Silvestre CuevasApril 13

Corn is doubled over [for drying] in August. The first cleaning [hoeing of weeds] is in June and the second in July. One plants sesame in July and August, either in a furrow or by scattering in the wind, without removing the stalks. Harvest is in December and it is sold in Ixcatlán in December at $20 a sack (25 pounds, 11.5 kg) or $25 in January. At harvest, 3 kilos of seed yields 75 sacks (11.5 kg, or 25 pounds) per hectare.

Hoeing

Chili is planted in July. One half hectare (1.3 acre) is planted with 5 kgs, which yields 150 kg at harvest in April. It is planted with cuttings thrown by hand into the wind. In April the plant this cut down to the soil level with a short machete. The plant sprouts and provides harvest in July (double production). The price in April is $10 per kilo, in July three dollars. With the price so low in July practically no one harvests all of their crop, it’s not worth the trouble. During harvest the laborers are paid by the basket. Each kilo harvested by a laborer is paid three pesos in April one peso in July. Sometimes the plants rot and you lose the entire planting. Everybody plants chili because chili and sesame are the most lucrative crops. The person who weeds the coffee (field) harvests it, but there are a few people who take advantage of this.

Chili and Corncobs

Camilo JiménezApril 14

There are three varieties of corn: white, black, (black leaf), and yellow. People eat white corn most readily. Black corn is eaten as atole (gruel) with sugar and in posole (soup) to cure gonorrhea. Yellow corn is the most sweet, but people are bored with this because one’s eyes immediately become yellow, and one’s sweat stains shirts yellow. This corn is given to animals because it has a lot of grease.

There are two plantings of tonamil [a variety of corn]: September to February and November to March. There is also a planting at Candelmas (“de la Candelaria”) (February 2nd). They plant in low country, hot country in February. Now people plant whenever they can, even if they lose the harvest– the important thing is to work is “to work” (“trabajar”). At the end of corn season they say that corn “is expiring” (“está expirando”).

Silvestre Cuevas [A basket of seed corn]

Bananas, sugarcane, and pineapple are planted only for subsistence.

Cassava is planted in April and May. It begins to bear fruit in November and continues producing for two years.

Sweet potatoes are planted in July and produce the same as cassavas. Gophers destroy a lot of pineapple, sweet potato, and cassava. Wire traps are used, along with drowning.

Amador ServínApril 17

The sesame harvest is sold, saving only enough for planting. Rice is also planted for sale, but everything else is just for consumption.

Mangoes bear fruit in June; oranges produce from November until February.

Camilo Jiménez, Silvestre Cuevas

It is the obligation of a man plant fruit trees for those who come “afterwards” (“atrás”), because if the father dies, how will the children eat? Camilo has planted many fruit trees. Silvestre and Camilo say that many people do not plant fruit trees, but they do in fact harvest– they rob fruit from other people or cut down their trees. It is “the question of egotism” (“cuestión de egoism”).

Ruperto JiménezApril 25

Chili, rice, and sesame are planted for sale. Some people sell all of their sesame without saving any to replant. They have to buy the seed later at a high price. One sack of rice planted gives 250 sacks in low country, 35 sacks in the hills. One sells rice at 7 to 9.50 per sack.

Coffee does not produce well because there are not sufficient mountains. Some people in the small villages get [produce] three sacks of coffee. Ruperto doesn’t know why the mountains that do exist are not used for coffee. Sugarcane is not planted very much because there’s not sufficient wood to make brown sugar. Nobody sells sugarcane, only brown sugar in San Martín and Ixcatlán.

Cassava, sweet potato, and bananas are sold to the people in the town who can’t be bothered with planting them.

Silvestre CuevasApril 28

100 cobs of corn are planted per hectare.

Corn and cotton are the primordial crops. Over time storekeepers did not sell the seed, and cotton was abandoned and substituted by rice. Later they started to plant chili and sesame (some time ago).

With one sack of rice there is a harvest of 100 sacks. “What Ruperto says is a lie” (“Lo que dice Ruperto es mentira”).

RMLMay 2

When planting corn one makes a diagonal line and then (move) from below towards above (where there are hills). Every 3-½ feet (1 m) one makes a little hole with a digging stick 4” (10 cm) deep. The digging stick is made of guayacán (Lignum vitae) with a point hardened by fire. It is six feet long. After the initial thrust one makes two or three additional thrusts with both hands as one is walking forward. There is no rule about which foot or hand is employed. Then, always using the right hand, they take six little corn [kernels] from their bag (that is tied to their belt), bend forward and throw them with great skill.

Planting; Silvestre

Melchor GarcíaMay 5

One week after planting one must inspect the cornfield to see where there are no little corn plants growing in order to replant those places.

Modesto DiegoMay 7

The land does produce peanuts, but only a few people have planted them, and never more than a few little plants.

RML

Silvestre Cuevas does not want to plant sugarcane because it is very labor intensive. It really tires one out.

Work party; the planting of Silvestre Cuevas