A Visit to the Milpa with Don Fausto

 

Leaving for the Milpa with Don Fausto

It's 6 am in Nuevo Durango and dozens of roosters are announcing the dawn.  A sliver of moon hangs in the sky.  The chairs in front of the little store have been stored away for night, so Will and I stand in the road waiting for our visit to Milpa, a term used to describe the traditional farms of theYucatan region.  After a few minutes, Don Fausto approaches us and asks if we are going to the Milpa.  Then he nods toward the South and begins walking briskly, requiring us to maintain nearly a slow jog to keep up with him (perhaps a descendant of a Tarahumara, his son Enrique later joked).  The distance between us and Don Fausto only increases when the road ends - we're lagging behind as he agilely steps over and between the uneven rocks, chopping down wild chaya which his machete as he goes.  At one point, we duck between two barbed wires, a treacherous game of limbo.  "Don't worry, we're close," Don Fausto reassures.  "You walk very fast," I reply.  "T'hat's how you need to walk in the forest," he tells me, continuing his fast clip.  

 

A not-so-friendly tree along the pathway



Another day begins in the fields

We arrive to the Milpa as the sun is rising. This 12 acre plot of land is thriving in a rainier than usual season, and, pending no natural disaster, it will grow enough food to feed the village of more than fifty families next year.  For a week or so in April, many workers from the town help to plant the Milpa.  In February - the staples of corn, beans, and squash, - as well as other crops like jicama, amaranth, and melon - will be harvested and distributed to the people of the village.  The Milpa will be burned, covering the soil with nutrient-rich ashes and preparing it for another planting season.  Store houses will preserve crops like corn and beans in lime and families will return there weekly for their staples.  

"3 Sisters of the Milpa":  Corn, Squash, and Beans



Last season's corn, preserved with Lime

The Milpa is cultivated without fertilizer or pesticides in a field filled with rocks and trees, and everything is thriving.  One threat is the birds, Don Fausto tells us.  He will wake up as early as 4am in order to arrive to scare away the birds in the morning.  If they are really bad, he builds scare crows.  Other risks include hurricanes that can wipe out an entire Milpa in one evening.  Fortunately, growing is a long-term investment.  Some seasons, a good milpa will provide beans and corn for two or more years.
  

Stone markers every 20 meters measure the fields


Don Fausto seems confused when I ask him where he gets his seeds for the Milpa.  "From here, at harvest time" is the obvious answer.  This is a contrast to modern farmers in the region who receive sterile corn seeds, corn fertilizer, and about $100 U.S. dollars each season.  At the beginning of each season, they receive new seeds.  Many find that their land is stripped of nutrients after several years of corn farming and they are unable to return to growing other crops on it.  As of this post, beekeepers and farmers in the region are fighting with Monsanto to prevent the introduction of thousands of acres of transgenic soy and corn in the region.  Such a measure could destroy the honey industry in the Yucatan as well as the integrity of the heritage crops that grow there.

In terms of profit, Don Fausto says the goal is feeding the town, not making a large profit.  Nonetheless, the Milpa does allow him and those he shares the land with to survive.  He excitedly shows us the squash, which are spreading across the fields. "Look how well they're coming along with all of this rain" he tells us.  The flesh of the squash will be candied or eaten cooked.  The seeds will be dried on the the town's roofs and sold for more than 4 dollars/kilo.  When the harvest is good, this can mean a profit of $900 or more.


Squash growing over a bed of rocks


A healthy bean plant

Fausto, 60, has been coming to the fields each day since he was 8 years old.  Later in the day, he'll wrangle his 3 cows and return them to their pasture.  He used to have many more, he tells us, but he sold them for his son's two wedding parties.
  

Talking to Don Fausto about his lifetime of farming


As we leave the Milpa, the sun is shining brightly and the field is heating up.  H. Garrison Wilkes, a Maize researcher calls the Milpa "one of the most successful human inventions ever created".  The success of Fausto's Milpa is clear - likely a result of both his labor and love for the earth.

  

Don Fausto in the field were he's worked for more than fifty years