Part of El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, Julio is one of the 12 fine-line images created by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala to represent the Inca cycle of agricultural practices and the native people's connection to their ecological-agrarian rituals. Julio, or July, was the time for maize harvesting - when people gathered to carry yield to storage units.
The painting's central elements are two workers carrying heavy bags of maize with a somewhat tired expression. In front of them, another colleague is already entering the storage unit; behind them are their ever-loyal llamas, domesticated animals who were adapted to the steep mountains and used for transportation purposes. Below them, we can see different animals - birds, chicken, dogs - feasting on the results of the harvest. July was also the time of preparation of the soil for the next planting season.
Native South and Central American peoples were responsible for many important agricultural achievements and developments, including the creation of maize as we know it today and the introduction of potatoes to the Europeans.
