The alternative economy of alcohol in the Chiapas highlands

The radical changes, which have occurred in the course of the present century, in the political and economic factors governing the demand for, and supply of rum in Chamula, and other neighbouring Indian municipios ¹ in the Mexican state of Chiapas, provide the background to the present chapter. Chamula, with a present population of some forty to fifty thousand, is the largest of the Indian municipios in the extensive highland area to the north of the old state capital of San Cristobal. ² Since its southern confines extend almost to the outskirts of San Cristobal, it is not only relatively accessible to the Ladino ³ economy of the state, but, because of adverse demographic and agronomic factors, it has long been dependent upon it for its survival. At the same time Chamula controls the access to most of the other Indian municipios of the highlands. These in turn, being better able to maintain their traditional subsistence economies based upon the cultivation of maize, and having, therefore, relatively little need for commerce with the outside world, have always been of much less interest to the Ladino economy based on San Cristobal.