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The Chihuahuan Desert in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. The Wixáritari, an Indigenous group, return here every year to collect peyote.

The World Through a Lens

Inside a Peyote Pilgrimage

Drug tourists, mining companies and farming encroachment are threatening the Wixárika people’s annual hunt for the psychedelic plant in the Mexican desert.

Photographs by Matt Reichel

Text by Robyn Huang

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Mario Bautista was digging relentlessly at the ground. Deep in the vast and unforgiving Chihuahuan Desert, in northeastern Mexico, he had spent nearly eight hours wading through a seemingly endless patch of thorny brush. Surrounding him were 25 members of his community, including his wife and children.

Everyone in the group was searching for one thing: the psychedelic plant known as peyote, or hikuri — a small, squishy cactus camouflaged underneath the shrubbery.

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K’kame, at left, an elder among the Wixárika, takes part in a ritual in central San Luis Potosí, near a naturally bubbling spring. Here, the pilgrims use brushes and candles to collectively baptize one another.

Mario and those alongside him are members of the Mexican Huichol, or Wixárika, people, and hikuri is their lifeline. Whatever they found would be brought back to their village for use in their daily religious rituals.

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Mariana Bautista prepares blue corn tortillas over an open stove in the village of La Cebolleta.
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A Wixáritari woman washes vegetables inside her detached kitchen. The Wixáritari grow a variety of produce, including beans, green beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, chilis and squash. They also make homemade cheese.

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. The Wixárika believe that the plant allows them to connect with their ancestors and regenerates their souls.

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