Latest / New Worlder / Episode #87: Mariana Poo & Luciely Cahum Mejía

Transcript

Episode #87: Mariana Poo & Luciely Cahum Mejía · New Worlder

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is the New Worlder Podcast, and I am one of your hosts, Nicholas Gill.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Co-host Juliana Duque will be joining shortly.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Today, we are speaking with Mariana Poe and Lucieli Cajon-Mahia.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Mariana is the commercial director of Traspatio Maya and its counterpart, Taller Maya.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Lucieli is a beekeeper, vegetable producer,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: and promoter from the Mayan community of Granada, Mash Kanu, and also works with Traspatio Maya.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Traspatio Maya,
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: which is part of the larger Haciendas del Mundo Maya Foundation,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: is an organization based in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula that works with 32 rural
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: indigenous communities.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's dedicated to supporting the production of sustainable culinary products
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: harvested in artisanal ways under fair conditions while rescuing ancestral mine
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: techniques and improving global production practices.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's an incredible group that has really changed the gastronomic conversation in the Yucatan.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see how these women are driving the dialogue around food in the region.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I first heard of Traspatio Mayo while I was in Merida last year.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: There was a panel that Mariana was a part of during the regional food festival,
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sabores de Yucatan,
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: which was then partnering with the Best Chef Awards.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone else on the panel was a chef,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: fairly famous ones at that,
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: and they were all talking about their stories working with rural and indigenous producers.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: At one point,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: the famous El Bulli chef,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Farhan Adria,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: one of the most influential culinary figures in the world without question,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: who just happened to be in the audience,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: asked to speak and was given the microphone,
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: as you do.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: You give Farhan Adria the microphone if you ask for it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So for the next 20 minutes,
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: he rambled on about technology and the future of the global food supply,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: mostly dismissing the work of everyone on the stage.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The famous chefs on the stage, they just kind of nodded.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to debate for Anandria, but Mariana pushed back.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was moved by it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: To me,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: it was like the statue of the fearless girl standing in front of the statue of the
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: charging bull on Wall Street.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So she stood up for herself and the women she works with, and she did it with love and respect.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just such a perfect example of how to move a conversation forward.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's something I need to remind myself sometimes when getting into silly social
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: media fights or whatever.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But you'll hear Mariana's response to what she was thinking during this.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I explain why what she was saying was so important, at least to me.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Mariana also tells us about how important working with the restaurant community has been.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: She explains how Noma Mexico,
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Noma's 2017 pop-up in Tulum,
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: allowed them to broaden their focus and how sending surplus produce to restaurants
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: is now a very important source of revenue.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first bilingual podcast we have ever had.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Traspatio Maya always tries to include the women they work with in everything they do.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I saw Lucy Ellie on stage with Jordi Rocha at the Best Chef Awards,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: which you'll hear her talk about.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: In the interview,
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: you will hear some Spanish,
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: though it is followed by an English translation,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: so just be patient.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know how you think this goes.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to do more interviews like this.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't subscribed to New Worlder on Substack,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: just go to newworlder.com or search for New Worlder on Substack.
• 3:56
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• 3:57
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• 4:00
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• 4:01
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• 4:03
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• 4:03
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• 4:04
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• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that's newworlder.com.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Also, we now have a New Worlder YouTube channel.
• 4:13
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• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just go to youtube.com slash newworlder.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the show.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nice to meet you.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Hola, hola.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Nice to meet you all.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the two of you right now?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: I am in Mexico City right now.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I am Mariana.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm part of Traspatio Maya team.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And usually I'm between Merida and Mexico City and all around.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: But now I'm in Mexico City.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And where is Lucy Alley?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Where are you now, Lucely?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here in my community, in my house.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Which one?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: In my community, Granada.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and your community is, it's how far from Merida, or where exactly in the Yucatan is your community?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Mariana,
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: we never officially met,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: but I was at the Best Chef Awards and Slash Sabores de Yucatan Festival in Merida
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: last year.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I went to this panel conversation that you were a part of,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: it was with like several other well-known international chefs with,
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: with,
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: with international chefs and I'm,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even sure what the panel was exactly about,
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: but like the chefs were mostly sharing their,
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: their stories about,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: working with different producers and,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: working it with different ingredients and sourcing them.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you were also talking about Traspatio Maya and the chefs weren't really saying
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: that much,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: which is kind of what you expect at these kind of events.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's very politically safe for the most part.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you were sharing your wonderful work.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually...
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ferran Adria,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: the kind of legendary chef from El Bulli in Spain,
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: one of the most influential chefs in the world was in the audience and,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: someone gave him the microphone and he kind of took over the conversation for like
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: the next 20 minutes or so.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he was, you know, lecturing everyone about the future of the global food supply and kind of
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: he was kind of discrediting all of these chefs who were trying to work with rural
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: and indigenous producers.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of just rambling and it's hard to tell exactly what he meant,
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: but he was kind of suggesting that it was all pointless.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone else on stage just kind of nodded.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know what to do, really.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to challenge this very well-respected chef, this very famous chef.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: But you, Mariana, you pushed back a little bit.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Only you, in a very polite way.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought it was very courageous.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I never saw you after that panel again during the week.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I just wanted to say thank you.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm right there with you.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think innovation...
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: can and should be just as much about how we find new ways to create dialogue and
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: work together,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: just as much as it is about technology and producing as much food as possible.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this,
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: like what you guys are doing is very laborious and very important work and it's not
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: nearly appreciated as much as it should be.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that panel, like what I'm talking about and like what was going on in your?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, of course.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, I totally agree with you.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: I respect a lot Ferradria.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, his journey in the... But... And I respect that he wants to question, no?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to be disruptive and he wants everyone to question why they're doing what they're doing.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: But... I... The panel, it was about origins in the future, no?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And how...
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: how they're connected and why is it important to honor the past in order to innovate, no?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And why you can't do one thing without the other.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I agree with you at the end.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty disruptive and I respect the point of where he was asking because it's a big challenge.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's right about not all of the projects that exist today
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: are replicable in a big scale, no?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: But what I said to him is, okay, I understand that, but how do we do it?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because what exists now,
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: it doesn't work because many of the rural producers in rural communities,
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: indigenous communities mainly,
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: don't get a fair income out of agriculture.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: So what is...
