Eliseo Castro is one of the pioneers of the yarn art. His father, Daniel Castro, was a very well known shaman and his grandfather Hilario Castro, was undoubtedly one of the most powerful shamans of his time. Eliseo’s family is from Las Guyabas, a temple located deep in the canyon below San Andres Cohamiata, the ceremonial center of the Huichol. Eliseo’s sense of realism and perspective have taken Huichol art in new directions. As a shamanic culture they believe that the gods are their direct ancestors and it is they who taught them how to plant the corn, ask for rain, hunt the deer and do just about everything else that the culture needs to do to survive.
Just about all the pieces Eliseo does involve leaving offerings of peyote, corn, deer, prayer arrows and candles to give thanks to the gods for the bountiful harvest, good luck or health. Ancestral spirits can be seen taking offerings to the gods, large pots of water are overturned so the rain will fall and the corn will grow.
Everything you see in his pieces comes from the actual ceremonies that the Huichol hold to ask the gods for the rain that makes the corn grow, the good luck they need in hunting, the power to heal that the shaman possesses as well as the ceremonies performed to thank the gods for the successful harvest. Eliseo Castro's work can be found in Galeria Colectika in Puerto Vallarta and Peyote People in Oaxaca.