “Heart of the World,” the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, where Indigenous communities—the Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa, and Kankuamo peoples—are facing intensifying violence after decades fighting to defend their land and […]

Today in the Aztec calendar is Ce Xochitl, One Flower. A single flower for the bereft. A flower on the grave of the hope that we could rise above, that we could at last be a peacefully coexisting multicultural nation coming home to the fact of the diversity that is our strength. For the hope […]

Dear readers: As you may have noticed, it’s been a long dry spell. We just sent our first newsletter since June; while Mother Earth has been busy prodigiously giving fruit, cereal, root and seed for human and non-human sustenance, this land has been lying fallow. But harvest time brings the fruit of that period of […]

Grandfather’s vision about ‘gallons and gallons’ of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara seeds nurtures tribal college food sovereignty project. Dr. Ruth Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills recalls when her grandfather, Gerard Baker, shared with her some seeds – and his dream that they would multiply. “His wish was that there would be gallons and gallons of jars of these seeds […]

Good news! After three long years of labor, we are showing Legacy of the Andes, the long-awaited second part of our Cosmology & Polycrisis (formerly Cosmology & Pandemic) transmedia series, at the Cosmology & Polycrisis website (cosmocrisis.com). All proceeds from the rent and purchase of the films go to support our independent transmedia work to […]

Over 250 Indigenous representatives and allies unite to forge Sacred Covenant at Palenque’s ancient ceremonial center. It was a scene that could have played out a thousand years ago, or more. Amid a cluster of ancient Mayan temples, a rainbow-hued assemblage of Indigenous elders and young leaders formed a ceremonial circle. They looked on as […]