John Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Chicle’

The cover of Chicle. The Chewing Gum of the Americas: From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley.

(Vocus) May 27, 2009

It may not seem like the type of book to come from an archeologist who spends most of her summers working on recently-discovered Maya sites in southern Mexico. But for Jennifer Mathews, associate professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity, tracing the history of chicle, a sticky resin from the sapodilla tree found in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, and how it gave rise of the chewing gum industry was a story that needed to be told.

Her new book, Chicle. The Chewing Gum of the Americas: From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley (University of Arizona Press), is the first comprehensive look at chicle, and includes chapters on how it was used by the ancient Maya and Aztecs, the botany of the sapodilla tree, the boom and bust of the chicle-based chewing gum industry, and the culture of the chicleros – workers who collected the chicle resin in the heart of the forests.

“I had a great time writing this book,” said Professor Mathews, who spoke about reading old newspaper clippings, visiting archives, going through census data, interviewing former chicleros, and poring over a volume of books written by a Spanish priest in the 1500s.

Among the amazing facts she found were:

    In Aztec society, it was bad manners to chew gum in public. Women who publicly clacked their gum were equated with prostitutes, while men were considered to be sodomites.
    Former President of Mexico Antonio López de Santa Anna introduced chicle to Thomas Adams, who used it to build the first chewing gum empire.
    William Wrigley, another chewing gum king, convinced the U.S. military to include chewing gum with the rations for soldiers during World War I and II. It created a chewing gum habit that spread around the world.
    Amelia Earhart’s first transcontinental flight (New Jersey to California and back) was sponsored by Beech-Nut. It was this flight that truly launched her fame as a pilot.

Jennifer Mathews

Professor Mathews said that chicle-based gum, from Adams to Yucatán, became so popular that the chicle industry could not keep up with demand. Eventually U.S. companies abandoned chicle latex for synthetic materials. Today, Verve, Inc. produces the only chicle-based product in the U.S. called Glee Gum.

Professor Mathews also revealed that chicle has a direct connection to Maya archeology, as chicleros were the key to major discoveries. “They knew where every archeological site was because they were the ones walking through the forests. Starting in the 1930s, archeologists realized that the chicleros were a gold mine of information and they could work as guides.”

“The chicleros, considered rough and tumble individuals, worked with the archeologists and led them to significant Maya ruins, such as Bonampak, in Chiapas, Mexico, the site of striking murals, and Calakmul in Campeche, Mexico, which has the largest number of carved monuments in the Maya world.

“The impact of chicle is far greater than most would imagine, including the numerous fortunes it created for U.S. industrialists and the great toll this took on the economy and people of Latin America, its ties to historical figures like President Santa Anna and Amelia Earhart, and the great social angst it created for etiquette authorities like the ancient Aztecs and Emily Post,” said Professor Mathews. “It is truly an innovation of the Americas .”

Courses Taught:

Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology
Seminar on the Ancient Maya
Pre-Columbian Art of Mesoamerica
Human Evolution
Anthropological Ethics
Anthropological Forensics
Primatology

Selected Publications:

Chicle. The Chewing Gum of the Americas : From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley, (with contributions from Gillian P. Schultz). University of Arizona Press. 2009.
Lifeways in the Northern Maya Lowlands: New Approaches to Archaeology in the Yucatán Peninsula. Edited with Bethany A. Morrison, University of Arizona Press, 2006.
“Jungle Rails: A Narrow Gauge Railway in Quintana Roo, Mexico” (with Lilia Lizama-Aranda). In Quintana Roo Archaeology, edited by Justine Shaw and Jennifer P. Mathews, 2005.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Russell Guerrero

210-999-8406

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