(partial translation, from the original Spanish)       Here, in this part of the world, corn was born. Our grandparents nurtured it. With it they nurtured themselves, to forge one of the great civilizations of history. The home of greatest antiquity of corn is in our territory. From this place in the universe it went to other parts of the world.       We are people of corn. The grain is our brother, foundation of our culture, the reality of our being here. It is at the center of our daily life. It appears without fail in our diet and in a fourth of the products that we obtain in the shops. It is the heart of rural life and an unfailing ingredient of urban life.       We are people of corn. And as such we are against the current, in continuous struggle with the dominant winds. Campesino and indigenous knowledge about corn has been continually devalued, repressed and forgotten. They caused the extinction of innumerable native varieties of corn, which were the fruit of patient experimentation of our ancestors. They led many campesinos to shameful dependency on hybrids.       Time and again, with various policies, they have sought to have us abandon the cultivation of corn. Instead of producing it on our lands and with our hands they want to import it from the United States, where it is planted for pigs and for industry, not for people.       Blind official policy does not take into account that for us corn is more than a cereal. It summarizes our past, defines our present and is the basis for our own future. We eat it, but it is not only food. It is cause for fiestas, for exchange, for celebrating our lives together, for mutual aid. It is our life. Corn is at the center of our culture, where it has a sacred character. We don't want to depart from that.       To defend corn means to us to be as we have been with it, not as the huge businesses want us to be. We want to say, to defend the corn is to save the earth, the sun, the water, the wind. Don´t damage that which embraces it.       At the appearance of genetically modified corn, the transgenics, it seemed very sensible that in Mexico they would prohibit planting it in 1998. As responsible scientists then indicated, they had to be prudent. The government, however, introduced them underhandedly by importing them. And so they appeared among us, in our Sierra de Juárez, the first contamination by transgenic corn. Quickly they showed that other states were also at risk.       The global center of the origin and diversity of corn is now in danger. The prodigous genetic wealth generated here by the patient dialogue maintained for millennia between humans and plants can be lost.       The great lies of the market or of the state appear at times among us, dressed up as researchers of new technologies or specialists in improving cultivation. They tell us our seeds are not useful or that our method of cultivation is inadequate. They want us to buy their seeds and learn their methods of killing the corn and the earth.       The time has come to say, Enough already! We’re not putting up with more! We’re not permitting the damage to deepen and the risk to grow.       We don’t reject experimentation. We have practiced it for thousands of years. We are interested in change, but not in what leads to forms of cultivation that destroy instead of conserving. We reject commercial activity, obsessed with profits. It destroys the land, weakens the social and cultural fabric of our towns and disrupts the relations among people. We are fighting to conserve our varieties of corn, which during thousands of years have acclimated to live in the climates, altitudes and soils of our lands and share the spirit of our communities. In Oaxaca we will not have transgenics       We have listened with patience to the scientists who defend them. But we are tired already. The most serious risks in using transgenics are in the long run. Sufficient time has not passed. There don’t exist any long-term studies. Everything that they say now about the effects of transgenics is pure speculation. Besides, they don’t want to respect the precautionary principle, they manipulate information and use false and senseless arguments. The fear, for us, is that they are doing it entirely without concern for the immense cultural damage that their experiments can cause. We are not going to listen any more.” We will continue the legal struggle We will continue coordinating our effort with others, within and outside of Mexico, to use all the legal resources available. We are seeking:   ·  the prohibition of planting and importing transgenic corn.   ·  the formation of a new legal framework for biological security that protects animal and human heath from all transgenic contamination and that backs biological and cultural diversity. To begin with, we are fighting against the memorandum that the Senate sent to the Chamber of Deputies, which we consider unacceptable.   ·  halting of all importation of corn.   ·  that it be obligatory to inform and consult with our towns about any public or private program of “technological assistance” that they want to apply.   ·  that they arrange steps, together with the affected communities, to avoid the spread of transgenic contamination.. (rest of translation into English in preparation) All comments and criticisms are welcome.    <george.salzman@umb.edu> If you want me to remove your name from my e-mail distribution list, please let me know. *      *      * Return to the opening page of the Salz-mania sub-folder Return to the opening page of the Strategy for Revolution folder Return to the opening page of the Website Last update of this page: April 15, 2004