This week I’ve been writing a lot about Hopi corn beyond the mesas. And yet, the more I write about Hopi corn in Illinois, the more I think about corn back home. Here’s a scene (depicted in the photo) that one can never replicate in the Midwest, or any other place besides the Hopi mesas of northeastern Arizona.
This afternoon I took a break from grading final exams to check on our corn, which students from the University of Illinois planted last week. As many of you know, we are filming this corn for a film by Victor Masayesva, Jr. titled “Maize.”
When I arrived at the plot, I was glad to see that our corn was coming up.
The first photo is of Hopi sweet corn (twaktsi), and the second one shows Tzeltal corn (teosinte) of southern Mexico. They are planted next to each other.
I also added a few photos to give readers a sense of the plot and surrounding area.
Last week we began filming the University of Illinois portion of Maize, a film by Hopi filmmaker Victor Masayesva, Jr. of Hotevilla. In the first photo, taken by my colleague John McKinn, I am filming a group of UofI graduate students from the Department of Crop Sciences planting four rows of Hopi sweet corn.
The second photo is of Professor Stephen Moose as he explains the different varieties of corn that his students planted in the plot, including Tzeltal Maya (southern Mexico), Nahua (central Mexico), Hopi, and genetically modified corn.
The corn should be up by the end of the week. We’ll continue filming throughout the summer.
Beyond the Mesas 