Antonio López de Santa Anna was a hero of Mexican independence, fought at the Alamo, and was President of Mexico. But with all the stories about him, his influence on the development of chewing gum kind of flies under the radar. It's still part of his legacy.
Two years before he died senile and broke, the disgraced Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna lived in a modest residence in Staten Island. Known variously as the executioner of hundreds at The Alamo, the man who lost Texas, and “His Most Serene Highness” and “The Eagle,” Santa Anna was missing a leg and had recently been conned out of tens of thousands of pesos. He spent his exile moving among high society, plotting to get rich or return to Mexico, and chewing on something called chicle.
Santa Anna hoped that his supply of chicle, a natural latex harvested from trees in the same fashion as rubber, would make him rich. He’d pitched Thomas Adams, a local inventor, on developing this foreign substance into an inexpensive replacement for rubber. It never worked.
But chicle was just perfect for chewing gum, even though the success of the product never benefitted Santa Anna. Read about the exiled Mexican president and the history of his chewing gum at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Carlos Paris)
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