The Pulque Seller

The proliferation of lithography workshops during the XIX th century constituted a cultural revolution, with artistic works becoming available to the population as a whole in the form of commercial prints. The business community was well aware of the potential of such works, which combined texts and illustrative engravings and were distributed on a subscription basis. Among the many topics deemed suitable for such works was that of stock Mexican figures, among many other subjects. The editors of issues devoted to the latter theme hired artists to produce idealized depictions of city and country dwellers. Thus it was that Hesiquio Iriarte, one of the most famous draftsmen of his day, produced The Pulque Seller and other drawings of typical characters for the publication entitled Los mexicanos pintados por sí mismos {Mexicans Painted by Themselves) in 1853. In the center of the print is the keenly observed pulque seller, who has a friendly demeanor and is wearing suitable attire for the job in hand -i.e. a pair of baggy chinaco pants and a long linen apron. Wearing a sort of coarse cloth turban and holding a glass in one hand and quart measure in the other, this character is standing inside his pulque stall, surrounded by stumped instruments of his trade- to wit, kegs with product names written on them, shelves with typical pulque glasses and quart measuring jugs on them, a small barrel and a gourd. Since the pulque seller was one of the most attractive figures among the myriad stereotypical Mexican personages of the day, it is no coincidence that he featured in various XIXth-century publications devoted to common customs and characters. This lithograph was bought by the MUNAL Trust at an auction held by the López Morton company and donated to the museum in May of 1992.