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: What is said today also doesn't work.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we're trying to do something different.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we believe, we've seen changes for exactly.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Lucely here with us today,
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: she grew up in a community where women didn't have a voice,
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: where women,
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: they only did certain roles and they didn't have any participation in the economy
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: of the family.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Lucelli is a businesswoman.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: She's the manager of her own company.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's a formal company.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: She can make invoices.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: She pays taxes.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: She has a group of Melipona bee producers.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: She works with vegetables to source many restaurants around Merida.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: She has a tourism activity.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: She receives many tourists from all over the world.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: every week and it was amazing.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, later you can hear it from her, but she's a testimony of how it works.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe not in a huge scale, but we are actually seeing some results.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: For the Milpap producers,
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: we started working with them just a few years ago because it was,
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: well,
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you the story later,
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: but there are many barriers for the Milpap producers in Yucatan and
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: In five years,
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: we've helped more than 130 milpa producers gain income of more than 4 million pesos
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: in heirloom corn.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: And their corn today, it's in Thailand, it's in Denmark, it's in different parts of the world.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they are actually producing more, having a better source out of it.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: The young people are...
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: like reaching out in the Milpa world again.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I, I, I appreciate that you, that you liked it.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Of course I was very nervous.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's important to,
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: to speak up,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: it's like,
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think at the very minimal,
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Ferran Adrià was trying to have a conversation.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: It just,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes when it's,
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: somebody so famous,
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: it just ends up being a one-sided conversation.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important to speak up because what you guys are doing are an example of an alternative,
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: of another way this can work.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing that is very important that I told him,
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: we're not defending just the local,
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: the local ingredients.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: We're trying to get that the rural producers can get a fair income out of agriculture.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: If the income comes from
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Other countries, if the income comes from here, perfect.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: But what we want to do is that the rural agricultures can have a fair income.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that happens either way, no?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps we can ask Lucieli how she kind of connected with Traspatio Maya and you
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: and what it's been like since.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: Lucía, nice to meet you again.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: How did you connect with this project?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us a little bit about that story of how you started working with the
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Transpatrio Maya project and with Mariana.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I...
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: the foundation came here to make an invitation to the community so that they could
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: sign up for the family agriculture project.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: And from there I started, I signed up for that project and I started sowing in my backyard.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: And from there I think about three or four years passed.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I was already invited to be the promoter of agriculture.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_03: At first it was a bit difficult because in the communities you already know the
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: machismo of telling women to go home and take care of the children,
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: they can't work,
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: right?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: but little by little it was working and in the end I accepted to be the promoter of family agriculture.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: From there, the training began so that I could teach my group.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: And from there, a few years later, they invited us to the Pi de Tuhuacal project.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: and from there I started to meet Mariana,
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: a little bit of the Trespatio Maya brand and we started then to commercialize the
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: excesses of the Trespatio since I saw that it was sown a lot and there were a lot
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: of vegetables that were lost there and they invited us to the project and we
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: decided to be participants
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: y empezamos a comercializar nuestros productos para tener ingresos para nuestras familias.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm going to introduce what Lucely was saying.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Lucely is from a community called Granada, that is about one hour away from Merida.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's in an Hacienda community.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: She said that, well, the community where she's from, it's a very...
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: machista community where usually the social structure is ruled by men and women
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: only play a certain role.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: And she never even questioned about being active in the economy or having an income
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: or doing something like that.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when she said that the foundation started working with them, the foundation, it's called
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Fundación Haciendas del Mundo Maya, Haciendas of the Mayan World.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they started working in a human development program,
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: very strong,
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: where they started to question the purpose that they had,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: what's the role of them in the community,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: the potential they have as a person,
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: what's their talents,
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: what are the ways of living in the community,
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: the things they can do
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: use to improve their livelihoods.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: So the foundation came to help them rescue some of the agricultural practice they
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: started abandoning,
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: like growing vegetables in the backyards of their homes that are called traspatio.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: The traspatio of a Mayan house is where they have the animals and the vegetables
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: and they do the crafts and everything.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And with this program that it was mainly for in a purpose of food safety,
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: they started growing with sustainable practices,
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: the vegetables so that they would have food safety for their families.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And the foundation also told them,
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: okay,
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: what if you produce a little extra and we help you commercialize those accidents of
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: vegetables so you can have an extra income out of it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And she started working with a program of community supported agriculture in Merida
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: called Pide Tu Guacala.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: That it was by the brand Traspatio Maya.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: What we didn't explain,
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: me or Luceli,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: is that the foundation opened this brand that is a nonprofit called Traspatio Maya
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: to help them commercialize all the food they produce.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Why is the purpose of creating this brand to represent all these groups of women
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: around the Yucatan Peninsula so that they can access the market in your rural communities?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have access to professional services like logistics, accountability, and many stuff.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Trust Patio is like the vehicle to sell all these products.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't know if you have some
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: different questions for Lucile of when was that or how did it change you?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have a question about when she mentioned
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: that she was promoted to be leader of families in this agricultural environment and work.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm curious what she thinks,
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: what the value she was bringing,
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: all the skills,
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: the knowledge,
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: the spirit she was bringing to be invited to be that leader.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: And if you can clarify, it's wakal.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: This is just a technical thing.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's like canasta or basket or something,
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: because I don't think it's the same term in Spanish for all countries.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, those two things.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want me to translate to Luzeli or you...
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: I can do it, sorry.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: So,
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Lucieli,
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: at some point you told us that in this process of starting to work with the organization,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: you were invited to lead part of the family process.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: My question,
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: the one I just asked in English,
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: is why do you think,
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: what values did they see in you,
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: what knowledge,
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: what motivation,
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: what spirit?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: you brought to the project to be invited to lead.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: And the other thing,
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: if you could give us a brief explanation of what huacal is in Mexico,
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: because I think it's not the same term.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well,
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: what encouraged me to accept this job is that I like to sow,
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: I like vegetables,
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: we learn more about that topic.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: Y pues yo empecé a capacitarme y aprendí,
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: he aprendido muchísimo,
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: igual en abejas,
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: igual en las abejas meliponas,
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: igual.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: Y a mí me gusta enseñar así a mis compañeras y
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: Y estar en la red, poder compartir mis conocimientos, poder compartir todo lo que yo he vivido, ¿no?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: Para que también ellas puedan ser inspiradas, para que ellas también puedan realizarlo.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_03: Porque como yo comentaba, a veces somos un poco penosas, a veces falta como que tener esa...
