Corn plays a variety of major roles in Native culture and is a key ingredient in many Native foods. It originated in Mexico and quickly became a staple across the Americas as Indigenous farmers and seed keepers conditioned the plant to live in deserts, grasslands and high mountains. Today, Indigenous strains of corn have a smaller presence, but there are efforts to revitalize traditional corn for the benefit of Native culture, economics and health.
Guests:
Anet Aguilar (Mixteca and Native American from northern Mexico) – corn guardian
Michael Kotutwa Johnson (Hopi) – traditional Hopi dryland farmer, PHD candidate at the University of Arizona in the School of Natural Resources and Environment
Britni Skiles (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska) – assurance quality control representative for Bow & Arrow Brand and Ute Mountain Ute Farm and Ranch Enterprise
Break 1 Music: On The Road Missing Home (Corn Dance) (song) Sheldon Sundown (artist) Hand Drum/Smoke N’ Round Dance (album)
Break 2 Music: Standing Rock (feat. Nick Ørbæk Jacobsen) (song) Uyarakq (artist) Miseraq (album)
Some tidbits about our beloved corn in our Colla (Aymara) traditions! (Andean highland valleys)
>> We grow & eat our CHOCLO (“corn”) in all colors, like red, purple, white, stripes, etc.. Up in our highlands, our choclo is very big, like “hominy.” My grandmother ate choclo by picking off each gigantic kernal at a time with her hands.
>> Using the intense daily sun & wind and below-freezing nights, we use an ancient process to freeze dry choclo to keep it shelf stable for many, many years. Dried corn has a different name:
it’s MOT’E. Soak, then boil it for a long time with salt and it’s the tastiest food!
>> Some dishes using mote or choclo are ch”arque (jerked dried llama meet with any color mote, fresh cheese, potato, boiled egg… and our word “ch”arque” is the origin of the word “jerky”); a fresh snack of choclo on the stalk with farm cheese; and lagua, a thick soup made of a base of ground mote.
>> Our choclos (“corn”) season is right after rainy season, c. March-April. When that time comes, we make humintas, a type of corn bread wrapped in the corn’s own husk. Everyone has their own recipe, but it’s basically FRESH (not cooked) choclo, sweetened, add some oil, a piece of fresh farm cheese is dipped in aji (“chile powder”) and placed on top, wrapped, then baked.
>> Making humintas is not a small affair. When you make humintas, you use 100S OF CHOCLOS and you make them to last for weeks. My grandmother’s used to last a month. They are not refrigerated and they keep just fine in the cold, dry environment. (We don’t usually have insulation or heat in our houses.)
>> We now live in the city, but my great-grandmother said that back in her small town, you could NOT just make humintas for yourself. If you made any, you had to make for the whole town.
>> The corn from each little valley and place has a different taste. My aunt talks about them as if they have personalities. The people who grow the corn tell you how that corn is tasting at the time. We are blessed to have a very tight and constant connection; what is grown in our valleys is what we eat and the ppl who grow it are usually the ppl who sell it to you, or were in the town where it was grown.
We have such an intimate relationship with corn and the land in which it grows. Thank you for letting me share!