Guadalupe González Ríos (1923 - 2003)

Guadalupe González Ríos, Ketsetemahé Teukarieya, or "Godson of the Iguanas" was born on December 12, 1923 in Carretones de Cerritos, Nayarit. He considered himself a member of the community of Tuapurie because of its paternal tradition. His wool yarn paintings became one of the best expressions of Wixarika art. While using the yarn technique and reaping some benefits with the sale of the designs, an uncle of González Ríos advised him not to touch on meaningful themes in his paintings, lest he become blind. Two factors could mitigate this ill-fated consequence: the first, that his work not merely serve as decoration but to provoke respect and admiration toward his sacred culture. The second factor was that I, as his intermediary, submit myself to the gaze of his principle "master", the jealous and feared kieri, known as the 'tree of the wind' amongst the Wixaritari. Continuing with the family tradition, González Ríos devoted himself exclusively to the cult of Our Elder Brother Deer of the Great Antlers, Tamatsi Wawatsari, as he called the kieri. It is in this way that we carried out three pilgrimages between 1973 and 1977 to the bush on the towering peak of the Lord of Darkness, Ttkakameritsie, to where one must walk from dawn while fasting in order to spend the night in vigil under the effects of the kieri pollen. From there, the Doors of the Underworld, Watettapa, can be contemplated in Our Mother Ocean, Tatéi Haramara, where Our Father Sun begins his invisible journey from West to East, along the path of a two-headed serpent. Gonzalez Ríos' visual style depicts a prayer and an invocation rather than a description. His figures are not linked to each other; they are human prototypes and their prayers float in the emptiness, around a central figure that defies gravity by its mass. Prayers and votive objects flow as dots, stars, and diverse figures that interconnect rhythmically. Since 1976, the practice of his shamanic gifts supplanted his interest in aesthetic expression, although he would continue to produce some pictures until the 1990s.

(above biography by the late Juan Negrin in Grandes Maestros del Arte Wixárika by Diana Negrin da Silva)