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_03: Esa seguridad, tanto de hablar, tanto de comunicar.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: A veces nos da pena hablar frente al público.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: O a veces no sabemos alguna práctica.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: Y pues a mí me gusta eso.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: Que sepan que ellos también pueden lograrlo, pueden hacerlo.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: can be safe,
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: autonomous,
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_03: and from their communities they can have a job and have income from their families,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: contribute to their family,
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: right?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: And that's it,
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: I like to transmit it to my colleagues and to a whole network of meliponicultores
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: and agricultores.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: And now that we are working in a network of artisans,
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: it is more satisfying to be able to share with everyone everything we have gone
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: through in our communities and be an inspiration for everyone.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: what Lucili was saying is that she loves all the harvesting and all the activities
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: related with agriculture.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that she's passionate about since the beginning.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: She started when she was called to the program,
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: she started learning because even though she loves it,
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: she started learning about sustainable practices and how to do organic bocaci and
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: canches and everything she loves she learned and she was accompanied by many
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: different agronomists and also when she started learning all those stuff she loves
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: sharing that with all her group and with other women in the communities that she
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: has contact with she says that it's a challenge because not
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone has the ability and the skills to speak in public, to be able to teach someone else.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: They are invited to different spaces to share knowledge or to have exchanges with
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: different chefs and to different forums like Best Chefs.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Lucely was with Jordi Roca in the Melipona Honey panel.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And she says that it's not easy.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: in indigenous communities,
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: it's not normal to hear all these voices and to,
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: to,
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: to be able to teach others.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: So Lucia says it's a challenge,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: but it's very,
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: she's very happy when she sees her,
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: her teammates or her partners doing the same and speaking out loud and knowing that
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: they can do something about improve,
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: improve their livelihoods and help bring a,
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: like,
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: income to their families.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the best part is that they can do it from their communities.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have to travel to the nearest city to get that income for their families.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: So she likes to, to, to share with others.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And she's very passionate about working in networks.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: No,
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: she's,
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: she's,
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: you mentioned,
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: she's part of a network with other,
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: with other social enterprises,
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: artisans and other producers.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: and they share knowledge, good practices, and she loves it.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Trespatio Maya has been going on for how many years now?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: We've been since 2005.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Have the goals changed at all since the organization began?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, because at first,
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: At first we started working in the technical skills, you know, along with the foundation.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't... Transpatriolo wasn't born from the necessity of the market.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's the contrary,
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: like detecting opportunities in the rural communities and how that we can,
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: with a creative solution,
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: make something that can
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: generate an income, a sustainable income for the communities we work with.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: So Transpatio has been evolving over the years.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: At the beginning, we started working with salt and vegetables.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: First,
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: with the vegetables,
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: because we were with this program that Luceli mentioned,
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: that it's a food safety program from the foundation.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: where they had to rescue the sustainable practice and the traditional practices to
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: grow the local ingredients and everything so they can have access to those
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: ingredients in the communities.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And at the beginning, it was only for food safety.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: But it was very funny because when René Rezepi came to the... He loves being in the peninsula of Yucatan.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: And he was doing all the research for his pop-up in Noma.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he,
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: um,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: he said,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: why don't you,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: he was visiting one of the communities and he said,
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: why don't you supply all the vegetables for the pop-up?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we said like, well, we are like small producers around.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have in their backyard, uh, the small production.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, oh, I don't care.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do a plan, a harvest plan, and I go with you like partners.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I pay up front with you.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: We take the risks together, and you supply for me.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like that, with the excellence of what they don't use for their own consumption.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we said, okay.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we started working for him the supply,
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: and this is the first time that the groups started to see the excellence of the
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: of the harvest and the income.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And they said,
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: oh,
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: I like having this extra income besides only having vegetables for me and my family
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: that has a lot of benefits,
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: but having this extra income,
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: it's great.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And after that, it was very successful.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was great for that project.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: But afterwards, the group said, okay, what's next?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: We want to keep having this extra income.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we started with the community supported agriculture program in Merida where they harvest every week.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: You from Merida associate with a producer for all the season and every week you
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: receive a box with vegetables from their traspatios with local ingredients,
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: grown with sustainable practices and everything.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was that,
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: and also the salt,
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: we work with producers in Celestún that usually the salt in Celestún,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: it was produced like in massive quantities with a very low quality and the
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: producers got very little out of it.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of work and very few income.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And there were a lot of opportunities that we detected there because for example,
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: All the salt that turned pink, it was waste.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, it was waste for them.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we said, no, let's do the analysis.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not waste.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's just because of the,
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: of a seaweed that it's in the,
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: in the,
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: in the water,
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: why they turn pink,
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: like the flamingos.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we did all the analysis.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was in perfect quality and we helped them like build this model.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we brought some technicians expert in the topic from France that work with the
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: salt flour and different gourmet salts to teach these producers new ways of
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: harvesting the salts.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it could be a more like premium product and do a different use than the massive
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: one for other purposes,
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: no?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: And at the beginning we had those two projects,
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: but in the years we've been having different additions,
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: like the Melipona honey,
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: that it's a very special honey that is produced by a small bee that doesn't have a sting.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a very picky bee that only picks from local flowers.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: And for the Mayan culture, it has a lot of medicinal properties.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: People started like abandoning this also because they didn't got the fair price
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: that the cost of producing it,
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: it wasn't beneficial for the way they could access the market.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that we entered to work also with the producers and helping them do the model to
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: find the right market.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: And also,
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: A few years ago with the maize, with the heirloom corn, it was the same.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: We detected a lot of red flags in the milpa system.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: The milpa is the place where different varieties grow in the same space and they
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: complement each other with nutrients.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: In Mexico, the milpa is the source of food for many rural families around the country.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's where they grow the maize, but the beans,
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the beans put nitrogen in the floor so that the maize grow better.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: The chili, the calabas, the pumpkin, and a lot of different varieties.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: And there were a lot of red flags because more than 40% of the maize was lost
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: because of bad practices for keeping the harvest after the harvest,
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: like the product after.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean by that?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like red flags in the traditional system or was it just like the post kind of processing?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, we saw that there were young people still doing the traditional meat.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now that it's a very important thing because it's the source of income for many families.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: So they only produced like very few producers still produce the heirloom corn.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: Most of them produce like
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: genetically modified corn and they got paid very little like three or four pesos
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: per kilo and the cost of producing that it was like seven or eight pesos so they
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: were it was crazy and of course there weren't any young people doing it and as i
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: told you 40 percent of the harvest was lost because they yucatan is very
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: complicated because of the weather and everything the plagues and
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: And they lost 40% of what they harvest.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we said, we have to do something.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we partnered up with the CIMITS,
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: that it's an organization that worked with improving the sustainable,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: improving the yield or the production of small producers by sustainable practices.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we worked four years with them to teach these practices
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: milpa producers how to do sustainable practices in the milpa to improve all the
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: production and all the technologies after the harvest and everything.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: And from Traspati we said we're going to buy everything that you don't use for your
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: own consumption and we help you access the market.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: We pay them when it's the harvest.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: No,
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: it's the risk we take from Traspatio with the maize,
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: with the honey,
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: with the salt,
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: with all the lines we work.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: We pay up like when we receive the product,
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: we pay them and we are in charge of all the harvest and everything.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we work with these elements?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: And what is the purpose?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: We believe that because...
