Teachings of Tatéi Niwetsika: Native Maize from Northern Mexico

Abstract

In the spring of 2021, Kalamazoo College students began the project “Tatéi Niwetsika: Planting Traditional Knowledge and Flavors,” with the intention of learning about traditional agriculture, Native Maize from Mexico, food sovereignty, and the connection between Wixárika language and culture in Nayarit. In November of 2022, we harvested the first crop of Native Maize, and thus the teachings of Our Mother Corn. From a community perspective and active participation in the field of research, this chapter discusses the importance and relevance of cultivating Native seeds using traditional agriculture. The author shares from multiple perspectives the activities that link academic research and community work in Tepic and Kalamazoo. This chapter focuses on issues of traditional agriculture, the challenges of planting Native seeds of the Gran Nayar, and food sovereignties. Finally, the author grapples with the challenges of planting Native Maize in Kalamazoo and the desire to adapt the seeds in another environment. This chapter aims to highlight traditional techniques of cultivating Maize and the ceremonial aspects. Additionally, this chapter aims to define essential research methods and techniques such as community participation and social justice for more reciprocal research on issues regarding Indigenous sovereignties.

1. Introduction

Native communities of the highlands of Mexico domesticated Wild Corn or Teosinte (Zea mays spp.) between 5500 and 4000 years ago. About 6000 years ago, societies across Mesoamerica began consuming Maize as well as other domesticated plants such as beans and squash [1]. The domestication of Maize (Zea mays L.) by Mesoamerican communities marked the beginning of sedentary life for many groups of people. Archeological records indicate that the oldest maize cobs were found in Guilá Naquitz Cave dating 6250 years ago [2].

In Wixárika ways of knowing, the oral tradition indicates that Watakame, the first farmer, received Yuawima (“Blue Corn Maid”) from Tatéi Takutsi Nakawé (Our Grand Mother Growth). Since their first encounter, the two (Watakame and Yuawima) have been part of the same field of relations. Watakame cultivated Yuawima and Yuawima grew more seeds in the field in exchange for offerings. In this reciprocal relationship, Watakame received a set of instructions, protocols, and principles to follow Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) or local understanding of the environment and the applicability of this knowledge in daily life [3, 4, 5]. Menzies argues that “TEK is an embodied practice directly rooted in everyday livelihood activities” (88). The oral tradition such as the case of Watakame is more than a cultural framework for Wixárika knowledge. This oral tradition contains knowledge (a set of protocols and principles to interact with the environment) that people developed. In consequence, specific ways of relating with the environment developed with daily activities.

According to the oral tradition, Watakame was unable to follow the first instructions and therefore, Yuawima returned home. Later, Watakame made the commitment to cultivate and harvest Our Mother Corn following the initial instructions.¹ Today, many families continue following those first instructions, the protocols of coexistence, and the principles to cultivate and harvest Tatéi Niwetsika (“Our Mother Corn”). Families gather to cultivate using only the Kuwa/Wiika (“coa,” “pichuaca,” or “Traditional planting stick”), an agricultural tool with a wide and thick blade, sometimes curved, inserted into a wooden handle. In the center of the field, the families create small Wixárika microcosmos to deposit offerings. The Teiyari (“Center of the field” or “Heart of Our Mother Corn”) contains a sample of the seeds for cultivation. In the field, Wixárika families coexist with La Milpa and re-create in every cycle a series of embodied practices such as cooking, cultivation, and ceremonies to maintain and sustain a reciprocal relationship with Our Mother Corn and the five Corn Maids [7]. All the embodied practices (e.g., cultivation, harvest, ritual, and cooking) surrounding the growth of Maize are pieces of ecological knowledge that transmit the balance interaction between people and the environment.

