216 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
One final aspect of native religious life that needs to be addressed is the ritual
use of alcohol. This is a sensitive subject, because the stereotype of the “drunken In-
dian” is a powerful one throughout the Americas and carries with it connotations of
laziness and violence that contribute to prejudices against native people. But we
should not gloss over a significant issue just because it has been so often misused
and misunderstood.
During the Colonial period, Spanish observers frequently expressed dismay at the
disorderly public drunkenness they saw in the native communities. Priests strove to
curb such behavior by preaching against it and punishing participants. But such ef-
forts had little impact on a behavior pattern that was becoming an integral part of
native religious festivals. The communal experience of religious ceremony was ex-
pressed and enhanced by collective drinking: Sharing drinks with one’s fellows re-
inforced community ties, whereas the drunken state itself transported one beyond
the mundane level of nonritual life, providing a sense of being temporarily taken
over by a sacred force beyond one’s control. Catholic figures—in particular, certain
images of the Virgin Mary—became associated with the maguey plant, whose fer-
mented juice, pulque,was the most important native brew.
Spaniards consumed substantial quantities of alcohol themselves, but they ad-
mired the man who could “hold his liquor,” who might partake on a daily basis but
never showed signs of losing his self-control. Indians did not share the European
ideal of the independent, rational, self-determining, and self-controlled individual.
They exploited alcohol’s capacity to alter and dissolve people’s sense of individual
identity, and they chose to get riotously and publicly drunk on special occasions
rather than drinking “moderately” and in private. This difference in the use of alcohol
may have had more to do with the image of the “drunken Indian” than actual levels
of consumption.
That alcohol provided some solace to the oppressed and some escape from daily
hardships may also be assumed. We may further note that, given Spanish attitudes to-
ward the Indians’ drinking, this behavior was a form of resistance against colonial-
ism, a refusal to obey the Spaniards’ rules and to act the way the Spaniards wanted
Indians to act. People who were too drunk or too hung over to labor effectively for
their Spanish masters were, after all, refusing to cooperate with their own exploita-
tion.
Unfortunately, this was a behavior pattern that also took a toll on the lives and
health of native people. Traditional alcoholic beverages such as pulquewere low in
alcohol content and rich in vitamins. The Spaniards introduced wine and hard liquor,
which had much higher levels of alcohol and provided little or no nutritive benefit.
They also introduced the technique of distillation, which would turn maguey juice
into the much stronger mescal and tequila. In the presence of these stronger drinks
and in the absence of preconquest social controls over drinking, it was all too easy
for native peoples, also faced with the hardships imposed by colonial rule, to be-
come addicted to alcohol. Alcohol sometimes brought out aggressive behavior that
would be directed against one’s fellow Indians, often women. The corporate com-
munity was not always a peaceable place.