Harvesting Chicle (Hombre in el Arbor)
Ángel Bracho Mexican
Chicle is a milky latex substance from the sapodilla, a tropical fruit tree found in southern Mexico and Central America. It has been harvested for centuries and used as chewing gum as well as a substitute for rubber. From the late nineteenth century, chicle was exported to the United States, where the brand name Chiclets describes a popular type of candy-coated gum. In this print, a figure supported by a rope cuts into the bark in a zigzag pattern that enabled the milk to run into a receptacle at the base of the tree.
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