Mexican women ban beer trucks

Modern Brewery Age, Jan 6, 2003

Last year, as a Corona beer truck rolled into a remote Indian village of San Rafael in the mountains of central Mexico, angry women ran out of their homes, shouting: "Get out! Get out!" The women forced the driver back down the mountain before he could unload any of his cargo, much to the dismay of their husbands.

As CBS recently reported, the women were fed up with chronic alcohol abuse by village men, so the women of the Indian village in San Luis Potosi state took matters into their own hands, refusing to allow any more alcohol to be sold in their community of 250 people.

Huasteco women are not allowed to own land unless they are widowed or orphaned, traditionally don't drink alcohol and and in the past have rarely held positions of power.

The women's rebellion has spread rapidly through the neighboring Indian villages. Since the first action more than a year ago, women in at least 10 Huasteco Indian villages have gotten their leaders to ban alcohol and another dozen communities are considering it. "A lot of men are not happy with this," Marcelina Martinez, who helped turn back the truck from San Rafael told CBS. "They seem sad. But, oh well. At least now they spend time with their families, so in the end things are better. They didn't want to listen to us, so we had to get angry."

Over the past decade, Huasteco women have taken on a greater role in their communities as more men leave to find work, often in the United States. Many women now manage the family budget--something that may have led to the alcohol bans, some say.

One woman in San Rafael said that most village men now content themselves with drinking Coca-Cola as they socialize.

"The beer truck still passes by," she says, "but it never stops here. I think the driver is scared of us."