Objective:

To account for the a backyard project, developed between a group of Mayan women from Canicab, Yucatán, Mexico and a team made up of non-Maya academic participants.

Methodology:

Within the framework of participatory-action-research and knowledge dialogue, we proposed a productive project that favored sustainability in this rural town, that has been identified as highly marginalized.

Results:

The group made up of Mayan women opted for a backyard project that made it possible to have healthy food for their own and extended families by raising chickens. and egg production, a choice made based on their community ties and kinship.

Limitations:

Although we worked with women, the text lacks a gender perspective or feminist positions.

Conclusions:

We observed that the economy of these women, circulates in two logics, the Mayan cultural practices related to requesting, thanking and sharing, and the capitalist world that converts goods and well-being into money. Decisions made by these women have behind a history related to intercultural situations linked to government extension agents and bank extortionists, which led to Canicab the imposition of Western science, on the one hand, and deception and dispossession, on the other.