Starches of Abya Yala
Starch:
[noun, English]
[plural noun: starches]
1. An odorless, tasteless white substance occurring widely in plant tissue and obtained chiefly from cereals and potatoes. It is a polysaccharide which functions as a carbohydrate store and is an important constituent of the human diet.
Abya Yala:
[noun, Kuna]
1. Land in its full maturity.
2. Land of vital blood.
Abya Yala’ was the word used by the Kuna people of present-day Panama and Colombia to refer to their territory. Since the 1970s it has been recommended by various Indigenous groups as a decolonial term for the American continent. Starches of Abya Yala is an ongoing research project exploring corn, cassava, and potatoes as mediums to understand the past, present and future of this territory and contemporary world at large.
Due to their high caloric density, these three plants were some of the most important food-sources for the original inhabitants of Abya Yala. Considered deities, they are intertwined in countless origin stories of the people from the Meso-American, Caribbean-Amazonian, and Andean regions respectively.
These three plants continue to be some of the most important crops today, being food staples worldwide. However, their roles also spread beyond our plates, and increasingly to feed livestock and producing fuels and industrial products marketed as “sustainable” options.
Corn, cassava, and potatoes were also important protagonists in the colonization experience. Perceived by Spanish colonizers as the “wheat” of the original inhabitants of these territories, they incorporated them into their diets. Albeit with a big dose of suspiciousness, as they believed if they ate too much of them, they too would become “Indian.”
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Pintura de Castas Almidonoides
Recommended Readings:
Artigas, I. (1992) Cuentos, Mitos y Leyendas para Niños de América Latina. Bogotá, Colombia: Editorial Norma
De las Casas, B. (1982) Brevísima Relación de la Destrucción de las Indias. Madrid, Spain: Cátedra Letras Hispanas
Earle, R. (2020) Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press
Earle, R. (2014) The Body of the Conquistador. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press
García, G. (2018) Origen De Los Indios De El Nuevo Mundo, E Indias Occidentales. Wenworth Press
McDougall, C. (2009) Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pollan, M. (2006) The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin
Tinker Salas, M. (2009) The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela (American Encounters / Global Interactions). Duke University Press Group
Viola, H.; Margolis, M. (1991) Seeds of Change: Five Hundred Years Since Columbus. Washington D.C., U.S.A.: Smithsonian Institution Press
Wunder, S. (2003) Oil Wealth and the Fate of the Forest: A Comparative Study of Eight Tropical Countries. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge
