Dry Law, Wet Politics: Drinking and Prohibition in Post-Revolutionary Yucatán, 1915-1935

Abstract

Two radical revolutionary governors of Yucatán, Salvador Alvarado (1915-1918) and Felipe Carrillo Puerto (1922-1923), as well as many Yucatecan men and especially women considered prohibition as the key to reform, as was the case in many other regions of Mexico. Scholars, however, have long ignored the crucial role of alcohol in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Mexico. This article examines the linkages among prohibition, gender, and politics in Yucatán from the revolution to the eve of the Cardenista era. It also considers the role of alcohol as a lubricant in machine politics.