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: are things that are very important in Mexico for the culture, like maize, like the honey, like the salt.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're never going to be extinct.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: They are going to exist forever.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not true.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: If the market doesn't put a value or doesn't see a value of it, the communities stop producing it.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: And if that's lost, like
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: the heirloom corn in specific,
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: if those seeds are lost,
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: it just doesn't have an impact in the health system of a community.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: It has an impact in the social structure, in the cultural identity.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: There are many losses linked to that.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, just food security as well.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like those particular heirloom varieties, it's like
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's future protection of, you know, like living within a world that's all messed up.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that's our main goal,
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: just not to generate,
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: help these women and men generate income out of the agriculture,
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: that it's a thing they can do,
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: but that like they have access to these,
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: to these ingredients that are so important.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we, sorry for extending too much to your answer, but.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Traspatio Mayes has been evolving according to the necessities.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: And if tomorrow there is another one that is very important,
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure we'll open different focus,
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: you know.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we are always with the chefs.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like the chefs are very important for us because they have a very good
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: understanding of the market and also a huge respect for the ingredients and the culture.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they've been helping us all along.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: to generate and understand these models and how they should work and to link and to
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: strengthen the value chain of what we do.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we've been evolving and we'll keep evolving in different ways.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have a question about that in terms of evolution and the future.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: And you just said something really interesting,
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: which is Traspatio evolves according to the necessities,
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I wonder, where is the balance as much as you can see and foresee today?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: between necessities and what feels sustainable,
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: right for everyone,
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: because I'm sure you are thinking all the time about that,
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because no one has the last word in these, right?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_02: Chefs might have a necessity,
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: but maybe they are like ignoring something else that might create an imbalance or,
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: the community.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I wonder how you, not easy and you cannot anticipate.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you just gave us
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: one of the clues of the project, which is we evolve according to necessities.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's very clear.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: And the other thing is a question for Lucille Lee that I can translate to in a second.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it's, if she can describe or define for us what a milpa is,
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: and what a huacal is, because we already know what traspatio is.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: You guys already find it, but I'm sure not everyone knows.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: So if you want to answer that, then maybe I can translate.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you want, we start with that second question with Lucelia, and I'll tell you the other one.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: Luciali.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect, yeah.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, Luciali, could you, in your terms, tell us what is the milpa and what is a huacal?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: Why is the project called Pide Tu Huacal and what is a huacal?
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the milpa is given every year.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_03: For example, when it rains, the milperos begin to sow.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_03: their mazorcas that they select and they can sow and they can also take care
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_03: because right now with the contamination and all that,
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: sometimes the rains wait and the dates that they have scheduled do not fall and it
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_03: goes either ahead or behind.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: They sow and then the harvest comes, they store it and they start again to take out what are the seeds
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_03: y empiezan a cuidar el maíz que les va a servir durante todo el año,
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: ya sea para su consumo y también para su comercialización.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: En cuanto al proyecto Pide Tu Huacal,
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: Pues ese proyecto se llama Pide Tu Huacal porque, por ejemplo, este proyecto dura cuatro meses.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: Ahí donde los clientes recibirán un huacal con la variedad de 10 productos a la semana.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_03: Y somos cuatro comunidades que estamos en la cadena de comercialización.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_03: En este caso está Granada, está Xcanchacán, está Tixca y Ashuna.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: son cuatro comunidades que estamos comercializando,
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: cada comunidad le toca una vez al mes poder surtir,
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: ahorita estamos surtiendo 36 huacales,
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_03: que tiene 10 variedades,
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: también va a depender de la temporada,
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: pues ya que nosotros sembramos de acuerdo a la temporada que tenemos,
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: en este caso ahorita estamos en hortalizas,
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: y pues se están entregando rábanos,
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: cilantro,
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: lechugas,
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_03: este...
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_03: They are delivering the avocados here,
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: the mango season has started,
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_03: the plums,
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_03: the guavas,
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_03: because they are the products that we are offering to people,
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_03: since we do work according to nature,
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_03: what nature gives us,
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_03: what we can plant and we can sell the same.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: Nosotros tenemos cuatro comunidades y ahora estamos sorteando 36 huacales y a
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_03: través de este proyecto puede ser sustentable el proyecto de comprar semillas,
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: mangueras y para que pueda seguir el proyecto.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Y pues nosotros nos ha ayudado mucho este proyecto porque ya que entre la temporada
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_03: que estuvo de la pandemia,
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: que fue una temporada así donde los esposos pues tenían que dejar de trabajar,
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: no había trabajo,
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_03: se cerró todo y pues nosotros dependíamos de ese momento de este proyecto y eso nos
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: ayudó a solventar los gastos que en su momento pues
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: then the spouses could not bring income to the family because they were left without work.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_03: Instead of being able to consume the products,
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_03: for example,
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_03: we were in a rainy season that,
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: for example,
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_03: there were pumpkins,
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_03: cucumbers,
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_03: there was all the corn,
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_03: all that.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: we also consumed from there and that also helped us so that our immune system was
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: able to be a little strong so as not to give us this disease that was in its moment
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_03: and we also had honey.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: And here in our group,
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: as well as here in the community,
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_03: the people who gave them were very counted,
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: but within our group that we are marketing,
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: no one gave them that disease.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_03: It helped us a lot to eat healthy and also to have it available at the time,
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_03: since you could not go to Mashcanú because they closed,
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: like in your house,
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_03: right?
