Huiricuta is a high-plateau desert in the northern state of San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
The place is beautiful beyond words; wild, harsh, vast, mountainous, remote, pure, immortal... It has all the romantic clichés you can think of.
And then there is peyote - the highly hallucinogenic cactus, native to these lands.
According to the cosmology of native Huichol people, it is the place where the world has started and where the mythical god of fire Tatewari is still present, riding his blue deer and inviting the cosmic visions into the minds of those who came here to partake the sacred plant.
In 2015, during my first trip to Huiricuta, I met Don Roy.
He is considered the guardian of the sacred space where he welcomes people to experience the Peyote.
Living in Huiricuta all his life, he seemed a very natural part of the desertic environment, deeply acknowledging and respecting the world that surrounds him.
The following photographs were taken around the house of Don Roy during my three visits to Huiricuta from 2015 to 2019.
These are the intimate conversations, occurring under the influence of the plant; the speechless dialogue between the desert and its visitors, the experience of peyote that manifests itself as a mute monologue of subconsciousness in the minds of the desert trippers.
Whatever it is; the message from the spirits or a game of imagination under the effect of psychoactive cactus - the plant talks to you. Everything is mute, and at the same time, there is a feeling that this stillness splits the reality in half, opening yet unknown empty spaces for the new insights and realizations to take over.
We have started to relate ourselves to the desert, exploring the desertic environment alongside the labyrinths of our own psyche, merging ourselves into the desert and becoming one with it.