Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas, from the Ancient
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Mathews, Jennifer P. / Schultz, Gillian P., PUBLISHER: University of Arizona Press, Although Juicy FruitA(R) gum was ong>inong>troduced to North Americans ong>inong> , Native Americans ong>inong> Mesoamerica were chewong>inong>g gum thousands of years earlier. And although ong>inong> the last decade abiographiesa have been devoted to salt, spices, chocolate, coffee, and other staples of modern life, until now there has never been a full history of chewong>inong>g gum. Chicle is a history ong>inong> fong>ourong> 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 examong>inong>es the sapodilla tree itself, an extraordong>inong>arily hardy plant that is native only to Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. Third, Mathews presents the fascong>inong>atong>inong>g story of the chicle and chewong>inong>g gum ong>inong>dustry over the last hundred plus years, a tale (like so many twentieth-century tales) of greed, growth, and collapse. ong>Inong> closong>inong>g, Mathews considers the plight of the chicleros, the aextractorsa who often work by themselves tappong>inong>g trees deep ong>inong> the forests, and how they have emerged as icons of local pop cultureaportrayed as fearless, hard-drong>inong>kong>inong>g brawlers, people to be respected as well as feared. Before DentyneA(R) and ChicletsA(R), before bubble gum comic strips and the Doublemong>inong>tA(R) twong>inong>s, there was gum, oozong>inong>g from jungle trees like meltong>inong>g candle wax under the slash of a machete. Chicle tells us everythong>inong>g that happened next. It is a spellbong>inong>dong>inong>g story.