Milpa and mezcal
In 1943 the german ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff synthetized criteria to define a specific cultural area in America. He named it "Mesoamerica". This cultural region, he said, was formed by migrants from different origins that in this place remained linked under a common history. Some of the criteria used by Kirchhoff to determine which community was part of this big union of cultural groups were:
Agriculture based on corn cultivation.
A common calendar.
Use of hoes and chinampas.
Specialized markets.
Maguey cultivation.
Mesoamerica encompasses the area between the Sinaloa and Panuco rivers in the north and the Gulf of Nicoya in the south.
It is because of the mesoamerican tradition that we can enjoy things like tortilla and mezcal. This system and mindset for doing things have integrated with people’s lives so much that is currently part of their identity. There are strong possibilities that if you've heard about Mexico, also you've heard about its culinary tradition of corn, chiles, and beans. And it's mainly the peasant households across Mexico that have kept alive this tradition most importantly by the preservation of their cultivation systems that sustain their lives. That system is called milpa.
What is a Milpa?
The word is a linguistic heritage from the Nahua people, one of the different cultural groups that inhabit Mesoamerica. The etymology is very descriptive, it means "place where the food grows". Therefore, milpa is a place. It's been until more recent years that the milpa is understood as a set of companion plants, i.e. corn, beans, and squash. But since milpa is first a place these are not the only crops to be found. That's why it grows into a broader concept, this cultivation field is also a way of growing food. Milpa is an ethic of growing, knowing that this was the better way.
People noticed long ago that these specific elements interacted well with each other. They not only didn't steal nutrients out of the soil, but they give some to the other plants. This understanding resulted in practices that we nowadays know as polyculture, crop rotation, seasonal cultivation. All taking place in a small parcel.
Some other really important crops are the chiles known for their spicy flavor, which is also a major element of the culinary identity of the mesoamerican heritage. Perhaps more interesting are the quelites, a confusing group of plants, since the logic of its classification, do not follow the same principles as scientific botany. These plants are any variety of edible tender sprouts (usually green), i.e. squash blossom or
The agave milpas
There is a special landscape of milpas. It manifests the specific ecosystems in which the people of Mesoamerica live because the plants that guard it are essential in it. I'm talking about the agave milpas, a system in which the milpa is cultivated between agave rows.
Just as Kirchhoff described, not only milpas were part of the mesoamerican identity, but the agave as well. Both were plentiful for the different groups that spread accross those classic lands of central America. Nowadays we can find a rich cultural diveristy that germinates from these two plants. From stories and legends, to arts and crafts we find the maíz and maguey culture all around.
When the agave is cultivated alongside the other products of the milpa other symbiotic processes take place in the soil and plants. The strong roots of the plant pierce into the sometimes compacted soil to help nutrients and water permeate into the lower layers. These robust root system also collects and stores a generous amount of water that will irrigate little by little the soil and nearby plants.
The magueyes are literal fences to divide land, that's why in conjunction with the milpa system, the plot of land where both are cultivated is called metepantli. The french naturalist Léon Diguet defined the term in the late eighteenth century as the space between maguey rows to cultivate alternated crops.
The importance of milpa in the mezcal culture
Metepantlis are an ethical system. It is the way people act in life. It also represents the knowledge and interaction of agriculturists with their landscape. It is a way of describing what's important. In this case economic certainty, biological diversity, and food sovereignty. The first because the diversification of assets is a good economic principle. The second because farmers understand that healthy soil is miscellaneous. And lastly, food production culturally good —in other words, environmentally known— is a basic activity in life.
In a conversation with Chava Peribán and Lou Bank of Agave Roadtrip, we talked about significant factors of milpa cultivation mingled with agave. They eloquently phrased that milpa is Mexican for regenerative viticulture. Which is true. This kind of cultivation for mezcal is essentially a part of the regenerative philosophy. On one hand, it is a technique for soil improvement and agroecological labor. On the other, it is the very foundation of peasant life, as a historical deed and as a source of one of the most basic needs in life, food.
Mezcal could not exist without this symbiosis. Nobody knows exactly how corn, beans, squash, quelites, chiles, and agave relate at the physical and chemical level to produce a common flavor, but one thing is true for the people that grow these products everything is all part of a flavor landscape.
If you found this text useful, if you consider important that there is more independent research, content and action caring for the regeneration of agave and mezcal, if you enjoy the work of Expresiones del Mezcal and want to support it, do so by making a donation.
Know more about what we do by clicking here.