In La Sierra Madre Occidental, Wixárika families cultivate five different variants of Native Corn (Blue, White, Pink, Yellow, and Multi-color). For example, some families from El Roble cultivate Tsinawime (“Multi-color”), Tekuleti (“Blue”), Pipitiyu (“White”), Ta + rawime (“Pink”), Taxawime (“Yellow”), Yek + ri tuxa (“Orange”), and Tse’ + ri (“Yellow with elongated”) [7]. In Y + rata, families cultivate Yuwima (“Blue Corn”) in the South, Tuxame (“White Corn”) in the North, Ta + lawime (“Pink Corn”) in the West, Taxawime (“Yellow Corn”) in the East, and Tsayule (“multi-color Corn”) in the center. In the work of Victor Antonio Vidal Martínez et al., an expert on Corn in the state of Nayarit, the author reports that 13 Native species of Corn come from the state of Nayarit. Seven of them are primary species: Tabloncillo, Elotero de Sinaloa, Blando de Sonora, Bofo, Elotes Occidentales, Tuxpeño, and Vadendeño. Six of them are secondary species: Tabloncillo x Tuxpeño, Tuxpeño x Tabloncillo, Elotes Occidentales, Tabloncillo x Olotillo, Tabloncillo x Blando de Sonora, and Elotes Occidentales x Elotero de Sinaloa [8].

With the information received in TEK, the Wixárika community maintains a reciprocal relationship with Our Mother Corn and conceived Native Corn from El Gran Nayar as a relative [7]. Additionally, the community cultivates and harvests Our Mother Corn in ways that do not alter the land’s natural processes. This includes slash-and-burn and polyculture. Many studies have shown that Indigenous communities continue ancestral agricultural practices that include following a ceremonial cycle for the cultivation of different crops [9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]. For the cultivation of Native Corn in Nayarit, families cultivate after the first rain of the season in July. However, before the cultivation, many families gather for ceremonial purposes in four important community gatherings such as for 1) the selection of seeds, 2) the blessing of the seeds, 3) the cleansing of weeds in the field, and 4) the petition for rain. Once the families are ready to cultivate, they will go to the Yeturita (“Field for cultivation”). In the summer, usually at the end of June or in the beginning of July, the families prepare the seeds and the Waxata (“Cornfield”) for cultivation and for the ceremonies involving the cycle of Corn. Like the Corn Maids and Watakame, women and men work in the field. Women handle the seeds and men work the soil and prepare the Waxata for cultivation. In ceremonies such as in the Tatéi Niwestsika ‘Etsixa (“Cultivation Ceremony”), children perform a series of dances to embody all Corn maids. They dance to the sound of the violin and present the offerings to Tatéi Takutsi Nakawé (“Our Mother Growth”) and Tatéi Niwetsika. Then, they exchange Corn-based offerings among themselves. After the ceremony, women continue the labor of husking, selecting the best Our Mother Corn seeds, and planning the next trip to the Yeturita (“Field for cultivation”) to begin the season [7].

Traditional agriculture employed in the Milpa allows for the cultivation of multiple crops. According to Kremen and Miles, the diversification of farming systems regenerates the ecosystem by following techniques such as “composting, cover crops, crop rotation, absence of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers” [16]. Crops are grown together to increase biodiversity, enhance soil health, eliminate fossil fuel fertilizers and pesticides, and control erosion [17]. In many Wixárika families, they cultivate beans, squash, chilies, herbs, amaranth, medicinal plants, and flowers. Each plant companion, like the three sister systems among Anishinaabe [18] and Chakra systems in the Andes [19], serves a different role in the support of the ecosystem. For instance, Our Mother Corn provides the structure by growing vertically, so that beans can crawl to maximize the consumption of light. In exchange, beans maximize the production of oxygen and nitrogen in the soil. Squash grows closer to the soil to prevent predators and allow the other plants to grow healthier. Finally, wild medicinal plants, insects, and pollinators grow in the Milpa, so that people can benefit from their properties while consumed. In a field trial, the growth of “fava bean/maize intercrop” showed that beans facilitated the growth of maize yields by moving phosphorus that was consumed by maize [16].

