11 The Tangibility of Maize Indigenous Literature, Bioart, and Violence in Mexico Abigail Pérez Aguilera Since 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, the Zapatista movement has attracted considerable attention, in part because of the emergence of documents such as the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle (2005). 1 Written by the mostly Mayan Zapatistas, this document advocates for social and environmental justice, Indigeneity, and coalition building; it imagines the construction of new, inclusive futures that raise questions about relationality amongst humans and nonhuman enti- ties. The Declaration articulates a resistance to colonial and neoliberal sys- tems of power that have shaped Mexico’s recent history, especially around issues dealing with the country’s most culturally valued food and crop, corn (maize). 2 Even before NAFTA was signed, Mexico experienced turmoil and resistance within its citizenry, in large part because of governmental policies to dispossess Indigenous peoples from lands where they typically grew corn. The government implemented massive modernization programs aimed at reforming the Mexican economy (Beaucage 1998, 4). However, after NAFTA went into effect, the struggle for subsistence and cultural rights in Indigenous communities intensiied as transnational policies exacerbated forced displacement and migration and intensiied oppression of women due to the rise of gender-segmented labor markets in agriculture, manufacturing, and unpaid household and care work. The Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, authored by the Zapatistas, is one of a growing number of movement manifestos in Latin America that resist these oppressions and seeks to regenerate Indigenous agencies and livelihoods. It connects a larger set of issues surrounding global trade, economics, and gender equity with discussions about how to achieve a sustainable future that is based on environmental justice (Blaser 2004, 26). In this chapter, I consider forms of Indigenous resistance in Mexico to colo- nial histories, as well as to neoliberal development and the governance struc- tures that undergird it, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These forms of resistance are taking artistic forms that echo and support documents such as the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle. Speciically, I turn to the work of three contemporary Mexican artists who engage the igure of corn to critique violence against women and the vio- lence of threats to “Indigenous knowledge systems” (IKS). These art forms,