Blackbear

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From: "Roberto Rodriguez" <_xcolumn@gmail.xco_ (mailto:xcolumn@gmail.com)
>..........Thanks
>
>
>
>Corn is our Parent and Elder
>By Patrisia Gonzales
>Patzin (Nahuatl for Respect worthy Medicine): a monthly feature on
>Indigenous medicine
>Column of the Americas (c) Oct. 3, 2006
>
>
>On my altar are prayer ties from Grandma Emma Ortega done the old way,
>with corn husks. Maiz has social, ceremonial, medicinal, and physical
>uses. All parts of the corn are used in Mexican Indigenous ways. As my
>husband Roberto says, Mexicans belong to corn cultures.
>
>Corn is life, which is why Mesoamerican philosophers recorded that we
>are made of four essences: blood, bones, skin and corn. Traditionally,
>children's umbilical cords were cut over an elote and that corn was
>later planted as their milpa. When the ombligo falls off, it is
>sometimes planted in a milpa. And some Indigenous people still put an
>ear of corn to sleep with the newborn and give it cornmeal to eat as
>part of its welcoming.
>
>Many traditional people speak of corn as a living being, each one
>unique like a human being. Mohawk midwife Katsi Cook reminds us that
>corn is like a woman, born with all its ovaries. An ear of corn is a
>mother with all her babies. Like the earth, the corn becomes our
>parent. Cook recalls in Women of the Native Struggle how babies are
>given a drink made from special corn kernels to comfort the child who
>has lost its mother and to "remind the baby it still has a mother."
>
>The tamal with its husk represent the human being in it's petate,
>notes Isabel Quevedo. De petate a petate -- in the mat we are born and
>die, the saying goes, or in the English rendition, from the womb to
>the tomb. That is why tamales should always be offered during Day of
>the Dead or los Dias de los Animas. In our family, men and women, tios
>and tias, cousins, elders and kids, all had to chip in for the
>tamalada to ensure that 60 dozen would get spread and cooked on
>Christmas Eve. And when my grandpa died, it was hard for my mother to
>go harvest his milpa, "picking and crying."
>
>Tortilla teachings: the tortilla is wide like a woman's skirts and
>round like the sun -- Martha Ramirez. It is also an excellent source
>of calcium. We should offer a little bit of masa to the fire before we
>cook them. If we are mad, the dough may sour. My grandma taught me
>that when the tortillas bubble a lot, someone is hungry.
>
>The corn husks are used as containers for food, such as the tamal.
>Corn husks become stirrers in soups and are used to hojear in the
>Mexican sweatbath tradition or temazkalli, for cooling properties. The
>husks are woven into mats and corn dolls. The olote or cob is used as
>a pipe or to burn as kindling that will smoke the food with its
>flavor. It is also rolled under the feet for an Indigenous pressure
>point massage.
>
>Corn silk makes an excellent diuretic and kidney strengthener. The
>corn silk is used in purification and protection rites. The corn
>flower tea is good for nerves.
>
>Nahua sobadora Estela Roman speaks of how corn is served to lift the
>spirits and strengthen the life force, particularly corn pollen and
>chocolate. Atole is served ceremonially from blue corn or socially for
>family special treats or medicinally to settle the stomach. Corn
>pollen is also offered at altars during ceremonies. And corn kernels
>are still used for divination and diagnosing illness. These practices
>are depicted in pre-Columbian painted books that show the creator old
>woman throwing corn for a divine reading.
>
>Corn is a form of governance, says Jose Barriero in "the Gift"
>documentary, for those peoples who organize their sustenance around
>its life cycle. And as David Castro notes in our Aztlanahuac
>interviews, corn is proof of Mexican peoples' right to be here. The
>corn husk are "our papers."
>
>Another thing, and perhaps most important of all; corn or maize is
>part of the three sisters; a thousands-of-part of the three sisters
>balanced food complex in the Americas, comprising corn, beans &
>squash. Among Mexicans, those three sisters also have a brother -- the
>chile.
>
>As such, I leave you with two no-nos of my corn culture. Do not
>microwave your tortillas or tamales. They are meant to be heated on a
>comal, in the oven or steamed. This is a small way to respect corn as
>our elder.
>
>Column of the Americas (c) Oct. 3, 2006
>
>Gonzales/Rodriguez can be contacted at: _XColumn@gmail.XCo_
(mailto:XColumn@gmail.com) or
>608-238-3161. Our columns are posted at:
>_http://hometown.http://hometown.http://home_
(http://hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/)
>Info regarding our Amoxtli San Ce Tojuan documentary and
>origins/migrations research can be found at:
>_http://hometown.http://hometown.http://hometownhttp://hom_
(http://hometown.aol.com/aztlanahuac/...age/index.html)
>

__________________
Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear... just sing, sing a song.


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