Yerba Mate: The Drink That Shaped a Nation (California Studies in Food and Culture) (Volume 79)

In some 40 years of biological field experience in the Southern Cone of South America, mostly in Argentina, I have consumed lots of yerba mate. Most of my work is in the boonies, not in the cities, and that is relevant. Since the time of Domingo F. Sarmiento and his classic "Facundo," in which he identified the struggle between urban "civilization" and rural (read: gaucho) "barbarism," a struggle that even today dominates Argentine society and the definition of "argentinidad," yerba mate has been identified with the rural lower classes--people of mixed racial heritage--and spurned by the mostly-white citified elite. This outstanding scholarly monograph on mate in all its dimensions traces these connections throughout Argentine history and sociology. It shows how politics and economics have contributed to the fortunes of yerba mate as a national obsession.On November 3, 1988 I was in the tiny town of Pismanta at the base of the Andean cordillera in the province of San Juan--classic mate country. I was looking for a heavy-duty vehicle to hire to go up the steep Quebrada de Agua Negra. I was steered to a humble "rancho" where, I was told, lived a teenage boy with an available pickup truck. The truck--an old wreck--was parked outside. Beggars can't be choosers. I inquired of the lady of the house, who told me the boy was in the shower. Would I like to share her mate while I waited? Sure, I said. She seemed taken aback and I asked why. She said a lot of people nowadays were reluctant to share the bombilla--they were afraid of catching AIDS!Sarreal points out on pp.109-111 that fears of contagion via shared bombillas go way back and formed one element in the armamentum of the "civilizers." Among the diseases feared was yellow fever, which is of course spread by mosquitoes, but some of the fears were more realistic. For my part, I've never really worried about it; my gut tells me that hot mate amargo would kill virtually any pathogen!I can get mate here in California, but never do. I prefer to consider it an essential Argentine experience.(PS: Urban-rural snobbery is very much alive in Argentina. Mercedes Sosa was one of the two greatest interpreters of Argentine folk music. She had a show coming up and I asked an Argentine friend, a very urban type--a psychiatrist by trade--if he was going. I should have known the answer: "Eso no tiene nada que ver conmigo" (this has nothing to do with me). He wouldn't be caught dead taking mate. He's a coffee drinker.)