The Pulque Maker

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, José Guadalupe Posada used lithography, which enabled inexpensive mass printing, to disseminate thousands of satirical images.

This print shows a man and a woman at a pulquería, or pulque bar. Indigenous peoples in what is now Mexico drank fermented maguey sap, called pulque, since at least 2,000 BCE. The drink remained popular in the colonial and post-Independence periods, and is experiencing a resurgence today.

Posada’s image is accompanied by a poem that reads (translated to English):

“Pulque like none

Romero knew how to compose,

He threw cat piss on it

And soapy water too

That is why today he is a skull,

Rest in peace, amen.”

Taken together, the print is a critique of pulque drinking. In Aztec society, pulque was a ritual beverage reserved for particular groups. In the Spanish-commissioned Codex Mendoza, Aztec scribes included an image of youths executed for improperly drinking pulque.