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: So,
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: Lucely was saying at the beginning,
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: the milpa,
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: she was describing a bit about the activity that happens around the milpa.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: The milpa,
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: as I told you,
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: it's a system where different varieties growing in the same space and they
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: complement each other with nutrients.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: and help each other grow.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: But right now they are harvesting all the milpa when it rains.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: The milpa is a traditional system because it's created by people, by Mayans and ancient, many years ago.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's all with the natural rain.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have like water systems
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is with natural cycles.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: And right now they just harvest.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: They are selling the product.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: They are selecting the seeds to plant again.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they exchange the seeds with their communities to grow for the next cycle.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: And just before the rain starts, they plant the milpa.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: They prepare and plant the milpa.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: They take care of it all year around until the harvest.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: There are some varieties that they can harvest in some months of the year and other ones.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very traditional practice and it's very important for their cultures because,
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: as I told you,
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: they depend a lot in the weather,
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: in the astronomy,
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: in the...
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: the Mayan calendar and different practices.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: And the huacal,
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: the huacal is the box of the wooden box of vegetables that they commercialize in
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: the community supported agriculture system.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: They, right now there are four communities working with families in Merida, they provide
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: They have right now active 36 memberships that they send every week different varieties.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Each huacal comes with around 10 different varieties from fruit and vegetables.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: Lucely mentioned some of them like mango,
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: guayas,
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: the raya,
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: the radish,
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: and other varieties,
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: a lot of leaves.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: They always...
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: plant and harvest what's in season,
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: what the nature,
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: they are very respectful of the seasons and the nature,
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: the natural cycles.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: And with the income that they get from this program,
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: they can invest in the seeds and the tools they need to harvest and take care of
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: the traspatios.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um,
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: she mentioned a story when,
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: when it was a pandemic,
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: all the husband,
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: all their husbands,
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: they are mainly group of women and all their husbands were,
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: were unemployed and they came back to the communities as well as their sons,
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: no children.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone was again in the community.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: And many, many of the communities closed their doors.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: No, they were.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: as the rest of the world, they were closed and the people were unemployed and back.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: And they said that all the things they had,
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: because it was a good season,
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: they had a lot of elements to feed their families from the traspatios and from the
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: milpa to help them during those rough times.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: They even said that
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: their husbands helped them with the harvest and with the activities of the traspatio.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: Usually at the beginning,
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: the husbands were a bit doubtful about they having this business and if it was
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: going to work,
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: it was a waste of time and everything.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: And when the pandemic started, they helped, they became helpers of this woman.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it was amazing.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was very like,
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: powerful for them and they kept having this income because people in Merida didn't
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: stop the sourcing of the vegetables,
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: of the guacales.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: They said that also the honey was very important for them to help them with the
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: defenses and that it was very helpful for the whole community.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: with the lack of access to other communities and to going to Merida,
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: having the food in their homes,
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: it was very helpful for them.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what Luciele said.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: And about your other question with the chefs, and how do we do that balance of not
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like wasting opportunities that the market asks,
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: but being like responsible with the environment and the values that we have.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: To be honest,
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: we,
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: every,
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: every day we keep learning,
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: no along with the chefs,
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: because it's something that we are exploring every day together.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: As you said, sometimes we receive very interesting offers from, from different chefs around the world.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um,
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: this group,
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: this amazing group from London wanted to,
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: to buy a huge amount of beans,
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: no specific beans that it would represent a very good income for a lot of,
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: of producers around Yucatan.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: So at the beginning we were like excited about the idea,
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: but when we,
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: we always ask what is the income,
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: how is it sustainable in the longterm?
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it's aligned with the values that we have as a B Corp,
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: for example,
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: with the environment or it's good in the long term.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: So the beans weren't because they were beans that weren't from the region.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: So the people didn't consume that variety.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: What would happen if the relationship ended with that huge fly-in?
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: The producers were going to have a huge production of a bean that they don't consume usually.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's not part of their culture and of their nutrition.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: So every day we have those exercises and those reflections because we want to...
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: bring opportunities and to connect those two pieces of the chain and explore
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: because going outside of the box is how you can get different results and improve
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: the actual models that today doesn't work.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we like to think out of the box and we want to explore,
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: but we are very careful and every day it's a different scenario and we keep learning.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: But
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_01: Those questions are always very important.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_01: We do the model that if it's sustainable or not.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's something that doesn't take a huge risk,
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: because we are not working with huge producers and we are small producers that have
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_01: very important necessities and that live in a high level of poverty and they can't
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: take risks.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: like high risks.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we're very careful about that.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: But, but of course, as I told you, it's something that we learn every day.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's an example with Luceli.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: ¿Te acuerdas, Luceli, de cuando un chef quería comprar la larva de las meliponas?
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: Que justo...
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to translate in English.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: Some chefs that came to Merida,
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: they wanted to do a dish with the eggs of the,
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: like,
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: yeah,
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: the unborn flies,
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: no?
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we asked the producers, oh,
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: how much can we get and everything?
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like,
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: no,
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: no,
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_01: we're not going to give you that because that's what makes our colony of bees grow.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not good if I do that for just a necessity.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's not good if I do it in the long term.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: So they also put these boundaries and that's great for us also.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: So these decisions, like say with the beans, who decides?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is there like a voting system or what?
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's kind of like some kind of conversation that occurs.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just... No, just Mariana.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: Mariana by herself.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: No, we were part of...
