By Coral Gables Gazette staff

A single bowl of maize, a handful of cacao beans, a tobacco leaf drying in the sun. The story of the Americas can be told through such ordinary objects. On Thursday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m., the University of Miami’s Kislak Center will open “Roots of the Americas,” an exhibition that traces how native plants and crops shaped civilizations across the hemisphere long before European arrival—and how their global circulation transformed economies, landscapes, and identities in ways that still define daily life.

Hosted at the University of Miami Kislak Center, 1300 Memorial Drive, the exhibition draws from the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Early Americas, Exploration and Navigation. The collection, known for its rare manuscripts, maps, and printed works documenting the early modern Atlantic world, provides the foundation for a show that bridges botanical knowledge, cultural practice, and imperial history.

The crops at the center

At its core, “Roots of the Americas” centers four crops that originated in the hemisphere: corn, tobacco, cacao, and medicinal flora cultivated by Indigenous communities across North, Central, and South America. The exhibition highlights how these plants sustained societies not simply as food or commodities, but as spiritual anchors, ecological systems, and instruments of social organization.

Indigenous knowledge before European arrival

Maize, for example, stood at the center of Mesoamerican cosmology and agricultural innovation. Indigenous farmers developed sophisticated planting systems and selective breeding practices that turned a wild grass into a staple crop capable of feeding dense urban populations. Tobacco functioned in ceremonial and diplomatic contexts long before it became a global commodity. Cacao traveled from sacred ritual beverage to European luxury good, reshaping labor systems and colonial trade networks in the process.

Science rooted in community life

The exhibition positions these plants within Indigenous knowledge systems that predate European exploration by millennia. Botanical expertise was embedded in community life—transmitted through oral tradition, ritual practice, and agricultural stewardship. The show invites visitors to consider how these systems reflect scientific understanding developed independently across the Americas.

After contact: markets, empire, and ecological change

Yet “Roots of the Americas” does not stop at pre-contact history. It follows the afterlives of these crops as they entered imperial markets. European demand for tobacco and cacao fueled plantation economies, altered land use patterns, and intensified systems of forced labor. The Columbian Exchange transferred American crops across oceans, changing diets in Europe, Africa, and Asia, while reshaping economic hierarchies within the Americas themselves.

Botanical exchange and colonial power

The exhibition’s interpretive arc traces how botanical exchange became inseparable from colonial expansion. Crops native to the Americas enriched global empires even as Indigenous communities faced displacement and disruption. The ecological consequences of monoculture farming, land extraction, and global trade echo into the present.

Primary materials and a hemispheric narrative

By grounding this history in primary materials from the Kislak Collection, the show situates Coral Gables within a broader hemispheric narrative. The University of Miami’s libraries have long held one of the nation’s most significant archives on early American exploration and navigation. Through rare documents and visual materials, the exhibition connects local audiences to centuries-old debates about land, sovereignty, trade, and cultural survival.

The exhibition offers a timely lens. Corn and cacao remain staples across Miami’s culinary landscape. Medicinal plants persist in community practices. Tobacco, once sacred and later commodified, continues to carry cultural weight in ritual and social settings. The history is not abstract; it lives in kitchens, markets, and family traditions throughout South Florida.

Food systems, sustainability and stewardship

“Roots of the Americas” also speaks to contemporary conversations about food systems, sustainability, and environmental stewardship. Indigenous agricultural techniques—crop rotation, companion planting, biodiversity—have regained attention as communities seek alternatives to industrial farming models. The exhibition’s emphasis on ecological relationships underscores how knowledge once marginalized by colonial systems now informs modern sustainability efforts.

The Feb. 26 opening at 6 p.m. provides an opportunity for residents, students, and scholars to engage directly with these materials. Exhibitions at the Kislak Center often draw an audience that ranges from academic researchers to neighborhood residents curious about global history. The setting, on the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus, places the story within walking distance of institutions shaped by the same hemispheric currents the exhibition explores.

A different kind of arts programming

Arts programming in Coral Gables frequently centers on contemporary performance and visual art. “Roots of the Americas” adds a historical dimension, reminding visitors that culture grows from soil as much as from canvas. The exhibition frames plants as protagonists—agents that traveled, transformed economies, and anchored identity across centuries.

Perspective for a crossroads city

As Miami continues to define itself as a hemispheric crossroads, “Roots of the Americas” offers perspective. The crops that sustained Indigenous civilizations became global commodities. Their journeys chart the movement of ideas, labor, and power across continents. Their presence in daily life today reflects a layered inheritance shaped by resilience, exchange, and adaptation.

Event details

“Roots of the Americas” Exhibit Opening
Thursday, February 26, 6 p.m.
University of Miami Kislak Center
1300 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146