Today is the first day of #HispanicHeritageMonth! Each week this month, we'll share about a Latine artist whose works are featured in our collection. To begin, we'll look at the work of José Benítez Sánchez.⁣ ⁣ José Benítez Sánchez was a Huichol artist born in San Pablo, Mexico, in 1938. He credits his path as a shaman to a revelation following an illness when he was fifteen, after which he set off on a pilgrimage to the sacred desert Wirikuta. When he returned, his father told him he must take certain objects with him the next time: a gourd bowl, an arrow, a candle, and a small painting of himself with his family, a deer, and a snake. Benítez did as his father suggested and made a painting from lamb's wool yarn. In the 1960s, he became an apprentice to his cousin, Ramón Medina Silva. Silva was a shaman and an artist who fashioned decorative narratives made with yarn inspired by Huichol mythology. Benítez took the art form to a new level and began to record dreams, peyote-induced visions, and ceremonies in his works. Benítez’s success as an artist coincided with his growing stature in his community. He helped found the Indigenous community of Tsitákua and was elected its first tatoani, or governor. Today, his unique, one-of-a-kind pieces are in museum collections around the world.⁣ ⁣ ['Where Offerings are made in the Sea' José Benítez Sánchez]