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: As Lucille said,
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: we are always working in networks,
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: and all the entities that we have in the foundation always have the voice of the
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: people who we are working with in these committees or in these groups.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: So when we have this kind of decisions or analysis,
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: We from Traspatio, we never do it alone.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_01: We always go to the foundation.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: Luceli,
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: for example,
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_01: she is part also of the foundation because she's a promoter of the agriculture with
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: new women that want to start their business and everything.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: So when we have these challenges or these questions,
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: we do the exercises with them,
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: the costing exercise,
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: the financial,
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_01: like...
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: the analysis of finance, of sustainability and commercial speaking.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_01: We do that integral analysis with these representatives of the networks,
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: of the artisanal network and the agricultural network.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't vote with all the producers,
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: but we analyze it along with the leaders or the representatives of these networks.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_00: So what are the size of these networks?
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like how many people are we talking about with Traspatio Maya and Taller Maya?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to let Lucely answer that from Traspatio Maya.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: Lucely asks what size is the Traspatio Maya network today?
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's very wide since the Traspatio Maya brand represents from corn producers, salt producers,
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_03: de hortalizas, de miel.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_03: Entonces está muy amplia.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_03: Entre ellos hay muchas familias productoras en esa marca.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_03: ¿Cuántos son de Melipona?
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_03: En Melipona son 61 productores.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_03: Ok.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_03: ¿Y de hortalizas?
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_03: De hortalizas son como unos 35.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_03: Ok.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: Gracias.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: Perfecto.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_03: So what Lucely said is that there are 60...
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: There are 61 melipona producers in different regions of Yucatan and Campeche.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_03: There are 35...
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_01: vegetable producers also in different regions of Yucatan.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: We work with four families that produce the salt and also a group of women that do
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: the processing,
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_01: the cleaning.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_01: They clean and process the salt by hand in a community called Sisilche.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's a group of 10 women and active in the sale today 80 milpa producers.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: So
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the active network today.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's very big.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a lot of different ingredients being produced.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a big impact.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, just with the Malagona, like 61 producers is, that's a lot.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's impressive.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: Does Lucielli work directly with the bees?
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to ask because I'm also a beekeeper.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: I just started keeping bees, but I'm very new.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: Does she have any advice for me?
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: Lucielly asks Nick if you work directly with bees and that Nick has some hives in
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: his house and if you have any advice for him.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I have been working with bees since I started.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_03: This project,
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_03: I work with bees,
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_03: in fact they are here in my house,
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_03: and I also took a diploma in meleponiculture,
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_03: now to expand my knowledge and my good practices,
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_03: because in that we have had a lot of growth of ferns,
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_03: through this diploma that from the foundation,
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_03: She's asking what species do you have so she can give you a tip.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so mine are not melipona.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're not stingless.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're just like the normal European honeybees.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the ones that sting you all the time.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least me.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're the ones that sting you all the time, Lucilius.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_01: They're the normal ones.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_01: The apis.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_03: in this case,
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know how the place where you live is,
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_03: if there is a lot of cold or I don't know how,
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_01: where is it from?
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_01: She asks how is the weather of where you live and how is the environment?
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: so I mean,
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: there are winters here where it snows,
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_00: so you have to like cover the bees and protect them during the winter.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so there are periods of, you know, pollen and nectar, but then periods where of nothing.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's probably more, I don't want to say difficult, but I think...
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's not always as much food for the bees around.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's very easy to to disconnect from their lives.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, and suddenly they're without food and, you know, quite, quite angry about it.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_01: Sí,
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: como que dice Lucili que es bastante inconsistente,
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: como que hay temporadas,
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_01: o sea,
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_01: él,
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_01: bueno,
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_01: viene de un lugar de más frío.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_01: pero es bastante inconsistente el tema de la polinización, de repente producen, de repente no.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_01: Comenta que no hay mucha tampoco fruta de alrededor de donde puedan alimentarse las
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_01: abejas y que posiblemente no,
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: pues sí,
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_01: por ahí no tengan la suficiente alimentación para poder producir.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: Pero sobre todo, más allá de la especie, Lucely, como cuidador de abejas, ¿qué consejo le darías?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: O sea...
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_01: más allá de cosas muy específicas, muy científicas,
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_01: of bees.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_03: in that case,
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_03: if,
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_03: for example,
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_03: there are not many trees where he lives,
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_03: so I recommend that,
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_03: for example,
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_03: what they can put in during there,
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_03: when there is a season of flowering that is very little,
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_03: that they leave them so that they can consume and feed themselves,
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_03: since,
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_03: for example,
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_03: if you are going to remove the resource from the hive,
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_03: it will decrease,
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_03: it will become weaker,
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_03: and well,
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_03: it would lead to the event that the bees die,
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_03: right?
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_03: my recommendation is that if you monitor them the same as how they are in terms of
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_03: food and well,
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_03: also if they have honey,
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_03: that also the sugar,
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_03: sorry,
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_03: in season of scarcity,
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_03: that they give them food there so that they can continue to survive.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_03: Because,
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_03: if the bees need a lot of flowering so that they can put in resources,
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_03: both so that they can feed themselves and have this
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_03: so that the offspring are healthy,
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_03: since in that species they have many diseases compared to the melipona bee,
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_03: right?
