BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CamBRIDGE, Massacuusetrs, JANUARY 20, 1971 
CHIMO: AN UNUSUAL FORM OF TOBACCO 
IN VENEZUELA* 
BY 
Dorotuy KaMEN-Kayre** 
INTRODUCTION 
It is possible for foreigners to live for months or years 
in central or eastern Venezuela and never hear the word 
chimo. The average Venezuelan in these parts of the 
country, if questioned about this form of tobacco, shows 
little knowledge of or interest init. Nevertheless, a visi- 
tor to el Occidente—the west, the Andean states and 
states bordering on them—sees evidence of the use of 
chimo everywhere in the form of dark splotches of ex- 
pectorated saliva on house walls, streets and sidewalks. 
He will see chimo bought, sold and being used. He 
may even see it made by either a primitive or a modern 
process. 
The origin of this tobacco paste made with other in- 
gredients goes back to Venezuela’s pre-Columbian In- 
dian times. Yet, it is used today—essentially unchanged 
—by a large segment of the modern, non-Indian popu- 
lation. 
Chimo does not fall neatly into the accepted classified 
* Presented at the Ethnobotany Section, XI International Botani- 
cal Congress, Seattle, Washington, August 26, 1969. 
** Honorary Research Fellow in Ethnobotany, Botanical Museum 
of Harvard University. 
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