The world in a chakra: a garden that is also home, pantry, pharmacy and school

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A piece of land planted with food plants not only allows survival, but also projects, like a wind rose, the directions that life can take.

Because that piece of land is not only usable space and organic matter;

it is also a compass of organization and entails knowledge.

Food is the center of use and operations, but the functions of the chakras (a word written with a

since the Quichua -

- and the use of c was eliminated, among other letters) can be approached from various perspectives: economic, ecological, social, cultural, spiritual, technological.

This holistic dimension is what the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) valued to grant them, last February, the recognition of Important World Agricultural Heritage Systems (Sipam).

With these additions, FAO's global network now has 74 recognized systems in 24 countries.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, there were already five in four countries: one in Brazil, one in Chile, one in Peru and two in Mexico.

The creditors in Ecuador were the Union of Peasant Organizations of Cotacachi (Unorcac), in the northern highlands of the country, and the Corporation of Associations of the Amazon Chakra, in the province of Napo.

“The recognition is based on a file that is presented by the same architects of the systems and that evidences that they contribute to food security, the security of livelihoods and native agrobiodiversity, ancestral knowledge, social organization, values cultures and integrated landscape management”, explains Érika Zárate, international specialist in family farming for FAO.

"But in addition to the file, a conservation plan for that heritage must be attached, and what is ultimately sought is that public or private actors commit to the conservation of that knowledge," she clarifies.

Magdalena Laine (56) in one of her chakras.Ana Maria Buitron

One of the farms visited by the FAO commission that granted the recognition is that of Magdalena Laine, a 56-year-old Kichwa woman, wife and mother of eight children, dedicated to agroecology by heritage and vocation.

The farm is located in Cumbas Conde, a community close to the city of Cotacachi, province of Imbabura, in a foothill at 2,500 meters above sea level flanked by the inactive volcano that bears the same name as the city and which, from the Andean worldview, carries a feminine protective energy:

Cotacachi.

The land is over a hectare and is a prodigious example of the attributes of the chakra.

The housing area is located on an elevation close to the center of the plot and its three wings form a U shape with a patio in the middle.

There are the rooms and the dining room;

a room for raising guinea pigs (guinea pigs, guinea pigs), and another for storing tools and collecting corn, beans, broad beans and other harvest fruits.

In the central patio, the washed clothes are dried, a fire is lit to cook with firewood, hens walk with their chicks and, when the occasion arises, they dance to family celebrations and the festivities that mark the agricultural calendar.

Around there are more than 10 plots of various sizes, of which nine are overflowing.

The one that rests was planted with chochos (lupine, lupine), four good quintals that today are kept in jute and polypropylene sacks to be consumed later (cooked and drained until the bitterness is removed, as is customary), or to drink from there. a few kilos and sell them at the Sunday fair, or to contribute to the banquet that must be prepared at a baptism or at a wedding, and, of course, to reserve what is necessary as seeds.

The variety of foods on the farm is amazing.

In the case of this family, the work to maintain it is carried out by everyone: Magdalena, her husband and the five children who still live with them, plus her daughter Cecilia Cumba, who goes twice a week to, together with her husband, attend the plot of corn, uvilla and amaranth (ataco, sangorache) that they have on that property.

Right now they are fighting against a plague that attacked the uvilla plants, a fungus that practically burns the leaves.

They have 500 plants and almost half are affected.

To plant that lot they invested 500 dollars between the purchase of plants, logs and wire for the vines to climb.

They are confident that, despite everything, they will have a good harvest in April.

The uvilla will be sold to a company that dehydrates them and turns them into jam,

Black amaranths or 'sangorache' in the Magdalena Laine chakra.

Ana Maria Buitron

Although the work of the land is a family matter that is transmitted and committed from generation to generation, it is common for the chakras to be maintained mainly by women, something that was also highlighted by the FAO to grant such recognition.

