Miriam Alarcón Avila

Maíz, Tierra, Agua y Vida
2025-26 Project Grant

"Maíz, Tierra, Agua y Vida" (Corn, Land, Water, and Life) is a multidisciplinary exploration of community agriculture as a source of cultural resilience for displaced Indigenous Latin American communities living in Iowa. The project documents their efforts to access land where they can grow traditional crops that nourish the body, reconnecting them with their ancestry, identity, and sense of belonging in a new place.

Through visual storytelling—video, photography, and audio—the project will follow the shared experiences that take place during the Círculos de Maíz (Corn Circles). In these gatherings, participants prepare and share foods such as tamales, pozole, tortillas, and Totomoxtle art made from corn husks. These circles function as community rituals where stories are exchanged around the fire and the griddle, creating space for healing while working on borrowed land. All collected materials will form a public archive of stories shared through social media and community events.