In the Maya lowlands, the basic social unit producing and consuming goods is the family. However, the nuclear family has rarely been able to provide fully for its own welfare and has exchanged goods and labor with relatives or friends to enhance or ensure survival. This direct or reciprocal exchange has permitted Maya farmers to survive in an unpredictable environment, with some years too sunny, others too dry, with hurricane storms that flatten crops, or insect plagues that consume plants.

Maya villagers may have access to a growing labor force within the growing family, but they have little or no cash. Corn not only supplies bulk and calories to the diet, but with beans and chile peppers, it helps to provide protein and essential vitamins and, in a gruel with honey, it supplies quick energy. These are basically capital free although intensive labor is necessary in cultivating a milpa plot or in building and cultivating a kitchen garden. To offset the economic failure of corn cultivation and harvest, the Maya have traditionally cultivated fruit and nut trees or relied on wild trees. Citrus fruit trees are favored, and these include sour orange, lemon, and lime. Papaya and avocado trees also supplement the Maya diet with tasty, calorie- and vitamin-rich fruits. Banana groves are cultivated either in the yard area or in special orchards in the forest. Women plant herbs, tomatoes, chiles, onions, garlic, tobacco, and other condiments around their houses to supplement the diet of their own families. Some of the women have been taught the medicinal qualities of the garden plants—the herbal remedies that protect the health of their spouses and children—and they cultivate these in their kitchen gardens.

The corn-based economy provides a narrow margin of safety for the Maya. The Maya have found that crop failure leads to debt or forces them to migrate out for temporary or seasonal work. Living on the economic knife blade, the Maya have small opportunity for capital accumulation. The Maya, like rural farmers all over Latin America, consume 70% to 90% of what they produce within the family as subsistence-level goods. Wages are low and are used to fulfill subsistence-level needs. The number of households that cannot earn a living from farming a parcel of land is high, and arboriculture, apiculture, animal husbandry, and wage labor are essential activities to ensure a livelihood.

Many individuals operate stores, restaurants, and artesanias (handicraft stores) catering to the new tourist industry. Local families buy eggs, tomatoes, coffee, cookies, cigarettes, and chewing gum, in the local stores. They can also find shirts or pants, polyester dresses, shoes, laundry soap and bleach, notebooks for the children to use in school, paper, envelopes, pens, and pencils. A few restaurants operate in the village, serving huevos rancheros,or ranch-style eggs, with tortillas or white bread, chicken and rice soup, sandwiches, venison steak or stew, pork, beef, rice, potatoes, and salads. You can sip a soft drink, a beer, or a lemonade. The artisan shops mostly cater o the tourists and sell them traditional huipiles, black coral, T-shirts with bird motifs (a toucan or a parrot), and cold soft drinks. LINK TO OUR SUGGESTIONS IN RESTAURANTS

(PICTURES OF US PURCHASING JEWELRY FROM PAULA’S FAMILY) Members of the family practice assorted handicrafts, supplying their own needs or sometimes selling their products. Handicrafts can provide a good income. One family in Coba has several sewing machines and produces huipiles. These sell at a high price and are desired items.

Several of the women sell huipiles to tourists. (SEWING PICTURES) Other handicrafts produced in town include woven hammocks, batiks, sculptures, small wooden seats, and baskets (PICTURES OF HAMOCKS, BATIKS, SCULPTURES)

The economic system of the Cobaeños (people of Coba) is modern. Although families and friends still barter goods and the religious festivals collect food and redistribute it, the modern Maya purchase goods for their households priced according to supply and demand. To satisfy the economic needs of the family, the men and women of modern Coba have plunged into the wage labor stream.