2. Academic research and community work in Tepic-Kalamazoo

The main purpose of the La Milpa Project in Tepic-Kalamazoo is to contribute from all angles to the strengthening of the Native culture and languages of Gran Nayar. This project aims to not only facilitate workshops for students or the community but to promote actions that make the efforts of the community and their resistance to assimilation visible in Tepic. For this, the Center for International Studies (CIP) and Critical Ethnic Studies department at Kalamazoo College joined efforts with collectives, teachers, speakers of the language, and members of the research community to launch a pilot summer abroad in Tepic, Nayarit. They were invited to put together a program that could facilitate actions of community engagement. In Kalamazoo, after teaching the course “Plant Communication and Kinship,” the students grew El Gran Nayar seeds for the first time. Two students from Kalamazoo College took care of the La Milpa project, while the other students traveled to Mexico to learn more about the community and the work to revitalize the Native languages of Greater Nayar. The seeds from La Milpa in our Hoop House Garden were a gift that reached Kalamazoo College with my migration and movement from Mexico to the USA between the years of 2019 and 2020. Since those seeds arrived at our school, we have documented how a community of students and teachers have learned the essentials about the care of Native Corn seeds. Together with teacher Felipa Rivera Lemus and her family from Y + rata, a Wixárika community in Tepic, the group of students from Kalamazoo has been advised and guided in the cultivation, care, and fair distribution of the seeds.

In the Fall of 2022, the Y + rata Elders arrived in Kalamazoo for a harvest festival. During their stay, they shared the way in which we all can relate to Our Mother Corn, for example, by providing food that they use as traditional offerings during a good harvest. These offerings gave Nuestra Madre Maíz (“Our Mother Corn”) the necessary elements to close the cycle of Corn. Students learned the importance of having relationships with more-than-human persons. During the visit, we hosted a panel on the sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty to discuss the responsibility of all people in caring for the environment. This visit was significant because while the Elders taught us about Native seeds, we questioned our responsibility in caring for Native seeds in Mexico and the United States.

3. Methodology

La Milpa project follows the research methodology of Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) [20]. According to the authors like Atalay and McCleary, “CBPAR is best understood as a decolonizing methodology intended to improve the ethics and practices of research by striving for the mutual benefit of those most affected by a particular research project through equitable, collaborative partnerships at all stages of research between researchers and community members” ([20]: 5). In the La Milpa Project, we know that the inclusion of community methodologies and epistemologies is important to be able to implement projects related to plants as relatives. The methodologies of the La Milpa Project since the beginning of the work have been about social change and social justice. Along with the cultivation of Our Mother Corn in agricultural practices, we acknowledge the importance of collaborating with the community on topics related to culture and language revitalization. Additionally, we follow decolonial epistemologies in the project. Decolonial practices help us understand the central role of land as our teachers. We listen to the teachings of more-than-human beings [21].

The work of linguistic revitalization is relevant to Indigenous peoples who live in the diaspora. When in connection with Traditional Ecological knowledge, we learn about the relationship between people and land. Additionally, language is a key component in understanding worldview. Understanding different ways of knowing the world helps us to demystify the relationship between body and land. For this, La Milpa Project works in collaboration with collectives such as the Proyecto Taniuki (Our Language Project) and Yuri’Ikú (Cultural and Gastronomic Center) to teach about the inclusion of the Wixárika community and the approach to a linguistic policy that prioritizes Indigenous pedagogies including agricultural practice.

Language in connection with agricultural practices has been a vehicle for the revitalization and strengthening of Indigenous identity. Although the workshops with Proyecto Taniuki are small initiatives, they have an impact on the community. An example is the ethnolinguistic landscape project in Lomas Bonitas that culminated in 2022. After extensive fieldwork with the community and consultation with the community assembly, community Elders, and the general population, Kalamazoo students conducted ethnographic fieldwork to collect names for spaces and places relevant to the community. Within these spaces were public and community spaces, and topographies (mountains and hills). These spaces have meaning and social and cultural value. The members of the project included people from the community, teachers, students, and the children of the community. Together they organized namespaces in Wixárika and in Spanish. In this intergenerational work, the names, meanings, and spaces to be named were established by consensus. Thus, students from the community and outside communities conceptualize the importance of land and territory from the community’s perspective.

