Youth, Agroeocology and Commercialization: The blossoming of CAJAC
We continue our fundraising campaign sharing our collaborations with youth in the Maya homelands of southern Mexico. Here, campesino families give life to the milpa, growing corn interspersed with beans, squash, quelites (nutrient-rich greens) and medicinal herbs. They also keep bees, raise chickens and pigs, and conserve native seeds. These land-based practices are part of a sacred and reciprocal relationship between the Maya people and their homeland. The next generation carries this legacy forward, caring for their homeland and their people so that their way of life continues to flourish.
Youth collective Sanadores Mayas (Maya Healers) developed tinctures from medicinal plants.
As a way to support campesino youth deeply committed to their communities, CAN, along with El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) and 5 local civil society organizations, organized a Community of Learning and Practice (CAJAC) in 2020 with 40 youth. CAJAC formed to strengthen agroecological markets based on reciprocity and solidarity, where the common good and a dignified life prevail over competition and profits. During 3 years, CAJAC gathered for knowledge exchanges, skill-building workshops and visits to family farms and solidarity markets. Six youth collectives formed, creating 8 products that support agroecological production practices, such as chicken eggs, medicinal plant tinctures, honey-based shampoo and more. We hope you will consider a donation to CAN so we can continue to support youth-led solidarity economies.
One youth collective, “Jóvenes de la Zona Maya”, upholds one of CAJAC’s most important values, lekil kuxlejal or “the good life” within Maya ways of knowing. The concept of lekil kuxlejal is based on collective forms of care and respect, recognizing the interdependence of all beings and mother earth. “Jóvenes de la Zona Maya” promotes the conservation, care, and production of native seeds, working together with their families from different communities in the state of Quintana Roo. Flor, Nancy, Wendy and Juan Carlos formed this collective to raise awareness about the value of native seeds, and in their own words: “remaining rooted in your ancestral homelands-conserving these seeds is part of this work and people who are interested will stay and contribute.”
The youth from “Jóvenes de la Zona Maya” select and package native seeds which they share, trade and sell. These seeds, passed down from generation to generation for millennia, are the basis of community life. Youth and elders working collectively to care for their traditional agricultural practices remain connected to:
Watch this video Maya/Spanish to learn more about Jóvenes de la Zona Maya
Support CAN so we can continue to create spaces for collective learning, like CAJAC, that respect the decisions and desires of young people, providing them with tools to weave strong community networks focused on achieving the collective good.
In Solidarity,
the CAN team
Sow seeds of hope and
resistance with your donation.
Every dollar you contribute to CAN up to $50,000 will be matched through December 31st !
Map of CAJAC’s youth-led agroecological marketing projects
