The tlachiquero had been around since the days of the Aztecs, and likely before. The Teotihuacano already worshipped a god of some type of pulque by 200 BCE to 100 CE. Yet this bucolic occupation really came of age when it met modernity. During the Porfiriato which lasted in Mexico from 1876-1910, the country was rapidly modernized by its urbane strong man. Electricity lit up cities, cars graced road, and railroads connected previously remote country sides with cities. Pulque went from the donkey to the train, and Mexico City is estimated to have consumed about 67,000 liters every day.
This guzzling was not all good. The encroachment of modern urban areas on the folkways of the tlachiqueros has had negative consequences. The modernization of the Porfiriato benefited the middle and upper class, but left more campesinos just as poor, or worse off than before. Tlachiqueros and other farmers left their traditional occupations to join the burgeoning market economy as bus drivers and factory workers.
Today, pulque’s child tequila is slowly committing the Oedipal crime over jealousy for mother agave. The tequila industry consumes unprecedented quantities of agave, which takes a decade to mature and requires intensive manual labor. The payoff to the distillation barons is high and corruption leads to illegal uses of agave. This means that plants are being consumed prematurely or plants are being hauled in from areas outside the Designation of Origin. Either way, the industry steals up the agaves before the tlachiquero can even chop off a stem.
Mexico knows that it must save the knowledge and folkways of this ancient occupation. Pulque was a sacred beverage before the Spanish arrived. Since the Conquest, however, alcohol has become largely untethered from its previous cultural significance and the higher-proof tequila serves its purpose famously. The proverb “a acocote nuevo, tlachiquero viejo” (literally “a new gourd, an old scraper”) signifies the need for experience in the face of new challenges. This advise seems appropriate for the tlachiqueros tribulations. Perhaps what the he needs today is nothing more than the thousands of years of cultural experience and knowledge to guide him and his agaves into the future.