3.1 Study area: Tepic and Kalamazoo

In the work of growing La Milpa in Tepic and Kalamazoo, methodologies and practices are carried out following community protocols and principles for the interaction and coexistence of people with Native seeds. In planting, we include consent practices such as the cultivation and planting ceremony to consult with the Elders about their opinion of the growth of the Milpa. The Elders consult, following their tradition, the ancestors to know how to proceed with the milpa. In Tepic, we cultivate with Wixárika families living in urban centers but with connections with rural communities in La Sierra. Tepic is in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. Most of the population is mestizo (mixed heritage) but many Indigenous communities continue living or migrating to the city. In Kalamazoo, we cultivate in the Hoop House one of the growing gardens at Kalamazoo College. Kalamazoo is in southwest Michigan.

The cultivation of the Milpa has been a school for learning not only about seeds (how to adapt to other climates) but also about ontological relationships with more-than-human beings. With the ceremonies and small practices that are made as an offering to the crop, we learn what it is like to be in a community with more than humans. The Milpa has become a university of the earth where with our bodily labors we enter communion with the seeds. It is also a project that connects us with the communities of Mexico and the USA. We estimated that the seeds will be shared with the community in Kalamazoo to be able to grow Milpas in various neighborhoods of Spanish-speaking peoples and some Indigenous communities in Michigan. This project will help migrants from Mexico and Central America to reconnect with ancestral seeds and ancestral practices.

4. The diversity of La Milpa

Native Corn offers a framework to understand human and more-than-human interactions by instructing us about how plants are teachers in a human’s life. Settler colonialism and its effects disrupt the ways in which Native communities related to nonhumans. In Mexico, the commodification of Native species of Corn and other plants for human consumption and use in the pharmaceutical industry disrupted the “kincentric” relationship between humans and plants [22]. This kincentric relationship maintains Our Mother Corn as central to the life of families for not only ceremonial purposes but in the daily life of families to provide a framework to live life in wellness. Since 2021, students at Kalamazoo College have been cultivating Native Corn seeds in the Hoop House. This action has been performed to maintain and sustain the livelihood of Native Corn from Mexico in the USA. However, cultivating Corn without a community contradicts the notions of kinship. For this, students at Kalamazoo College every year make a commitment to continue learning from Native seeds. In the summer of 2023, students from K learn from Our Mother Corn the multiple ways of growing in a different environment. Building on the work of the previous years, during the cultivation and the harvest, students measure and record the growth of the plants to assess how the local environment can help or support the growth of Our Mother Corn. The objective of the project is to predict how can we better adapt Native seeds from Mexico in Michigan. Furthermore, this project aims to understand the different changes in climate that can benefit or impact the growth of Corn. Students conduct research on soil, rain patterns, and temperatures to compare the results with the environment in Mexico. Finally, students will share with the community, their findings, and results to continue growing native seeds from Mexico.

In a study, Woznicki et al. [23] examine the effects of climate change on the cultivation of Maize and soybeans to understand the demands of irrigation in the Kalamazoo River Watershed of Michigan. The authors demonstrate that “there will likely be less water available during the growing season in the future, or evapotranspiration will be hindered due to temperatures stress in peak developments of corn” ([23], p. 252). This study suggests many adaptations to agricultural practices concerning irrigation to foresee future climate changes. Like this study, in the La Milpa Project we aim to predict some of the adaptations to maize in a new climate. Although Woznicki et al. do not discuss the type that maize cultivated; their conclusions are important to La Milpa Project. Due to the change in rain patterns in Kalamazoo, the project interns use an irrigation system in the garden. Another study by Schlüter et al. [24] discusses the different stress adaptions of maize such as low temperature, low nitrogen (n), and low phosphorus (P) stress. Like the study by Schlüter et al., the different types of stress that plants undergo in the Hoop House have an impact on the growth and the plant biomass [24]. However, many studies suggest that corn can be adapted to other climates using different agricultural strategies [25, 26]. Moradi et al. suggest to “consider the early maturing cultivars of maize in agro-ecosystems” ([26], p. 1236). In their study of maize adaptation in Iran, the authors selected “eight cultivars of maize with three growing stages periods” (1233: 2014). This selection allows for the collection of data and demonstrates the importance of early cultivation. On the other hand, Lorant et al. suggest that maize is genetically diverse and “worldwide consists of locally adapted open-pollinated populations (landraces) as well as modern inbred lines, derived from landraces, that are used in hybrid production for modern breeding” ([25], p. 676). All these studies take into consideration the different strategies for maize adaptation. The main goal of our study is to understand Maize adaptation to climate change.