"The role of women is relevant above all because of the commitment they have had not only to take care of their chakra, their private space, but also the chakras of the community," explains Érika Zárate.

"With this they contribute to taking care of their way of life, their environment and their culture, because the chakra is not only a plot of production, but it is a place where knowledge is raised, created and transferred."

In this first plot to one side of the house there are cabbage, chard, spinach, cauliflower, jicama, chili peppers and black and white amaranth with its spiky exuberance.

There is also borage, thyme and marjoram, plants that, medicinal as they are, were planted there to protect the others from pests.

The health of all is apparently impeccable, but Magdalena Laine explains that, under the enormous leaves of these cabbages, about 40 in three rows, the cabbages have not developed and therefore they will end up feeding the pigs, guinea pigs and rabbits that later They will bring the droppings.

Together with those of the cows and chickens that he also has, they will make up the powerful fertilizer with which they fertilize the crops.

A chamburo or 'papaya of the Andes', an exotic fruit rich in B vitamins, calcium and probiotics, in Laine's chakra.Ana Maria Buitron

Some of its virtues as a system are distinguished in the elements of this brief photograph of chakra work.

The planting of associated species is an ancestral inheritance that, compared to monoculture systems, has several benefits, including greater efficiency in the use of land and water, the reduction of pest populations and the reinforcement of biological control, the increase in diversity macro and beneficial microorganisms, and the improvement of soil fertility.

Thanks to its circular logic, nothing is wasted, since food that is not suitable for human consumption is destined for animals or, ultimately, is piled up in compost bins or at the foot of the plants to rot and enrich the soil.

The use, then, follows the following sequence: humans, animals, land,

plus the usual reserve for seeds.

Obviously, the chakra crops are fertilized without chemicals, only with organic fertilizers that are produced indoors thanks to the contribution of animals.

Animals are food for humans, a food vehicle for the earth, a source of economic income or a commodity for exchange.

An adjoining plot concentrates the essential combination of the chakra system, a direct legacy of the original peoples and what is known as milpa in Mesoamerica: corn, beans and squash, in this case sambo and squash.

To this association, which in some places is known as "the three sisters", other plants are usually added to get even more out of the system.

Chili (chili) is common, which is found in this plot, where there are also pigweed, quelites, mashua and white and red oca, Andean tubers, the latter, which on the one hand are at risk of extinction as they are less and less consumed by the general population, and on the other hand they have experienced a certain renaissance in the environment of local haute cuisine.

Stranger and even more in danger of disappearing is miso, an extravagant Andean tuber with tangled, multi-faceted roots that Magdalena struggles to dig out of the ground and presents, smiling, as the rarity it is.

It has an energy value up to four times greater than that of the potato, and is capable of resisting in extreme cold conditions.

But he is even more enthusiastic about talking about corn, the crop that generally dominates the Andean chakras in terms of volume of production and how essential it is for daily food, but also in regards to its cultural and symbolic relevance.

It is one of the five most important crops in the world and the one with the greatest range of adaptation, since it grows from sea level to above 3000 meters of altitude.

Every year the Central Women's Committee of Unorcac organizes the Muyu Raymi in Cotacachi, a fair that aims to promote the exchange and circulation of native seeds and support processes that strengthen food sovereignty.

Although a wide variety of seeds of tubers, cereals, legumes, fruit plants and even ornamentals are available there, the ones that predominate not only for their number but for the beauty of their shapes and the fascinating palette of colors they cover are those of corn.

Beautifully arranged on tablecloths on the floor, peasant women usually display around 20 different ears of corn.

Magdalena Laine, who often participates in the fair, grows several of them.

“We plant the mishca sara to make roasting, because it is very soft;

ball corn for flour, for nickname;

also the chulpi, the canguil,

the dark one, the white one to make chicha, or the yellow one to toast and make flour and mix it with a little barley, that is good for breakfast coladas”.