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_03: And they are monitoring that if a plague or something does not enter them,
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_03: because sometimes they can even leave,
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_03: because if they see that there are no resources,
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_03: there is nothing,
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_03: they leave.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_03: They are not like the melipona bee, that the melipona bees do not leave, there they are.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_03: Compared to the melipona bee, the apis,
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if they don't see any resources, they leave.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_03: So they are monitoring if they have resources, if they have any pests, and if they are well.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: Super.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_01: What Lucely was saying is that,
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_01: well,
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_01: what she recommends is that you plant whatever you can around because they do need
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_01: a lot of flowers and things to feed.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the other one is that you monitor them often.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_01: if you have honey to feed them,
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: that you do that,
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_01: so you check them on a proper standard to help them be healthy and their babies.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_01: Also, she says that these kind of bees that you have are less loyal than the meliponas, so if they don't
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_01: If they're not taken care of, they leave.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be very careful because these species also tend to have more plagues
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_01: and more health problems.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_01: You should take very good care of them and monitor them constantly.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: Before that, Lucely was saying that she works with the bees from her house.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_01: The meliponary they have, their group has, it's in the backyard of her house.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_01: She took a master in a local university a few years ago called the Wadi University.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was a meliponiculture diploma and she said that it helped her grow the colonies
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_01: of beasts she had before taking that
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_01: course she had a lot of trouble with dividing when the melipona to reproduce you
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_01: have to divide it and to feed them so before that it was very complicated for them
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_01: and this this capacity building helped her and her group to reproduce the the bees
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_01: they started
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_03: with 5 liters,
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_03: and last year we sold 23 liters,
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_03: and this year it has been a bit difficult with the issue of heating.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_03: So this time I don't think,
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_03: as I mentioned,
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_03: you have to take care of the bees,
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: and now this year what they put in for their food,
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: this year I don't think they harvested because the flowering is very low.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, she said that they started with five liters of melipona to sell and last year they sold 25.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_01: They, they only can produce one liter per colony per year.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_01: um,
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_01: she said that this year is a bit difficult because of the global warming,
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_01: the,
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_01: the,
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_01: there aren't many flowers around the area and they have to harvest before the rain starts.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if they don't, if she's going to monitor the bees like carefully,
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if the bees are not ready and it's not possible,
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_01: she won't harvest this year and she waits for after the rain.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the Malapona honey has, you know, like incredible medicinal values.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_00: How does she use it as medicine?
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_02: This species in particular has...
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_02: very powerful curative medicinal properties.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_02: How do you use them specifically in the communities?
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this honey, we here in the community use it more as medicine.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_03: For example,
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_03: if we suffer from respiratory diseases,
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_03: we take what is honey,
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_03: just like what pollen is,
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_03: we make a preparation with pollen and honey,
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_03: which also helps the immune system.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then we also, for example, if we have some ulcers, some burns that diabetic people also have,
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_03: The honey is very good at healing scars.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_03: It is also used to heal scars very quickly.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_03: It is also used for cataracts.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_03: It helps if you have it, so that the cataract does not continue to grow.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't have it, it helps you not to have it anyway.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_03: We also use this honey for children, adults, and also for pregnant women.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_03: since it contains many benefits,
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_03: this honey,
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_03: because,
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_03: for example,
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_03: in the amphorae where they store what honey is,
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_03: they are resources that they collect in nature and through wax and other resins
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_03: from other trees,
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_03: they make this preparation,
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_03: which is the cerumen,
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_03: and they make the amphorae where they put the nectar to become honey.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_03: Y todo esto pues al estar en esa ánfora pues va también absorbiendo todos los
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_03: nutrientes y eso le da como que un valor como que medicinal,
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: ¿no?
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: Y pues nosotros aquí en la comunidad así lo utilizamos.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_03: De hecho,
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_03: como les comentaba,
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_03: en temporada de pandemia hacíamos ese preparado y diarios en las mañanas en ayunas
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_03: nos tomamos ese preparado con miel y polen y no nos dio lo que es esa enfermedad
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_03: que estaba en su momento.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_01: Lucili is saying that
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_01: The melipona has many medicinal purposes.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_01: In the Mayan culture, they use it as medicine.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's not something they use to prepare the food.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_01: One of the first benefits is for the respiratory system.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_01: Also, they prepare this paste with pollen and honey.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_01: the immune system to help the immune system,
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_01: they put...
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's great to do the...
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_01: Juliana,
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_01: how do you say cicatrizar in English?
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's... Yeah, like for scar healing.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_01: Healing the scar.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_01: And burns and all that.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_01: So they use it for that purpose.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if in English it's the same, the eye cataract problem.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: They...
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_01: use it in, they put it in their eyes too for that.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it helps a lot.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_01: And also to prevent those eye problems.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_01: Lucely was saying that in the pandemic,
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_01: every day they took a bit of pollen and a little of honey and they were great.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_01: She said that nothing happened to their roof.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's coincidence
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_01: of what, but she says that it helped them a lot.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: I have a question about, so by now, the group is consolidated, empowered.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_02: They have so much knowledge,
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_02: skills that they have potentialized and they are,
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_02: it's flourishing.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_02: So what will Lucille and you, Mariana, if you want to contribute to that question, to
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: what would you say it's the main or the or are the main sources of learning now
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_02: because there are so much training courses they can take right and that has a limit
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_02: to right like
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_02: Not everything is endless in terms of technical training or marketing or trade.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just curious what is a main motivation of keep exploring now,
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_02: given that you are receiving so much information from the outside world,
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_02: but also the organization is strong,
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_02: So...
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the other question is if they have zero waste now or close to zero waste,
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_02: given that they have potentialized these two.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_02: Luciely, I was asking Mariana and you both, what would you say is the main motivation to learn now?
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_02: Because you have told us that it has motivated you to learn good practices,
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_02: take technical courses,
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_02: suddenly have scientific knowledge that comes from other places.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_02: But the group is so consolidated,
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_02: you have shown other women that their knowledge is so valuable,
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_02: they feel strong now and there is a process that has flourished that motivates you
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_02: to continue learning,
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_02: that you don't necessarily do the technical or that you focus only on the technical,
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_02: but that you say,
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_02: well,
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_02: how can we continue growing?
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_02: dentro de este grupo, ¿cómo puedo seguir aportando?
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_02: Teniendo en cuenta que han crecido ya tanto, ¿no?
• 1:10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Y lo otro es si tienen cero desperdicio en este momento o cómo manejan el pequeño
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_02: desperdicio que todavía tienen,
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_02: si tienen.
• 1:10:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, in my case, yes, since I joined this project, I really liked bees.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_03: For example,
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_03: I even started to identify with bees because they are very organized,
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_03: they are very hardworking,
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_03: they communicate a lot.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I started to know them because I said yes to the project, but I didn't know them.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_03: But when I already knew them, then I realized that they are very noble.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_03: in our care, it is a species that is in danger of extinction, they are very good pollinators.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_03: To see all these benefits that this bee has,
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_03: the melipona bee,
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_03: I was very interested and also to know how to take care of them,
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_03: which ones to let them do the best practices,
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_03: right?
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_03: And well,
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_03: that has driven me to continue learning,
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_03: and more than anything,
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_03: I see it as a privilege,
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_03: first,
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_03: to have these bees
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_03: here in my house, to be able to consume that honey that today is not found anywhere.
