TheNewsMexico.com
February 2, 2002
By Janet Leslie Schwartz

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Chiapas - The Zapatista National Liberation Army's autonomous education committees and students from January 1st Secondary School in Oventic, recently launched a seed preservation project called "Mother seed of resistance" to reduce genetic contamination.

Genetically engineered strains of maize threaten to destroy plants that Chiapas communities cultivated for thousands of years.

"An effort must be made to save the seeds that grow in our community since genetically engineered seeds arriving to our land threaten to destroy the plants that our ancestors cultivated," a schoolteacher said. "Our seeds are specially adapted to our land and climate and we must preserve them."

Teachers, education committees and students will work together to identify, preserve and cultivate original maize seeds found throughout Chiapas.

Collected seeds will be stored according to Mayan tradition in clay pots with ash and eucalyptus leaves to protect against insects. The pots are then covered with fabric, tied with woven twigs and placed upright on concrete slabs in a building built with funds collected by a California- based non-profit organization, Schools for Chiapas.

The project planners hope to eventually include regional seeds from bean, calabaza, chile and medicinal plants, and conserve them in a building with refrigeration and genetic analysis capabilities.

Students will record information about the seeds, document recipies, history, legends and songs from community elders in the local language, Tzotzil.

"The mother-seed project extends to all areas of the school's curriculum," explained the Zapatista educator. "It will have a profound impact on our work for the years to come. Students will have the opportunity to discuss various topics with our oldest and best campesinos and write about their experiences in our own language."

"Sometimes our youth thinks that modern is better," another community leader commented. "We hope that the students see the value and importance of their cultural roots through this project."

The January 1st Secondary School, the first autonomous Indian secondary school in Chiapas, opened on the first day of 2002. According to Schools for Chiapas, the school is "an important grass-roots effort to preserve Mayan cultural heritage in Chiapas."