“spirtually and passionately alive”
In preparation for my trip to the Copper Canyon in Mexico early this March, digging up more info about the intriguing Tarahumara:
Perhaps the purest and most unmixed of any Indian tribe in Mexico, so little is known about them that their true name “Raramuri” was corrupted to “Tarahumara” by white men and never corrected.
Most of the world knows them only as long distance runners. Living in high altitudes, they have developed tremendous lung capacity and in more primitive times hunted deer and mountain goats, running them down on foot. In more modern times, they have run non-stop in relay teams from Chihuahua City to El Paso, a distance of 230 miles, to open the Pan-American Road Races.
However, this running ability is only one facet of their life style. The truly remarkable thing about them is an ancient religion which has bred into them a moral code so strict that they are unable to tell a lie.
Psychologists suggest that over the centuries this value system has actually caused physiological changes in their brain that preclude speaking anything but the truth. Nor can they cheat or fail to aid a fellow tribesman…
Today the “People” (the translation of the name Raramuri) have been driven into the highest reaches of the Sierra Tarahumara, in the State of Chihuahua. There, even the valleys are over 5000 feet above sea level. Now, it appears their last bit of fertile land may be taken over by outsiders, forcing the Indians to retreat higher into the mountains…
The men wear a loin cloth, held together by a wool girdle wrapped twice around the waist. A long, loose, full sleeved shirt of cotton and a cloth head band complete the outfit. The women wear full multiple or layered skirts. Blouses are always worn loose at the waist. They have full sleeves, heavily pleated at the wrists and shoulders. Like the men, they wear cloth head-bands…
Their ancient theology was not based on dogma or abstract concepts; nor is their new Christianity. Rather it is a day by day practice of living in harmony with nature and their fellow man…
Costumed, masked dancers move to the beat of drums and the wailing of flutes. Other dances are performed to solicit rain, heal the sick, bury the dead. All blend the new Christianity with ancient practices…
Thus healers, rainmakers and other keepers of the tribal heritage exist side by side with Catholic priests. Living conditions among the Raramuri today are still primitive. They continue to barter rather than use pesos, and speak little Spanish…
The future of the Raramuri is bleak. Malnutrition and disease go hand in hand with the loss of fertile, food-producing land…
Luis G. Verplancken… is probably the greatest authority on their history and culture.(MexConnect: The Tarahumara: An Endangered Species by Shep Lenchek)
An Excerpt from A Tarahumara Run through Texas by Jim Nicar:
Plans were made for two races. The women would run a traditional marathon distance of 26.2 miles that began in central Austin, proceeded north to the small town of Round Rock, and then returned to finish at Memorial Stadium, where the Relays would already be underway.
By itself, an all-female marathon would be a sensation. The United States was enjoying the raucous “Roaring Twenties” and women had not only won the right to vote at the start of the decade, but were actively stretching the limits of longstanding social mores. Skirts with hemlines
above the knees, smoking in public, driving automobiles, and even cheering at athletic events were considered new and daring, and would have been branded “unladylike” and unthinkable behavior just ten years earlier.
Locally, while the University of Texas had admitted women since it opened in 1883, co-eds still had to follow the strict regulations found on most American college campuses. University administrators were anxious to protect a lady’s “delicate constitution,” limited a co-ed’s social outings to three times per week (that’s all they could stand), and enforced a 10pm curfew most evenings. Sports, in small doses, were considered healthy, but physicians generally advised against “undue physical exertion.” Too much running and jumping might “break something” and deny a woman the opportunity for motherhood after college. Some doctors were convinced that a co-ed ought not to study during a particular time of the month, as it would drain the body’s energies away from more important tasks. For the residents of Austin, along with much of the country, the idea that three women could safely attempt to run a marathon was counter to the prevailing social and medical tenets of the time.
Download his entire article by clicking here.
Ultra-marathon runner Deborah Bezanis describes her experience of running with the Rarámuri:
When the sun began to set and the air, at last, to cool in the Copper Canyon, I was glad I had not quit the foot race when the sun was hot overhead, and that I didn’t miss the colorful solitude of trails and red dirt roads at dusk. The Sierra Tarahumara, also known as the Copper Canyon, is as large as Nebraska. Three hundred miles south of El Paso, Texas, a UNESCO report rates it second only to the Amazon Rain Forest in biodiversity. It is also home to indigenous people we call Tarahumara, who call themselves Raramuri.
A handful of North Americans, myself included, met in the very small town of Urique. It is a town like most in Mexico, inhabited by Meztitzos, people whose bloodlines proceed from both Hispanic and indigenous ancestors. Raramuri, Meztitzos and North Americans like us rarely commune, but that we did for the sake of a 48-mile foot race, sandwiched between community celebrations. Raramuri men, whose ancient tradition of running as far as 100 miles, are among the fastest, most enduring runners in the world.
We ran in trail-running shoes while they ran, as always, in handmade sandals. The Raramuri call what we were doing “Korima”–sharing. Beyond sharing traditions and celebrations, we shared friendship, and treasure. Regardless of who won, the Raramuri returned to their scattered ranchitos knowing a truckload of dried corn would soon arrive, a prize for each indigenous participant. These were the Raramuri of Batopilas Canyon, for whom corn is a life staple…
As Trail Runner Magazine called it, its a race “…more about compassion than competition…”
To complete this race is, nonetheless, an accomplishment, and those fleeter of foot vigorously compete. Last year I ran this distance for the very first time. At one juncture I was pointed down a rocky trail by a young Raramuri from whom I’d asked directions. It wasn’t long before I met a small group of girls wearing characteristic bright cottons, long braids, and handmade sandals. Grasping at my scattered knowledge of Spanish, I understood their admonitions: “Hurry Up! Hurry Up! Don’t you want to beat him?!”, they asked, referring to the other remaining runner on the course.
They leaped on and over the stones and roots that paved the trail, literally pushing me from behind until we reached the plaza of a small village and the turnaround point from which I would return to the finish line in Urique. As I entered town a little later on an old Meztitzo man in a straw cowboy hat and denims ran along behind me. Like the girls he called, “You’re late! You’re late!” I was
indeed. But I told them all, “Si, pero voy a completarlo!”–Yes, but I’m going to finish it! And it was one of the most outstanding experiences of my life.
Deborah is actively working on help growing a new non-profit organization centered upon the preservation of the culturally-rich Tarahumara community. Learn more Norawas de Rarámuri.
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