Chewing Gum: Fortunes of Taste #61-100

Summary: Now Britain wanted to get a share of the Chicle manufacturing business so they came with a compromise to own a part of the forest since Mexico was 24 million dollars in debt. They started doing their own manufacturing, then a Mayan General, General May, got himself involved in the trade by providing protection for the trade and he got a share of the money in it. Then in the U.S the chicle production boosted but then dropped around the great depression. Then more and more cooperations grew in Mexico and after this and during the beginning of world war II the chicle production got another boost. the gum was used for more than just chewing but also for weapon protection and fixing things. 

Being a chiclero was also a hard job for Mexicans and it needed people to handle a machete and climb a tree and sell the chicle sap from the tree. It was also dangerous and people often died because they are deep in the forest and are prone to animal attacks, snake bites, falling from trees, and some others who travel to and from British Honduras often died on the way. Then after they had protection of workers because of the dangers and that started a time where people wrote books on the chicleros and their lives.

Quote:"The forest, like the people who inhabited it, had built defenses against invasion."

Reaction: This is a metaphor used by the Mayans and workers and they believed that the forest acts like regular humans to protect itself. For example how humans have their own defense mechanism, the forest has the same thing only that the forest is more through nature. For example the sap would be poinsonous, and spines that cut on contact.