#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.