Xurabe

Xurabe (Paula García Serrano), a Na'ayeri-Wixárika artist from La Palmita, Nayarit. Her beadwork, thread, and wax pieces are born from spiritual listening, not prior design.

Some works are born of a decision. And some are born of a listening.

Paula García Serrano's practice belongs to this second kind of creation. Her work doesn't come only from an aesthetic search, but from a deep relationship with a sacred territory, with the memory of the peoples who converge there, and with a form of spiritual communication that stays alive through image, color, beadwork, thread, and wax.

Paula was born in La Palmita, in the municipality of El Nayar, Nayarit. She is the daughter of a Na'ayeri father and a Wixárika mother, and from a very young age she had contact with the ancestral techniques that sustain her work today. Her practice, however, isn't limited to a single tradition by lineage. In her worldview, this form of expression is shared by different cultures that recognize the same sacred center, among them the Na'ayeri, the Wixárika, and the O'dam.

In traditional works, technique and symbolism follow the paths inherited across generations. In ceremonial works, like the ones Paula makes, the process happens differently: the images are shown to her. She doesn't choose the colors, shapes, or positions beforehand; the composition appears as she works, like a message that must be received, rendered, and prepared to be shared.

That permission doesn't come from an external authority, but from a spiritual recognition tied to the sacred place. Not everyone can receive these messages or see the works before they exist. Paula is one of the few people with the ability to pass on these stories without telling them directly: she holds them in images.

Some pieces are born as a request. Others, as gratitude. Some are taken to sacred places; others are made to accompany a person through a specific moment in their life. Each piece keeps a part of its energy, of its bond with her gods, and of the relationship she has built with them over time.

For twenty years, Paula was also a teacher in indigenous primary education. That vocation for passing on knowledge is still present in her work. To create, for her, is to teach, remember, heal, ask, give thanks, and keep a way of understanding the world alive.

More than objects to be looked at, her pieces are messages that have found a visible form. When a piece is finished, Paula feels joy knowing the message is ready to be shared.

"Creating makes me feel part of everything in the universe."