#5 Chewing gum: The Fortunes of Taste by Michael Redclift- pg #141-172

Summary:

By 1942 and 1945, more than one million American service members had visited the United Kingdom. Troops spend a couple of weeks in England as their visited markets a stopping point between the United States and the battlefront of Flanders. Millions of British people met an American for the first time. British men often asked Americans for gum. When British kids asked for sweets and gum, they got it from organized parties for local children. During wartime, a “pink market” had developed in the United States as kids wanted gum and sold it for a dollar a piece, keeping it fresh overnight in water. Chewing gum started to represent the country in a good way. In the United States, it had been argued that chewing gum was removed from the domestic market because suppliers could not keep up with the requirements of chicle cooperatives traveled to the United States to discuss and defend the price of chicle. Mexican producers claimed that the price they received was far too low, and they wanted to be paid in gold coins rather than in dollars. The heavy costs of collecting chicle and the widespread destruction of the tropical forest damaged much of Yucatan’s chicle industry. Chewing gum became widely available in American society at a time when work itself was being reformulated. The difference was that gum spelled enjoyment. Workers who chewing gum often ate snack food. Globalization- in the case of gum local systems of production coexist with local brands of chewing gum. Chewing gum today isn’t the same as it was in 1941. The material was different and so was the taste. Now there are more flavors of gum coming out. Producers claim that organic industry can easily be traced since the market is so much smaller. The rise of gum is still rising today. 

Quote:

"Chewing gum, like smoking or eating and drinking, is a primary bodily activity... gum has acted as a substitue for what we do not have" (Redclift 157).

Reaction:

Students are always hungry in class and they wish they can eat food. Instead, they chew gum. This related to the quote, because it's a substitute for food. I was shocked about the history of chewing gum when I read this book. I didn't think there was a lot of history to it, especially wars. I didn't know where gum came from until now, which was from the latex of trees in the Yucatan Peninsula. 

#4 Chewing gum: The Fortunes of Taste by Michael Redclift- pg #106-140

Summary:

The forests of the east and south of the Yucatan Peninsula were viewed as empty forests. The challenge for the Mexican state was to bring civilization to these area, in the form of roads, rural schools, and political organization. Mexico could only progress by colonizing the forests and concerting them in one form or another to productive use. President Cardenas who made established the genesis of the process chiclero cooperatives part of the national land reform. The chicleros had built a raw society from the forest communities they established. President Cardenas found the cooperative movement; he placed the organization of cooperatives under the direct control of the government. It was a stronger position to counter the pressured mounted by the private sector. They thought it was an easier way to make hum. Chicleros livers were in danger when they had to go deep in the words to tap trees. Lives of chicleros were slowly disappearing and people encouraged them to stop and grow rice. They chose not to stop. The Fleer Company in 1928, Walter Delmer produced a usable bubble gum mix. He added the taste in chicle and he would add in pink coloring. It became popular and companies were sampling thousands of pieces a day in New York. 

Quote:

“He discovered how to add pink food coloring to the gray bubble gum mixture, and overnight he produced one of the sales sensations of the interwar years” (Redclift 122).

Reaction:
Before I read this book, I never knew that gum was gray and had no taste. I found it interesting that Walter Delmer founded the bubble gum taste because I thought it was Wrigley. When Wrigley made Juicy fruit, he didn't add food coloring, but Delmer did.

#3 Chewing gum: The Fortunes of Taste by Michael Redclift- pg #73-105

Summary:

Many of the chicleros who arrived in the first decade of the 20^th century were from other Mexican states. By 1915, more than 75% of gum imported to the United States was from Mexico. The first large-scale chicle contractor was Julio Martin. He made an agreement with General May, giving Martin the right to exploit a concession on territory controlled by the Mayans. The chewing gum manufactures and the contractors who employed chicleros, America and Mexico looked at General May as their protection. Even though May owned the platform and tractor for transporting the chicle, another chicle contractor, Miguel Angel Ramoneda, owned the railway line. May was in control of transporting gum and allowing if it was in trade or not. The first chewing gum factories were made in Mexico in 1923. In 1925, more than a million kilos of chicle was exported. In the 1920s, chicleros earned 300 pesos a month, but a few years later, they earned 1800 pesos a month. Chicleros harvested gum through trees. The chicozapote trees were used and they grew in the forests of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The trees were hard to find because they were deep in the jungle. Not only did chicleros have a hard time finding the trees, snakes and other animals often attacked them. Sometimes, diseases would affect people. In the early morning, chicleros left their hut to begin the task of finding trees. They intended to tap for the day. To establish where the trees were able to produce latex, they made many incisions into the bark. While the c is tapping, a canvas pouch or bag was placed at the bottom of the tree and the latex was collected in the next 20 hours. When it was brought back, it was boiled down in large copper bats to remove the excels water. 

Quote: 

"In the forest they were prey to disease and infections, to attack from snakes and other animals, and to the bites of the chiclero fly..." (Redclift 88).

Reaction:

When chicleros hunted deep in the jungle, they knew it was going to be dangerous and something could possibly happen. I wondered why they didn't stop putting themselves in danger. I felt bad for them because there were times when people wouldn't make it out. As I kept reading, I learned that they got paid a lot, and were granted a huge chunk of gum.