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_03: We have a quality standard,
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_03: just as we handle it,
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_03: and it is a 100% honey that we do not feed,
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_03: we do not feed them with their own honey.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_03: So we see that for us it is a privilege, and for me it is also a privilege to have these bees.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_03: y seguir aprendiendo cuáles son las buenas prácticas y también poder transmitir a
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_03: las demás compañeras hasta de otras comunidades todos estos conocimientos que ellos
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_03: puedan estar también ellos también aprendiendo para que puedan ellos también puedan
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_03: crecer en este tema de la mieliponicultura
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_03: y pues más que nada seguir preservando esa especie porque pues sin abejas pues no
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_03: hay alimentos y hoy en día pues ya con tanta contaminación,
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_03: con tanta tala de árboles pues está afectando mucho las abejas,
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_03: ¿no?
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_03: Y pues hay que hacer algo desde los lugares donde estamos hacer algo para seguir
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_03: pues trabajando esta especie.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_01: ¿Y qué te gustaría seguir aprendiendo?
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_03: Pues me gustaría seguir aprendiendo más sobre ellas.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_03: Ahora más como que en los laboratorios,
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_03: por ejemplo,
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_03: qué árboles polinizan,
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_03: qué la miel,
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_03: qué...
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_03: Porque una vez que tuve,
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_03: creo que una,
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_03: me invitaron
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_03: to go to a laboratory,
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_03: I was very interested because there they said what flowers,
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_03: when I look at the samples that they make,
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_03: well,
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_03: they look like the structures of what flowers or to understand a little more about that,
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_03: right?
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_03: And more than anything, to understand more like their genetics, how they come or how
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_03: or how they are evolving.
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that interests me a little more about that topic.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_03: And the rest, well, I already know, but I would like to continue learning more about bees.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_03: In this case,
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_03: for example,
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_03: that even honey for the eyes,
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_03: that it has to be the honey that is not in fermentation,
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_03: and that the honey for consumption,
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_03: that it must already be ripe.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, if you know a little more about that topic, the same.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so what Lucille was saying, she said that she's always been interested in the bees.
• 1:13:27
  SPEAKER_01: She didn't know them very well, but she was interested by them.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_01: When she started learning about the bees,
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_01: she was amazed because she found out that they're very noble creatures.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And she also learned about all the challenges, about they're in danger of being extinguished.
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_01: And she was very interested of
• 1:13:49
  SPEAKER_01: how to take care of them.
• 1:13:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what's been motivating her to keep learning and to keep doing it.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_01: She said it's a privilege to have these bees and to keep learning and preserving
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_01: these species because they're pollinates all the jungles and the ecosystem that she
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_01: lives in.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And they have a very important role in
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_01: in everyone's life.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_01: So she says that even,
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_01: it doesn't matter where you are or where you're from,
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_01: you can do something about it.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And she says that she's saying, she's doing something about it.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And she wants to keep learning a bit more about the bees and the flowers and the
• 1:14:41
  SPEAKER_01: genetics and more specialized knowledge
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_01: benefits of the honey.
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now she said that,
• 1:14:49
  SPEAKER_01: for example,
• 1:14:49
  SPEAKER_01: the bee that it's for the,
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_01: for the eyes,
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_01: it's the,
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_01: the,
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_01: the honey that it's not fermented yet.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_01: So she wants to keep learning and that will help her to sell her product better and
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_01: to improve the production and to keep preserving these amazing species.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_02: and I think she almost said,
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean,
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_02: without humanizing bees,
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_02: but I think she also said something in relation to how even psychologically or
• 1:15:23
  SPEAKER_02: close to that or logistically,
• 1:15:26
  SPEAKER_02: they have been a good example for her as inspiration to organize things.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_02: the communities.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it's just like by observing how they operate,
• 1:15:36
  SPEAKER_02: it's also a source of inspiration without,
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_02: again,
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_00: humanizing.
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think there are a lot of parallels there.
• 1:15:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just creating these networks.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it's a really beautiful thing.
• 1:15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's... We're not really that different.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_01: You said it's like a bee because she's sharing with women in other communities that
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_01: want to do the same.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_01: There are many different reasons.
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Lucely loves the piece, but other women only want to also have a sustainable income.
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So what Lucely is doing is sharing all that knowledge and all the practices and expanding this network.
• 1:16:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's great.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you both.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Muchisimas gracias, Lucieli and Mariana.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's really great to get to know you both and speak with you directly.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was so impressed when I was at Merida.
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I got to understand a little bit about Tres Patios Maya.
• 1:16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think the effects are very tangible.
• 1:16:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can see what's happening.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really incredible.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_00: it's a great example for a lot of other organizations,
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_00: throughout Latin America or elsewhere in the world,
• 1:17:02
  SPEAKER_00: because we're all just trying to figure it out.
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there's not really one model, one size fits all approach.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just this black and white thing that I think everyone wants it to be.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, so thank you.
• 1:17:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pleasure.
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, thank you for, for,
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for inviting us and to be this megaphone to help us share the project and
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_01: for having us in this space to hear what we have to say and to connect us with
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_01: other people outside.
• 1:17:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, in terms of connecting, Mariana, if you want to share all the social networks.
• 1:17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_01: You can find us.
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_01: We have social network.
• 1:17:53
  SPEAKER_01: We have Instagram.
• 1:17:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's traspatio.maya.
• 1:17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And also you can buy the melipona honey and the salt and the different products in Taller Maya webpage.
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's tallermaya.org.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And also we have physical stores in Merida,
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_01: in Merida,
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Isamal,
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_01: and Campeche,
• 1:18:20
  SPEAKER_01: where you can find also our products.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you can taste them in different restaurants around Mexico and around the world.
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, yeah.
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone, look out.
• 1:18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you both.
• 1:18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Gracias.
• 1:18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Gracias.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Have a nice evening.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, everyone, for listening.
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed that episode with Traspatio Maya.
• 1:18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Check them out if you're ever in the Yucatan, and they're pretty amazing.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And a big thank you to my friend Pat Buzzard for providing the music to this show.
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Find out more about Pat at patbuzzard.com.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't subscribed to New Worlder on Substack, please do.
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Just go to newworlder.com or search for New Worlder on Substack.
• 1:19:19
  SPEAKER_00: See ya.