ABSTRACT
Most Mexicans first heard the news about chicle and the conditions
under which it was produced in the forests of Yucatán through a
series of newspaper articles by a young lawyer, Ramón Beteta. In
1929, when he was in his twenties, Beteta was sent to the sparsely
populated eastern frontier of the Yucatán Peninsula as a member
of an official government mission. Before his account of the
production and sale of the resin, the source of chewing gum had
been shrouded in mystery. As we have seen, Quintana Roo, at the
time of Beteta’s arrival, had only recently become part of the new
revolutionary Mexico, and not until 1929 was the regional cacique
and Mayan leader General May forced by the federal government
to make political concessions to Mexico City.
