A Corn Husk Chat

Last Friday, as part of a program called "The Art and Science of Food" hosted by the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities for the students of San Miguel Middle School, I got to share an hour or so with 6th, 7th, and 8th-graders in turn, discussing corn in the Mayan worldview. After talking about topics like the cities of Mayapán, hybridization of maize from teocintle (and its archaeological remains in nearby Oaxaca), and cultivation in la milpa with beans and squash to see how the plants help each other grow, we went over a quick version of the Popol Vuh creation story and the three tries to create humankind: mud, wood, and corn.

The students each got to husk an ear of corn, but before they started pulling off leaves we talked about how the pollen-catching silk strands connect to the kernels, one each, which explains why one ear can have more than one color of kernels ... and about how the Mayan elite would sometimes shape their newborns' heads to resemble an ear of corn. After the husking, we listed the many scrumptious foods made from corn, and we talked about what you can make from the other parts, too - the silk (tea), the husks (wrappings for tamales, among many other uses), and the cobs (fuel, etc.). We talked about metates, comales, and nixtamalization, and we all learned a lot, including me - I had never heard of corn silk tea.

This was a fun and productive bilingual presentation and conversation that engaged a group of junior high students, a majority of whom are the children of immigrants from Mexico and Central America, with the marvelous and delicious traditions of their ancestors.