Three sisters and 120 sweet potatoes: Mexican farmers embrace Maya traditions

Villagers who have kept pre-Hispanic milpa methods alive for years are seeing new markets spring up in the Yucatan

Teresa de Jesus Cen Requena is washing burgundy okra and a rainbow of freshly dug carrots at Mestiza de Indias, a regenerative agricultural project hidden down a dirt track in the jungle near the Maya village of Espita. You used to be able to live from your milpa," the farm worker says, referring to the traditional smallholding. But now many people from the village go to Cancun because they want modern luxuries.

You can't buy a mobile phone with a bag of beans but I don't care - I am connected to this land."

Teresa de Jesus Cen Requena, who works at the Mestiza de Indias regenerative farm, stands outside her home with her mother-in-law in their huipiles