So that they dry and are not affected by pests such as weevils, the whole ears are covered with their own leaves, stretching them upwards from the lower end, the so-called catullus, and then they are tied together with one of those leaves, in pairs or in groups of up to five, and in the open they are hung from a nail on the wall.

This magnificent handicraft work, which at the same time preserves the grains, adorns peasant homes, is called guayunga.

the whole ears are covered with their own leaves, stretching them upwards from the lower end, the so-called catullus, and then they are tied together with one of those leaves, in pairs or in groups of up to five, and they are weathered hangs on a nail on the wall.

This magnificent handicraft work, which at the same time preserves the grains, adorns peasant homes, is called guayunga.

the whole ears are covered with their own leaves, stretching them upwards from the lower end, the so-called catullus, and then they are tied together with one of those leaves, in pairs or in groups of up to five, and they are weathered hangs on a nail on the wall.

This magnificent handicraft work, which at the same time preserves the grains, adorns peasant homes, is called guayunga.

Corn preserved through the guayunga.Ana Maria Buitron

In this plot, another snapshot of the chakra's attributes: the preservation of native seeds through breeding and exchange;

the cultivation of species in danger of extinction that go unnoticed in urban areas, and the multiplicity of uses that can be given to a crop as rich and versatile as corn, which in various native languages, with good reason, was called with words that also meant

.

The chakra also concentrates the understanding of the passage of time and the way in which the great forces (the sun, the moon, the water) operate on the earth.

For the native peoples of the Andes, including the Quichuas, the year is divided into two solstices and two equinoxes that each mark a phase in the life cycle of people and agricultural production.

These phases, being understood as gifts of nature, are appreciated and celebrated.

"In relation to the chakra, all the festivities we have take place," says Magdalena Fueres, president of the Central Women's Committee of UNORCAC.

“For example, Pawcar Raymi (March 21) is the festival of flowering and the first fruits;

Inti Raymi (June 21) is thanks to the harvest,

Kolla Raymi (September 21) is when the land is fertile and we begin agricultural work;

and Kapac Raymi (December 21) is when the chakrita is just hilled, that is, in weeding”.

And in that time frame many other customs directly linked to the chakra are inscribed.

“The minga (common solidarity work), the pambamesa (community food thanks to the generosity of the land), natural medicine, and in general the entire organization of the social fabric in the indigenous communities, even more so in Cotacachi, perhaps because here there is still solidarity and a tendency towards community, and also because there are more needs”, adds Fueres.

And in that time frame many other customs directly linked to the chakra are inscribed.

“The minga (common solidarity work), the pambamesa (community food thanks to the generosity of the land), natural medicine, and in general the entire organization of the social fabric in the indigenous communities, even more so in Cotacachi, perhaps because here there is still solidarity and a tendency towards community, and also because there are more needs”, adds Fueres.

And in that time frame many other customs directly linked to the chakra are inscribed.

“The minga (common solidarity work), the pambamesa (community food thanks to the generosity of the land), natural medicine, and in general the entire organization of the social fabric in the indigenous communities, even more so in Cotacachi, perhaps because here there is still solidarity and a tendency towards community, and also because there are more needs”, adds Fueres.

For the rest, the astonishing variety of crops on Magdalena Laine's farm covers every corner: barley, quinoa, rye, broad beans, peas, Chinese potato, avocado, lemon, chigualcán, uvilla, a few types of potato, and red beans. , yellow, black, blue and others with amusing names such as matambre, vaquita and perugachi.

As in all chakras, the main destination of food is personal consumption, and then there is the sale at local fairs, the gift or exchange between relatives and neighbors, and the reserves for seeds and for when the harvests are not very generous.

But with such abundance there will be no plague or inclement weather that puts the food of this family and therefore the community at risk.

On the contrary, it would seem that in Cumbas Conde, under the protection of

Cotacachi, life is a pambamesa.

Magdalena Laine shows a matambre bean pod.Ana Maria Buitron