Yerba Mate: The Drink That Shaped a NationLike coffee or tea, yerba mate is one of the world's most beloved caffeinated beverages. Once dubbed a "devil's drink" by Spanish missionaries in South America only to be later hailed by capitalists and politicians as "green gold," it has a long and storied history. And no country consumes and celebrates yerba mate quite like Argentina. Yerba Mate is the first book to explore the extraordinary history of this iconic beverage in Argentina from the precolonial period to the present. From yerba mate's Indigenous origins to its ubiquity during the colonial era, from its association with rural people and the poor in the late nineteenth century to its resurgence in the last years of the twentieth century, Julia Sarreal meticulously documents yerba mate's consumption, production, and cultural importance over time. Yerba Mate is the definitive history of this popular beverage and social practice, and it tells a fascinating story about race, culture, and how a drink helped forge the national identity of one of the world's most dynamic countries. |
Contents
From Indigenous Staple to Colonial Commodity | 21 |
Tool of Empire | 48 |
Borderland Production and the Struggle to Form | 75 |
7 | 100 |
Argentinas Belle Epoque | 131 |
Yerba Regulation Nationalism and the Fall | 160 |
| 331 | |
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Common terms and phrases
advertisements agricultural Aimé Bonpland Alfredo Varela Alto Paraná Argentina Argentine identity Argentine yerba Asunción beverage bombilla Bonpland Brazil Brazilian yerba Buenos Aires Carlos Carta Chapter Charcas claimed Clarín coffee colonial consuming yerba Corrientes country’s criollo CRYM cultivate yerba cultural debates decades described dried yerba drinking mate drinking yerba DSCD economic elite exploitation gaucho Guaraní harvested History Ilex paraguariensis important Indians Indigenous industry Jesuit Juan Julian Bouvier Kaingang kilos La Nación La Prensa La Vanguardia labor Martín mate consumption mate’s Materva Menem middle class Misiones misterios del Alto modern Nación newspaper Paraguay percent Perón Peronist pesos Plata political popular Prensa region Río Ruíz de Montoya rural Salus sharing mate social Socialist South America Spaniards Spanish Spanish empire territory tion twentieth century Vanguardia Varela wild yerbales yerba consumption yerba cultivation yerba growers yerba mate yerba production yerba sector yerba trade yerba workers yerba-mate yerbatera