Although Juicy Fruit(R) gum was introduced to North Americans in
1893, Native Americans in Mesoamerica were chewing gum thousands of
years earlier. And although in the last decade "biographies" have
been devoted to salt, spices, chocolate, coffee, and other staples
of modern life, until now there has never been a full history of
chewing gum.
"Chicle" is a history in four acts, all of them focused on the
sticky white substance that seeps from the sapodilla tree when its
bark is cut. First, Jennifer Mathews recounts the story of chicle
and its earliest-known adherents, the Maya and Aztecs. Second, with
the assistance of botanist Gillian Schultz, Mathews examines the
sapodilla tree itself, an extraordinarily hardy plant that is
native only to Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. Third, Mathews
presents the fascinating story of the chicle and chewing gum
industry over the last hundred plus years, a tale (like so many
twentieth-century tales) of greed, growth, and collapse. In
closing, Mathews considers the plight of the chicleros, the
"extractors" who often work by themselves tapping trees deep in the
forests, and how they have emerged as icons of local pop
culture--portrayed as fearless, hard-drinking brawlers, people to
be respected as well as feared.
Before Dentyne(R) and Chiclets(R), before bubble gum comic strips
and the Doublemint(R) twins, there was gum, oozing from jungle
trees like melting candle wax under the slash of a machete.
"Chicle" tells us everything that happened next. It is a
spellbinding story.
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