Las madres del maíz

This project arises from the research conducted by Humberto Thomé Ortiz, Ivonne Vizcarra Bordi and Ana G. Rincón Rubio on Mexican native corn and the construction of identity of indigenous women. The essay entitled “Spiritual practices, ecofeminism and native corn. The case of Matlatzinca women” studies a small community in the State of Mexico, which is at risk of losing its native maize due to the inclusion of genetically modified seeds. The Matlatzinca worldview is closely linked to agriculture. For women, its conversion into food is a spiritual practice related to feminine corn divinities, governed by cycles and changes, by space and regeneration.

GMOs have homogenized agricultural cycles, compromising that spiritual practice and altering the gender construction of Matlatzinca women, who are the ones who show the greatest resistance to the introduction of “improved” seeds.
The research links two post-colonial issues that, at first glance, seem unrelated. Current food production affects the identity of Latin American communities.
In this case, the death of native corn means the death of the customs under which women's gender identity is constructed. The installation I present is a sketch of those deaths.

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The floating drawings of corn corpses are intervened with knittings. “Matlatzinca” means ‘those who make nets’ in Nahuatl. The weavings that are detached from the corn remains imitate the plant on which this cereal grows, at the same time that they simulate an umbilical cord. Remains of dried placenta are scattered on the fabrics. The mothers of the corn are present in them.

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