Governing Drunkenness: Anti-Alcoholism, Consumption, and the Administration of Contradiction in Chihuahua (1932–1934)

Abstract

Between 1932 and 1934, drunkenness in Chihuahua was not merely a private habit but a local object of government: publicly visible, constantly discussed, and routinely administered. Drawing on a hemerographic corpus of 165 newspaper items (August 1932-December 1934), the text argues that the coexistence of anti-alcohol campaigns with a robust drinking economy should not be read as institutional inconsistency, but as ordinary governance. Anti-alcoholism functions primarily through persuasive and pedagogical rationalities (committees, schools, teachers, moral appeals) while municipal authorities manage the alcohol market through administrative devices—licenses, renewals, deadlines, operating hours, sanctions, and sanitary requirements. A third layer is “governing by exception”: temporary bans and closures tied to high-exposure situations (elections, civic demonstrations, sports venues, local festivities) where alcohol becomes a risk to public order. The concept “governing drunkenness” therefore captures a differentiated regime of tolerances that seeks to make drinking administratively legible and politically acceptable, not to eliminate it, but to channel it through mixed repertoires of moralization, regulation, surveillance, and selective suspension.