By Mauricio LaPlante
Staff Writer
When I tell people about my love for Mexican-style hot chocolate, oftentimes they’ll nod in agreement and talk about how much they love the brand Abuelita.
I don’t know how to respond when people assume I am making Abuelita, I want to say, “No I don’t drink Abuelita unless friends or family offer it” or “I’m actually not a huge fan of Abuelita”
I just nod in agreement as if Abuelita is this chocolate elixir extracted from the mountains of Mexico, when in reality, it’s an over-glorified corporate commodity.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the chocolate is garbage. It’s far from it.
The brand originated in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, where the duo of brothers Francisco and Raymundo Gonzalez developed the first blend of Abuelita. What is more problematic is the identity it carries.
Although Abuelita is made in Mexico, the company that owns the iconic hot cocoa brand is the Swiss Corporation Nestle.
The mega-corporation has a near monopoly on the sweets industry, with popular sub-brands such as Crunch, Butterfinger, Raisinets and Wonka.
This is the company that defiled the coffee bean with Nescafe and made billions of dollars using water extracted from Michigan aquifers, paying only a small fee of $200 to the town it stripped dry, according to Bloomberg News.
In fact, former Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe once said that declaring water a human right is “extreme.”
In fairness to Nestle, no enormous scandal involving its chocolate business has been widely publicized, so this is not a vain attempt to shame those who suck at the teet of Nestle.
According to United Press International, Nestle bought Fabrica de Chocolates la Azteca, the company that makes Abuelita, from Quaker Oats in 1994, who had initially acquired the brand in the 1970s. At the time, Azteca proclaimed itself as the leading seller of chocolate in Mexico.
Thus, this is a critique of a how a product gives value to Latinos in America, in the eyes of a corporate behemoth, such as Nestle.
Nowhere else in the world, but the United States of America, does a society put so much value into buying things.
This is evident even at our most esteemed museums, such as the Smithsonian, where a container of Abuelita was propped up as an artifact of Chicano culture, according to the Smithsonian’s website.
How strangely appropriate that a Mexican product bought out by a Swiss business to be sold in American markets, is a notable example of Chicano Culture for the museum. After all, what would we Latinos be worth if we can’t pay any money to a big business?
In an article describing the so-called “artifact,” some naive intern described her interaction with a Mexicana apparently marveling at the Abuelita.
“She was thrilled to see a beloved, everyday item on display at a renowned Washington, D.C. museum; she even asked to take a picture with the cart,” the 2013 Smithsonian article read.
Yes, how thrilling it is to pay hundreds of dollars to take a trip to DC and see your culture represented through some chocolate you could have bought at the market in San Jose for $3.99.
What’s bothersome, is Nestle and corporate America’s narrow assessment of Latino history and how the Latino people choose to spend their money.
I’m not a communist or anything, but the intersection of culture and market desecrates the history of different people and puts it up for sale.
Xocoatl, the earliest of chocolate drinks in Mexico, was a bitter beverage that held a sacred place to the Mayans and Aztecs, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
As Spain obliterated both the tribes and most of their culture, the Europeans commodified it into their product with sugar. Perhaps the part about sweetening the chocolate, was not so bad, but nevertheless, it’s important to question how indigenous a product actually is.
I would never decline a glass of Abuelita, unless I knew it had poison in it, but I believe that Latino culture with all of its diversity should not have one of its most beloved drinks viewed under one corporate and overused icon.
