"Bad customs" The habit of drunkenness among the popular classes of the city of Querétaro during the Porfiriato

Abstract

This article aims to examine exclusion and segregation as practices of rejection of pulque drinkers in Queretaro city at the end of the Porfiriato. The moral and scientific discourse around drunkenness and social anomalies that arose in pulquerías, such as fights and blood crimes, were factors that promoted the discrediting and segregation of all those involved with the consumption of pulque and brandy, both, associated with it as part of social degeneration. Through the analysis of sources of public opinion, such as press releases, regulations, chronicles and legends of the time, a campaign of rejection and exclusion is observed. This discourse generated from spheres of power such as the political elite, the religious elite, the professionals graduated from the Civil College, brings us closer to a possible reality experienced by the popular sectors, who suffered a form of discrimination due to their habits, customs, and condition of gender and its social stratum. For the government of Francisco González de Cosío, it was of utmost importance to show a city at the height of modernity and progress, with civilized citizens, so if the alignment of some was not achieved, actions would have to be implemented so as not to hinder their objective.