4.1 Data collection

The first season was on May 10th, 2022. We cultivated five colors of Native Corn from Northern Mexico. We began the cultivation following traditional protocols and cultivated inside the Hoop House and outside in the rain garden. We started some seeds in planters to maximize germination. After five days, on May 15th, the seeds germinated and began the Naika (“sprout”) stage, and we repotted them outside on May 29th and June 2nd. In the rain garden, we repotted the plants following the Wixárika arrangement of the Cornfield: in the front row, three plants of White Corn in the direction of the North, in the back two plants of Blue Corn in the direction of the south, to the right three Pink Corn in the direction of the West, to the left two Yellow Corn in the direction of the East, and two multi-color plants in the center. By June 23rd, our plants were in the vegetative stage or first leaf Y + ra (“Growing Greener”). The decision to cultivate the five variants of Our Mother Corn came as a community agreement. When I consulted with Felipa Rivera, she advised me to cultivate all the colors to have them together in the field. Along with Our Mother Corn, we cultivated flowers and other companion plants including tomatoes and kale inside the Hoop House, and milkweed and calendula in the rain garden. We used organic fertilizers, such as kelp fertilizer, to add extra potassium to the soil, and chicken manure for nitrogen, sulfur, and potassium. On July 12th, the plants reached a length of seven feet long inside the Hoop House and three feet long in the rain garden. On August 16th, the plants began the stage of tassel or Tsakuluma, M + ayama, Tukima (“To Tassel” or “VT Tassel”), and on August 27th, silking or K + paima. On August 30th, Yellow Corn was tasseled and on September 6th, the rest of the plants were tasseled. All the stages of Our Mother Corn corresponded with a Wixárika’s personal names that connect human persons with plant persons [7].

Given the size of the growing garden, initially, Amy Newday (Mellon Fellow for Experiential Learning at Kalamazoo College) and myself were concerned with how close the population of plants was growing. With this, we began asking questions about cross-pollination. For many families in Tepic, cross-pollination is not really a concern. Families cultivate different variants of seeds and expect that some ears come with genetic modifications in color. Many families utilize this diverse Corn for corn-based drinks. In our first harvest, we were able to harvest a mature yellow ear of Our Mother Corn from the rain garden. In the Hoop House, there is an irrigation system and outside plants were watered with a water hose and rain. Inside the Hoop House, the plants grew over 2 m in length and matured very late in the season. On September 23rd of 2022, Nora Blanchard (Hoop House intern and K student) began hand-pollinating the plants. This was done with the hope of capturing pollen to help the plants in the process of pollination. This technique was useful because inside the Hoop House with the absence of wind, the pollen could not travel far. Due to the long days in Michigan, the plants were exposed to sunlight for about 12 h a day. Some plants released pollen early in the morning and some others released pollen in the afternoon (Data collected from personal conversations with Amy Newday and Nora Blanchard, Summer 2022).

On October 7th, the plants began the process of milking (Saulima or Sutuli stages). We prepared everything for the offerings during the harvest festival on campus. Some of the research questions we attempted to answer that summer were as follows: 1) What can we learn from genetics and cross-pollination? 2) How can the selection of seeds help to maximize the growth of plants in the next season? 3) Is it possible to cultivate multiple colors in a small population of plants? 4) How can we improve the fertility of plants? And 5) What can the roots teach us about Our Mother Corn?

