In the centuries of direct and indirect contact following the Spanish invasion, the Huichols, while strenuosly holding on to their own gods, adopted some Chritian personages and rituals, recasting and reformulating them so as to fit them more easily into their ample native pantheon and ceremonial cycle. This dichotomy extends from the religious and ideological realms into the modern political systems and a national economy that is predominantly capitalist. In the Huichol's social system, the predominant values are those the church and the colonial authorities disseminated among the non-Indian populations of Jalisco, Nayarit, Zacatecas, and Durango, on Northeast Mexico.