Maize, also known as corn in North American English, is a grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Maize is historically, as well as contemporarily, considered sacred, a staff of life and being that provides spiritual and temporal nourishment.
Guatemalans often say that they are "people of maize." This emphasizes the importance of maize in the history of the region and in its part in sustaining a society for thousands of years.
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