The second cycle of Our Mother Corn began on May 20th of 2023. This time we decided to cultivate only yellow corn since based on the observations of the previous year these plants were more successful than the other colors. The seeds came from a selection of two batches (1) the seeds from Mexico and (2) the seeds from the fully mature ear of Corn from the previous year. Also, Zoe Reyes, the 2023 Hoop House intern, reported that the companion plants cultivated included: beans, squash, peas, amaranth, mullein, catnip, evening primrose, black-eyed Susan, daisy fleabane, and marigolds. The total number of Our Mother Corn plants cultivated was 48 plants in 12 mounts outside in the rain garden. We directly planted the seeds into the soil during our cultivation ceremony after the blessing of the seeds on May 23rd. In the following days, we visited Cornfield again for 5 days to follow the protocols of the Wixárika community and made some offerings. We did not see any seeds sprouting. A week after the cultivation on May 30th, some seeds sprouted. Also, Amy noticed that some seeds were missing, and others were not fully grown. The outside garden is the house of many other animals, insects, and plants. To avoid predators, Amy planted more seeds in pots inside the Hoop House and she transplanted those plants. On June 8th, some plants were transplanted. On June 13th, another batch of seeds was planted. Those seeds sprouted on June 22nd and then transplanted on June 27, 2023. The total population of plants was 45. Our research questions this season were: 1) how do the different seeding dates (May 23rd, June 7th, and June 13th) affect the flowering dates? 2) How can we improve the fertility of plants? What can we learn from our plants this season? 3) How is it growing in this environment affected by the soil, water, rain, and sun?

5. Challenges of planting native maize in Kalamazoo

Native Corn seeds are essential actors in the sustainable diet of many families in Mexico and Central America. The commitment and devotion of Wixárika families to Tatéi Niwetsika (“Our Mother Corn”) and Yuri’Ikú (“True Corn”) are essential for the survival of families and their genealogies, not only of human beings but beyond humans in El Gran Nayar. However, with the increase in families migrating to strategic points and other latitudes, families have been forced to find alternative ways to gain access to sustainable food in all geographies. In 2020, Mexico developed new laws that currently dictate the future of native seeds. Politicians approved a bill that gave farmers the right to grow landrace corn without the fear of growing near Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) fields. Corporations such as Monsanto have lost their power over the types of seeds to grow in Mexico. This development represents a giant leap in Mexican food forms, sovereignty, and agricultural sustainability. This favors native seeds since it is guaranteed that their growth outside of isolated communities can grow without being cross-pollinated and genetically damaged by hybrid seeds. According to Frabotta [27] and Peikes [28] Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) decreed that by 2024, Mexico would eliminate the use of transgenic corn. This will positively influence the production and consumption of seeds. Soon, many Mexican farmers will be in need to change their paradigm and return to the traditional cultivation of seeds. To have transgenic-free agriculture means to adopt the traditional ways of planting crops to assure food security in the future.

Many Mexican citizens have realized the impact of GMOs and the consumption of GMOs in corn tortillas on the health of people and ecosystems. This helps families to make the decision of consuming Native seeds in a more conscious and responsible way. Although Maize was domesticated in Mesoamerica around 5500 years ago, today more than ever, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities advocate for the diversity of Native Maize in Mexico. This advocacy leads us to take up social and community commitment outside the context of local Native communities. Seeds, as well as people, also travel and seek other environments to germinate. Some seeds out of fear of people have lived in museum basements and out of the sunlight. Other seeds live guarded by the Elders with the fear of sowing and losing the last family seeds and their ancestral genealogy. Project on La Milpa in other latitudes helps us understand how seeds can be sown responsibly, ethically, and with awareness of social justice to grow plants that have crossed colonial borders. Thus, in this way, decolonize our diet and way of seeing corn as just another plant.

