…and another plus is that the robots can be controlled from a remote center accessing satellite and drone data while directing robots across huge areas, allowing precise control of weed and insect removal/killing, of fertilizing and application of water, and of seeding, all for 24 hours a day. That allows for a far more efficient use of inputs (including replication of the complex cost-efficient dance of growing some crops as mutually supportive “families”, aka intercropping, such as the milpas system still in use by my (very 18th C) rural neighbors.
Yes, Antonio Aguilar was from Zacatecas state in the Bajio, just north from where I am, but is still remembered and worshipped here. He was a child of hard times, including the terrible Mexican civil war, here called the Revolution. The last battle of that war took place only 5 kilometers from my house, where 6000 people died, mostly of machine gun fire. When I hit play I recognized the song, and my housekeeper Antonia yelled from the kitchen “Ay, mi amor, Antonio! Mas alta!” = Oh, my love, Antonio!, turn up the volume!
It is an almost terrifying song of the edge of despair rescued by fervent love and memory. Milpas agriculture is complex, and varies from locale to locale, but the 4 milpas refers to the only survivors of the destruction of a hacienda and farm, the plants (corn, beans, and two more from a longer list) that mutually thrive when growing and provide the bare necessities for survival when harvested.
