Wax Camps

{Editor's Note: This section by historian and researcher JoAnn Pospisil provides new perspectives on the wax-making industry, with an update on changes that have occurred since Curtis Tunnell conducted his study in the 1960s-1970s. It is based on Pospisil's numerous trips with THC steward Enrique Madrid to camps predominately in Mexico, where they visited with accomplished candelilleros, including, surprisingly, several women.}

Candelilla wax remains an important economic cash commodity in the Big Bend region, especially in the rural areas of northern Mexico. Tradition plays a strong role in the methods used by families engaged in the industry. The most efficient harvesting and field processing practices are handed down from generation to generation and remain largely unchanged since commercialization of this natural resource in 1910.

The candelilleros teach their sons and daughters how plant regeneration is assured by the proper harvesting techniques, why correct bundling is important for successful transport of the harvested plant to the processing camp, how to use a honda to tie the secure slip knot that will allow the rope around each bundle later to be removed with ease, and why, when, and how much sulfuric acid or ash to add to the vat of boiling water from which the candelilla wax is skimmed.

This vegetable resource flourishes at elevations between 1100 and 3800 feet on well-drained, south-facing limestone slopes. Through the years, attempts to commercialize plant production have failed. Irrigation reduces the plant's waxy protective coating. Mechanical cutting causes the milky sap to drain and the plant to die, thus lengthening propagation. The fastest recovery is from rhizomes left in the soil when the candelilla plant is pulled up by hand.

The industry is restricted spatially to the Chihuahuan Desert's mountainous Big Bend region of Texas and northern Mexico. Locals report that before the severe drought in the 1950s there were candelilla stands as thick as wheat. Harvesting and more recent droughts have diminished this previous abundance, but recovery continues. Since the organization of Big Bend National Park in 1944, most of the candelilla in the United States is protected within the park boundaries. The majority harvested today comes from Mexico. Although large expanses of this scenic mountainous terrain were declared natural areas by the Mexican government, the candelilla plant is not a protected resource. Candelilla management and recovery are left to the candelilleros who are given the role of steward and expected to harvest prudently in order to preserve the continuing cash potential.

Unfortunately, the forced localization of this relatively primitive industry cannot shield it from the global political, financial, and social forces governing today's economy. Erratic market prices, fluctuating demand, and an unreliable wax supply under Mexican export restrictions and U. S. tariff policies prompted large industrial consumers to develop synthetic substitutes for this second-hardest, naturally occurring vegetable wax. Although demand has declined, prices have enjoyed a generally upward trend since the 1970s, as is shown in the graph.

In an attempt to gain control of the resource, the Mexican government nationalized the industry in 1935. Local government units called municipios were divided into ejidos with wax production reserved for the resident ejidatarios. Large commercial producers employing their own crews simultaneously were given permits to harvest and process candelilla.

This created a treacherous environment for the competing independent producers whose camp locations were disclosed to the more powerful commercial interests by American buyers, among others, in exchange for bribes and kickbacks. These small operations often were destroyed with the workers sometimes thrown into the fire or brutally restrained while their camp was burned, equipment demolished, and burros shot. Mexican rangers called forestales demolished any camps found in close proximity to the river because they automatically assumed an intent to smuggle the wax directly across the Rio Grande.

Curtis Tunnell visited some of the riverside camps during initial survey and study of the candelilla wax industry and observed in his 1981 report that "there is a conspicuous absence of women." However, in subsequent research, I have found that women often participated in the industry, and these female candelilleras harvested and processed candelilla alongside their fathers, grandfathers, brothers and husbands. There is no stigma attached to female participation although the form and extent varies according to local custom.

Some candelillera tasks include harvesting, handling the burros in camp and during candelilla transport, cooking food for the crew, carrying water to fill the processing vat, stomping the candelilla to pack it tightly in the vat, skimming wax, and removing the spent plant from the vat and stacking this yerba seca [literally, dried herb] away from the processing area. Candelilleras generally are strong-willed, stoic, and somewhat non-conformist with a love of the outdoors. The likelihood of violent confrontations with forestales probably accounts for the absence of women in camps near the river.

Historically, field processed candelilla wax, called cerote, was sold legally into the U. S. anywhere along the Rio Grande to American buyers who generally paid higher prices and in cash. The wax then was declared as soon as possible at a formal port of entry. Both candelilleros and U. S. buyers recount colorful incidents related to this "direct" import across the Rio Grande which clashed in mid-river with Mexican export restrictions that required all wax to be sold through the Mexican National Bank.

In the 1990s the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] eroded the independent production supported and encouraged by the ejido system. NAFTA privatized the industry which caused more centralization and increasing control by large commercial interests. In 1996 all Class B informal Rio Grande border crossings were closed by the U. S. government. Candelilleros in northern Mexican villages like Manuel Benavides [San Carlos], Boquillas, Jaboncillos and Las Norias found their small profit margin could not support transporting the wax to the relatively distant formal ports of entry at Presidio and Del Rio [see map]. These imposed market conditions forced the independent producers to sell their cerote to local Mexican buyers.

The generally lax enforcement of the 1996 Class B crossing closings ended following September 11, 2001. Presidio and Del Rio then in reality became the only legal entry points in the Big Bend region. This caused crucial tourist dollars to vanish from the economies of border villages like Boquillas, Santa Elena, and Paso Lajitas. Candelilla harvesting and wax production escalated because the candellilla wax trade became critical as the remaining legal means for participation in a cash economy. Other alternatives for replacing lost tourist dollars are not acceptable to most citizens. One option is the costly special work permit for U. S. employment along the border, perhaps in the expanding Lajitas resort. Another more lucrative but illegal and dangerous choice is drug trafficking.

Today most cerote is sold to Mexican buyers and warehoused in Mexico. Larger lots then are exported to U. S. buyers/brokers through Presidio or Del Rio, or directly to commercial consumers in the northeastern U. S., or to newly developed markets in Germany and Japan. Current prices are considerably higher than historically and often not competitive for U. S. buyers. For the past three years, Mexican buyers in the State of Chihuahua paid candelilleros 27 pesos [minus 3 pesos for social services] per kilogram, almost $6 per pound at the exchange rate of 10 pesos per U. S. dollar.

With proper management, candelilla is a renewable natural resource with myriad uses in our everyday lives [see chart]. Candelilla's conservation and managed commercial exploitation is becoming increasingly important as the population continues to swell along the northern Mexican border, and survival in this arid environment with its paucity of resources becomes ever more tentative. The economic and cultural manifestations of the candelilleros' proud traditions have withstood past market assaults and, despite an uncertain future, the candelilla wax industry remains an important economic mainstay unique to the Big Bend region.