Azúcar, Açúcar, Sugar, Suiker: The Cultural Politics of Sugar in Latin American History

Sugar.  It’s everywhere.  It’s an addiction.  And it’s something that most people appreciate.  Some say it is part of the reason being obese or overweight is so widespread. There is talk of a sugar tax on drinks like the tax levied on cigarettes. The product is widely enjoyed, and its history is a reflection of globalization and industrialization

Once discovered by Europeans during the Crusades by coming into contact with the Arabic world, sugar was reserved for the wealthy and highly coveted.  Early on, sugar cane was processed in Italy and Christopher Columbus took some sugar cane with him where it flourished in the Caribbean because of the ideal weather conditions.  From then on, the Dutch, the United States, and much of Western Europe capitalized on the new discovery, importing slaves from Africa to Latin America and the Caribbean, notably Potosi (Bolivia), Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil.  In the imperialists’ dust is poor, infertile land and economies that have remained poor.

My collage reflects the slaves, workers, and people forgotten and exploited by the sugar trade and the obsession with sugar that allowed it.  Voyagers at first came for the gold and silver, and found sugar to be just as worthwhile a cause.  The image was created electronically, while there is a physical aspect.  The brownie bars are representative of gold, and the use of sugar as a commodity (as well as cacao).  They are the basis of an intricate and fragile system that falls as inequality rises and the sugar (brownies) became scarcer.  The collage is meant be interactive: brownies representative of the wealth amassed, and as it is consumed, the sugar globe falls, and just might break.

However, I clumsily dropped the sugar globe and it was in pieces; this speaks to the fragility of the connections.  The origami ball is meant to represent the same ideas; it should not be held together by anything but fragile connections (Mine isn’t for the sake of transportation).  If not held together by some sort of tape, the ball could be thrown and fall apart.  The origami ball was made in mind with the facets of Latin American representation as well as that of the United States and Asia.  It was made with old issues of The Economist.

Collage images from: http://diggingri.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/sugar-scrub.jpg
http://members.multimania.nl/pol/jan159.jpg
http://www.frenchcreoles.com/420px-Toussaint_L%27Ouverture.jpg
http://www.stcroixthisweek.com/images/sugar-cane-plant-2.jpg
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/slavery.gif
http://rlv.zcache.com/sugar_cane_harvest_in_hawaii_1917_poster-p228743524565603824qzz0_400.jpg
http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2010/10/true-size-of-africa.jpg
http://www.agronamex.com/sugar_cane.jpg
http://japanfocus.org/data/spices.jpg
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/christopher-columbus/images/christopher-columbus-3.jpg
http://matthiashamann.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/rhodes-colossus-punch-18928×6.png?w=268&h=348
http://www.coloring-pictures.net/drawings/country/world-map.gif
http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/organisations/voc/graphics/voc-heading.jpg