OUR GOODBYE TO JACINCTO, A HUICHOL SPIRITUAL TEACHER

By Juan Montoya
It wasn't that long ago (July 2013, to be specific) that Jacinto Robles, the Huichol spiritual teacher who adopted the border as his field of labor and love held a ceremony at Brownsville's Hope Park.
There, dressed in is traditional Huichol clothes, he burned copal and prayed that the enmity and inequality between the two nations that manifested itself in an ugly metal fence dividing the two peoples would be healed and disappear. He prayed for the unwanted immigrants at the gate who were hunted down and chased through the wilds by the protectors of the realm like beasts to be caged and prosecuted for wanting a better chance at life.
 Framed by the Border Wall and the bridge to Mexico in the background, Jacinto sat in front of a basket with the tools of the shaman: eagle feathers, a deer's hoofed foot end leg bone, and native herbs.
"The prayer will be carried by the water of the river that is shared between the two counties and join the sea," interpreted a supporter.
Some of the media entourage asked the shaman how long a traditional blessing ceremony usually takes in his native land.
"If we start at 7 a.m. in the morning we continue until the next morning at 7 a.m.," he responded.
"Human being have been killing and maiming each other for thousands of years," said a participant at the ceremony. "What's one day dedicated to peace?"
After that, in December, with his feet firmly on the ground and his head barely visible above the speaker's podium, Jacinto, the wise man from the mountains of Mexico addressed the Brownsville City Commission during one of the regular meetings. Gifted with healing skills since he was a child in his village, he spoke to the people's representatives about humility, wisdom and righteousness, qualities in which some of them are sorely lacking.
Invited to the city by supporters of native rights, arts, and culture, Jacinto had been a frequent and welcome visitor here for the past few years. Dressed in his native garb, he has addressed followers of the native faith and dispenses traditional remedies and folk wisdom to those willing to hear his message.
Commissioner Ricardo Longoria introduced the Huichol wise man to his colleagues and welcomed him to the city on behalf of local officials and city residents.
As usual, Mexican consul Rodolfo Arenas Quilantan was notable for his absence.
Those of us who appreciated the man's teachings gathered through generations of others like him were saddened to hear about his passing from this mortal plane to that which awaits us all.
A recurring Huichol theme is one of opposites fusing in general, and in particular, the old man becoming the child. If that is true, we may expect that sometime, somewhere, Jacinto will again reemerge to renew his labors on behalf of his fellow men.
  We may not have agreed or understood all his teachings or believed all he had to say, but anyone who advocated unity, brotherhood and respect for nature and those around us was worth listening to. We are much saddened at his passing and those who were close to him gathered recently at the same spot where he sat last time and held a ceremony of remembrance in his honor.
Till we meet again, Jacinto.