A milpa is a crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica. It has been most extensively described in the Yucatán peninsula area of Mexico. The word milpa is derived from the Nahuatl word phrase mil-pa, which translates into "maize field."
There are many conflicting views about the origins of agriculture, but most accounts suggest the domestication of plants began around 9,000 BC in the Middle East and corn was first cultivated in Mesoamerica around 2,700 BC. While others propose the domestication of corn from Teocintle developed in Mexico around 7,000 BC. There is evidence that Indigenous peoples grew corn in what is now southwestern U.S. by 100 BC while it is found in the Canadian shield by 700 AD.
An important distinguishing feature of corn is that it cannot reproduce on its own, so requires human intervention. The human-plant relationship has been central to peasant and Indigenous cultures through millennia. And this understanding of the interrelationships of all living things is now being promoted by environmental and food movements as critical to the survival of the planet. (see Michael Pollen’s The Botany of Desire).
Gustavo Esteva, Mexican defender of corn, describes the relationship like this:
“Corn is our invention. And corn, at the same time, invented us.”
Sin maíz no hay país (p. 11).