José Benítez Sánchez

José Benítez Sánchez, also known as Yucaye Kukame (San Pablo, El Nayar, Nayarit, August 17, 1938

The technique used in his paintings involves coating flat wooden boards with a sticky beeswax adhesive called , then placing thick and thin wool yarn of vibrant colors on top.

Life The artist was born in San Pablo, Mesa del Jueroche, Municipality of El Nayar, Nayarit. According to his people's tradition, he was named Yucauye Kukame, which means 'Silent Walker', and, like his ancestors, he was raised to be a mara'akame, or shaman. At age 16 he left his Huichol community

In 1968, he was known as a representative of Huichol culture, so he was asked to dance and played his people's music with the xaweri (violin) during the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.

Alongside his workshop activities, he worked at the Coordinating Center of the Huichol Cora and Tepehuano Plan, choosing authentic crafts from the indigenous peoples of the region.

In 1971, Benítez acted as a link between the Mexican government and indigenous artisans selling crafts through government offices.

Yarn paintings quickly became a commercial success, and Benítez's work gained international recognition.

Benítez taught his art form to several Huichol apprentices, including Juan Ruiz Martínez, who later developed a particular style.

In 1972, he founded the Zitakua huichol community.

He resumed the shamanic tradition that he had interrupted, making several pilgrimages through the land of his people, in the mountains, the desert, and the coast. These long absences renewed his artistic inspiration, which was reflected in his works that gradually became more complex and sophisticated. For the last decades of his life, he split his time between creating art and taking extended journeys to sacred Huichol sites.

Exhibitions

In 1972, some of his works were exhibited in several states of Mexico, and later in the United States at the San José Museum of Art in California (1976), at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and four other European cities (1984–1985), reaching its peak at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico (1986). Additionally, his works were exhibited at the Convent of Pollença in Mallorca in 1991. In March 2008, he participated in the Fourth Mítica Comala Festival, Echoes of the Coast, in Comala, Colima, presenting his exhibition "Steps of the Silent Walker." In July 2011, the tribute exhibition "José Benítez Sánchez, mara' akame: El Caminante Silencioso" was held at the Museo Universitario de Artes Populares María Teresa Pomar.

Since 1994, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has a permanent collection of Huichol yarn paintings, including works by Benítez.

Since 2001 the Juárez light rail station in Guadalajara features a mural created by artist Benítez, called La semilla del mundo . It represents the origin of the three worlds according to the Wixárika worldview.

When Benítez died, his unfinished work La creación del mundo - Kiekari Muyu Tawewitsie was exhibited at the Centro Universitario del Norte. Only 9 of the 21 projected panels were finished. In 2023, his son Fidencio Benítez Rivera concluded the remaining panels. It has been exhibited in campuses of the University of Guadalajara, such as CUCEA.

His art is part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.