**2. Academic research and community work in Tepic-Kalamazoo**

The main purpose of the *La Milpa Project* in Tepic-Kalamazoo is to contribute from all angles to the strengthening of the Native culture and languages of Gran Nayar. This project aims to not only facilitate workshops for students or the community but to promote actions that make the efforts of the community and their resistance to assimilation visible in Tepic. For this, the Center for International Studies (CIP) and Critical Ethnic Studies department at Kalamazoo College joined efforts with collectives, teachers, speakers of the language, and members of the research community to launch a pilot summer abroad in Tepic, Nayarit. They were invited to put together a program that could facilitate actions of community engagement. In Kalamazoo, after teaching the course "Plant Communication and Kinship," the students grew El Gran Nayar seeds for the first time. Two students from Kalamazoo College took care of the La Milpa project, while the other students traveled to Mexico to learn more about the community and the work to revitalize the Native languages of Greater Nayar. The seeds from La Milpa in our Hoop House Garden were a gift that reached Kalamazoo College with my migration and movement from Mexico to the USA between the years of 2019 and 2020. Since those seeds arrived at our school, we have documented how a community of students and teachers have learned the essentials about the care of Native Corn seeds. Together with teacher Felipa Rivera Lemus and her family from Y + rata, a Wixárika community in Tepic, the group of students from Kalamazoo has been advised and guided in the cultivation, care, and fair distribution of the seeds.

In the Fall of 2022, the Y + rata Elders arrived in Kalamazoo for a harvest festival. During their stay, they shared the way in which we all can relate to Our Mother Corn, for example, by providing food that they use as traditional offerings during a good harvest. These offerings gave *Nuestra Madre Maíz* ("Our Mother Corn") the necessary elements to close the cycle of Corn. Students learned the importance of having relationships with more-than-human persons. During the visit, we hosted a panel on the sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty to discuss the responsibility of all people in caring for the environment. This visit was significant because while the Elders taught us about Native seeds, we questioned our responsibility in caring for Native seeds in Mexico and the United States.
