Sin Maíz No Hay Vida: Corn, Politics, and Ethical Hemispheric Engagements in a Collaborative Performance Intervention

In this article, I reflect on my own experiences as a participant in Sin Maíz No Hay Vida, a transnational multimodal performance intervention intended to raise public consciousness regarding Monsanto’s application to plant 250,000 hectares of corn seeds across northern Mexico. Facilitated by the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics and the Yes Lab, Sin Maiz involved the activist-performance tactics known as “identity correction” (Bichelbaum) and “ethical spectacle” (Duncombe). Specifically, I discuss the Carnival del Maíz as a performance that works toward realizing the tenets of an ethical spectacle by being open, participatory, and democratized while also generating alternative political imaginings. I then investigate my own positionality as a Canadian visitor in San Cristóbal during this process, and how this cross-national interaction works within larger hemispheric contexts. Finally, I reflect on further hemispheric visions and considerations that ethical spectacles open up.