FROM THE EDITOR.

• Author: Kiernan, James Patrick
• Position: Brief Article

There was much discussion among the staff of Americas when it came to choosing this issue's cover image. How best to illustrate Louis Werner's feature on corn? With the plant itself, or the people who so rely on it? Our chosen cover photograph of a mother and daughter selling corn in a Guatemalan market not only well illustrates corn's historic mainstay status in the Americas, but also wonderfully evokes the unique spirit of motherhood, of womanhood, that Anne Tennant brings to light in her article about a heroic group of Cochabamba women during Bolivia's struggle for independence.

How often do we reflect on water, the element that distinguishes our earth from the other planets in our solar system, that cradles life--and is an increasingly limited resource? As Mark Holston points out, one-sixth of the world's population has no access to safe drinking water. There are many efforts in the Americas, locally and internationally, both to preserve this resource...