Harvesting under the Corn Moon

As the Corn Moon rises over La Junta de los Ríos, where the Río Bravo and Río Conchos meet, our community remembers one of the oldest relationships between people and the land: the tending and harvesting of corn. For the People of La Junta, this moon is not simply a marker of the agricultural calendar. It is a time of deep gratitude, abundance, and balance—a season where the land’s generosity meets the people’s responsibility to care for it.

La Junta: The Oldest Cultivated Land

La Junta de los Ríos is the oldest continuously cultivated land in North America. Long before written records, families who lived at this confluence planted fields of corn,

beans, squash, and cotton. The rivers carried silt that renewed the soil, allowing generation after generation to farm without interruption.

For the People of La Junta, corn was never only a crop—it was a way of life. Corn shaped daily meals, seasonal ceremonies, and spiritual practices. It became part of the very identity of the people, carried forward in memory, language, and tradition. The continuity of farming here is a testament to resilience: despite invasion, colonization, and displacement, the knowledge of corn and the cycles of the land endured.

The Corn Moon vs. the Harvest Moon

Though often spoken of together, the Corn Moon and the Harvest Moon are not the same.

• The Corn Moon usually appears in September, marking the ripening of the cornfields and the time to begin gathering the harvest. For the People of La Junta, it signaled abundance, responsibility, and preparation.

• The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, which can fall in either September or October. It provided extra light for farmers to finish harvesting all their crops, not just corn.

For communities along the Río Bravo and Río Conchos, the Corn Moon was especially important because corn was central to life. The Harvest Moon, by contrast, symbolized the broader gathering of fields before winter. Together, these moons bookend a season of hard work, celebration, and gratitude.

The Medicine of Corn

Corn is a living teacher. Every part of the plant offers purpose, and nothing is without use:

• The kernels feed the body, whether roasted, boiled, or ground into meal for bread and porridge. They are the heart of sustenance.

• The husks are medicine. When steeped in water, they become a healing tea that soothes the kidneys, bladder, and urinary tract. They are also used in cooking, wrapping sacred foods like tamales, reminding us of nourishment as ceremony.

• The stalks return to the soil, enriching it for the next season and teaching the lesson of reciprocity.

• The pollen is prayer, a delicate gold carried to the Creator, rising with the wind and smoke as thanksgiving.

In these ways, corn embodies the principle of balance: to take what is needed, to honor what is given, and to return what is left to the earth.

Corn Masa: From Harvest to Table

The harvest of corn did not end in the fields—it lived on in kitchens, hearths, and gatherings. Once dried and ground into masa, corn became the foundation of foods that remain central in La Junta and across the borderlands today:

• Tortillas — the daily bread of the people, simple and sacred.

• Gorditas — thick corn cakes, sometimes filled with beans, chiles, or meat.

• Tamales — wrapped in corn husks, steamed, and shared at feasts and ceremonies.

• Menudo with hominy — kernels treated with lime, swelling into hominy to strengthen the broth.

• Pozole — a celebratory stew made with hominy, often cooked for large family gatherings.

• Enchiladas and chilaquiles — tortillas transformed with chile sauces and toppings.

• Elote and esquites — roasted corn on the cob or served in cups with chile, lime, and cheese.

• Sopes and huaraches — thick masa bases topped with beans, meats, or vegetables.

Each dish tells the story of corn’s versatility and abundance. These foods are more than recipes; they are the continuation of a harvest cycle that began thousands of years ago at La Junta, transformed into nourishment that sustains families and communities to this day.

Corn as a Sacred Relative

Among the People of La Junta, corn is not simply an object to be cultivated—it is a sacred relative. The Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—were grown together in fields as companions, each supporting the others. Corn offered a stalk for beans to climb, beans returned nitrogen to the soil, and squash shaded the ground, keeping the earth moist. Together, they mirrored the strength of community: interdependent, balanced, and thriving only when all three worked in harmony.

Corn also carried ceremonial weight. It was offered in prayer, eaten in feasts that bound communities together, and shared with neighbors as an expression of generosity. To grow and eat corn was to participate in a cycle far older than oneself—a cycle that bound human life to the rivers, the soil, the sun, and the moon.

Continuing the Tradition

Today, when we look to the Corn Moon over Presidio, we see not only the promise of harvest but the reflection of our ancestors’ labor and devotion. Corn still carries the memory of the rivers that fed it, the soil that held it, and the countless hands that planted, tended, and gathered it through the ages.

For the People of La Junta, the Corn Moon remains a time to honor this unbroken lineage. Corn reminds us that abundance is not measured only in what we gather but also in the care we show—to the land, to each other, and to the generations who will inherit both.

As long as the Corn Moon rises, the story of La Junta’s people and their fields will continue to shine.