Teresa de Jesús Cen Requena is washing burgundy okra and a rainbow of freshly dug carrots at Mestiza de Indias, a regenerative agricultural project hidden down a dirt track in the jungle near the Maya village of Espita. “You used to be able to live from your milpa,” the farm worker said, referring to the traditional smallholding. “But now many people from the village go to Cancún because they want modern luxuries.
“You can’t buy a mobile phone with a bag of beans but I don’t care – I am connected to this land.”
At first glance, life appears (embroidered tunics) steam stuffed maize dough) over open fires in houses thatched with palm; men melt into the jungle with guns over their shoulders to hunt deer.