The contradictions and controversies about the La Milpa project have been various. During a recent panel presentation in El Gran Nayar, we had a dialog with the community in the audience. Some Elders shared their suggestions to cultivate earlier to avoid the cold from the north. Others expressed their concerns about the purpose of the project. A question that leaves us thinking and reflecting on the project is an ethical and moral question. The seeds of La Milpa Project in Tepic-Kalamazoo project belong to the Indigenous peoples of El Gran Nayar and they depend on the ceremony and ritual of many families. Within the Indigenous peoples, each family is clear about the role of each one in the care and distribution of the seeds. For example, in Y + rata, seeds are only given to those with spiritual responsibilities and community roles [7]. It is necessary to emphasize that many families feed themselves and support their families in many areas that include the cultural and ceremonial aspects of these seeds. Also, some families within the Wixárika community do not have enough space to plant each year and their seeds are saved for fear of losing them. In the La Milpa Project, we are very aware of the goals of the project. We aim to understand how Native Maize from Northern Mexico adapt to other climates with the hope of bridging communities together.

6. Conclusions

This chapter highlights the traditional techniques of cultivating Maize from ceremonial spaces to the Cornfield, with the intention of outlining the importance of community participation in the academic investigation. The author discusses the challenges of adapting to Native seeds in Michigan and the different perspectives of communities in Tepic and Kalamazoo in relationship to the growth of Our Mother Corn. The chapter emphasizes the importance of cultivating Native seeds employing traditional agriculture to maintain the agency of plants and learn from the seeds sustainable and reciprocal ways to relate with the land. The Milpa becomes a school that teaches us about diversity, responsibility, sacrifice, and physical and spiritual labor. The seeds teach us as agents of change the importance of sharing with other people and having responsibilities. The relationship is reciprocal since if people do not take care of the seeds, the seeds will give us fruits. Undoubtedly, people learn about caring for a sentient being, with agency, and effect on humans. In La Milpa Project, students learn that seeds are another type of being with the will and intention to germinate, grow, and bear fruit. When a plant does not grow, it does not have the will to teach us or learn from the new environment. They are simply not interested in growing, even if they are given care for their growth.

A key question in the work of food sovereignty is the question of whom the seeds belong to, specifically who owns or oversees the dispensation of the Native Corn seeds. In the La Milpa project, we acknowledge that the Indigenous peoples of Gran Nayar have developed scientific methods to guarantee a reciprocal relationship with Maize. For good germination, growth, and development of plants, specifically Native Corn seeds, a community or a group of people must follow an ontological relationship with seeds. When that relationship is lost, the way we see other beings is also lost. The ontological relationship between people and the land are key concepts in the philosophy of Indigenous peoples. Handmade tortillas made with Native Corn still preserve the reciprocal relationship between people and plants. People make tortillas and other Corn-based foods as offerings during cultivation. With a change in ideology, the commodification of Corn-based foods began in Mexico and abroad. In the La Milpa project, we acknowledge the importance of the connection between seeds and community, specifically speakers of the Wixárika language. For students, they learn about specific methodologies and epistemologies to conceive plants like Our Mother Corn as kin. The different components of the project are necessary for social change, not only to reverse colonial ideas to conceive food but to decolonize our diet and find ways to secure food in times of climate change and food scarcity.

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge that part of this chapter was written in the unceded land of the Council of the Three Fires—the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. Additionally, I wrote this chapter in El Gran Nayar, Náayeri, O’dam, Mexikan, and Wixárika unceded homelands. I thank my teachers, plant, human, and more-than-human relatives for accompanying me through life. Especially to Our Mother Corn for teaching me about kinship. Also, I am grateful to my comadre Felipa Rivera Lemus, and my godmother Rosalía Lemus de la Rosa for helping me collect oral traditions and teachings from women in Y + rata community. I am thankful for the support of Alison Geist, Amy Newday, Sara Stockwood, and Margaret Wiedenhoeft from Kalamazoo College. This work could not have been possible without the support of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning, Center for Environmental Stewardship, and Center for International Programs. Finally, much gratitude to Zoe Reyes and Nora Blanchard for their work during their internships in the Hoop House. All the comments and opinions are my responsibility.