Popular religiosity and exchange of alcohol in San Andrés Cholula

Abstract

This ethnographic research explores the dynamics that govern the consumption and exchange of alcohol among people who participate within the religious cargo system, an androcentric political-religious institution of colonial heritage, which prevails to this day in San Andres Cholula, Puebla. With special interest in gender gaps, it examines the role of alcohol as a crucial element in structuring the cargo system and the organization of religious festivities. Alcohol as a gift or “correspondence” is a highly valued donation that consolidates ties of spiritual kinship, a masculinized and masculinizing drink that is essential to establish alliances and generate commitments between families of the municipality. In this town, the consumption and distribution of alcohol is a determining practice in the acquisition of power and prestige, in the creation of social networks of compadrazgo, solidarity and reciprocity that provide socioeconomic support to the religious cargo system and allow it to perpetuate itself.