Part of El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, Setiembre 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. Setiembre, or September, was the time for sowing maize.
The painting's central element is very similar to Diciembre, another of Poma de Ayala's works that are printed by us, which represents the sowing of potatoes. We can clearly see the differences between both cultures: while potato planting seemed to be a less structured affair given the nature of the crop, maize required well-delimited land. The effort of planting seems to be much smaller with maize, as seeds are lighter and can be just thrown on the soil.
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.
