From Chiclero To Chewing Gum

The chiclero at work.

       The chew in your chewing gum came originally from the damp and humid jungles of Central or South America, or perhaps from far-away Malaya. The chide.ro is the man who started it on its way to you. Early each morning during the rainy season (June to February) he sets out from his jungle camp, his machete in hand, to select sapodilla or chewing-gum trees for future tapping, or to tap the trees marked at some previous time. Tapping, you know, means cutting the tree so that the sap may be collected.

       With his razor-edged machete the chiclero makes cuts in the bark of the tree in a pattern from the base of the trunk to the place where it branches. These zigzag cuts cause the milky sap or latex to flow down a central groove to a canvas bag called a bolsa. Beginning at the base of the tree he makes his cuts or incisions as high as he can reach from the ground, and then, using a rope looped around waist, he ascends the tree, carefully cutting the feather-like pattern as he climbs. Some chicleros use iron spurs similar to those used by telephone repairmen, but most of them climb barefooted.

       Surprisingly few natives are able to meet the two requirements for a job as chiclero: ability to climb well, and skill in the use of a machete, so that the trees are not killed in the process of tapping; consequently a chiclero is an important man in his community and is the best paid of all native workmen. However, his work is seasonal and is controlled not only by the length of the rainy season but by the daily humidity, sun, wind and temperature, for the sap flows only as long as the air remains damp.

      The afternoons, often too dry for tapping, are given over to the marking of trees to be tapped in the future and the collecting of latex from the bags. At the camp the latex is emptied into huge steel kettles and after being boiled is poured into molds where it cools, forming blocks that weigh about twenty-five pounds. These blocks are wrapped in fiber bags and started on their journey to the factory in dugout canoes, on muleback, or even by airplane.

       Arriving at the factory, the gum is refined and purified, the flavoring and sweetening are added, and the carefully blended material is rolled, cut and packaged.

      Gum-chewing is not a modern habit. When the early Spanish explorers first visited Central America they discovered the Mayan Natives chewing a gum obtained from a tree used by the natives for building purposes. This gum was the latex of the sapodilla tree, the present source of our chewing gum. The Indians of our eastern States also chewed gum, which they obtained from the spruce tree.

       The history of modern chewing gum dates back to the year 1860, when some chicle (latex in solid form) was brought to the United States by the Mexican General Santa Ana, in the hope that it might be vulcanized and used as a substitute for rubber. Experiment proved it worthless as a rubber substitute but its value as a confection was discovered, opening a new field of experiments.

       In many ways the chicle industry has paralleled the rubber industry, and perhaps post-war planning will include the growing of sapodilla trees on plantations. Close supervision of tapping might extend not only the life of the trees, but also the life of the chiclero, who is exposed to malaria and other tropical diseases caused by the continual dampness. Experiments have been unsuccessful to date, the planted trees yielding very poorly.

       Dentists tell us that the habit of gum chewing in private has its virtues and actually aids in keeping the teeth and mouth free of food particles. The War Department has recognized the value of chewing gum by including it in the emergency kits of our armed forces. Whipple

CBD chewing gum by Endoca.