Vigilance

El temazcal es un ritual de purificación indígena de México. «¡Escuchen a sus ancestros, a sus Abuelas!», nos dicen ahora los pueblos indígenas cuando finalmente preguntamos. Pero ¿quiénes son? ¿Dónde están nuestros ancestros de la cultura colonizadora? ¿Acaso tenemos ancestros, o Abuelas, a quienes escuchar? Estas son las preguntas que afloraron a mi conciencia durante mi último ritual de temazcal en México. Y mi cuerpo, todo mi ser, lloró.

A temazcal is an Indigenous sweat ritual in Mexico. This ancient ritual offers renewal, purification, and spiritual connection and is connected to the roots of the natural world where, in Temazcalero and healer Huitzi Nagual’s words: "It’s the roots, the land, the wind, the birds, the experience of resonating with this beautiful life. Sometimes the journey has stones, sometimes flowers, other times the wind blows against your face as you walk."

For Mexican director Iván Aguirre, barrios are the neighbourhoods that still exist with all of their unique traditions and communal pride, neighbourhoods that were once pueblos on the outskirts and have become absorbed by the sprawl of the city. Barrios are cultural oasis that resist gentrification by maintaining their essence and Aguirre’s 12-part series, Crónicas de barrio, celebrates just that.