Chicle

Photo Source:  Tree Hugger

Chicle was the original source for chewing gum.  It was first brought to the United States in 1867 by General Santa Ana of Mexico.  While awaiting entry into the United States, Santa Ana gave chicle to Thomas Adams.  Adams took the chicle home and experimented with it until he came up with a flavorful chewing product.  Thereafter, US companies monopolized chicle production by financing the tapping operations in Central America. By 1930, US companies were importing 15 million pounds of chicle per year (Amanda Neill).

Chicleros were employed by the US companies to go into the forest and obtain the chicle.  Chicleros cut zigzags into Sapodilla and Manlikara trees, then collected the sap into bags. The sap was then boiled until it thickened, molded into blocks, and shipped to the United States.  In an effort to reduce the abuse that Chicleros suffered under the feudal work system, the Guatemalan government passed a law in 1952 that ended the feudal system.  The law allowed the Guatemalan government to expropriate the unused lands from the US companies and sell them to the indigenous people.  After passage of this law, the Wrigley Gum Company refused to buy Guatemalan produced chicle (Manlikara Chicle).  Instead, the company turned to chicle substitutes and insoluble plastics.  And the chicle industry in Guatemala all but disappeared (Latin American Review of Books).