Food as Voice

Abstract

In 2020, forty women craft brewers (cerveceras artesanales) gathered in the city of Colima to brew a beer called Impetuosa. A hoppy lager flavored with aromatic New Zealand hops, Impetuosa raised $136,000 pesos for civil associations dedicated to supporting women. The project proved so successful at creating solidarity among women in the decidedly masculine world of craft beer that it became an annual event featuring a different beer style each year. By 2023, it attracted more than 200 women from craft breweries and brewing collectives with names like Adelitas, Pintas Poblanas, and La Perruchona. This female craft movement sought to reclaim a tradition of brewing cacao beer and pulque in Mexico that existed for thousands of years before the commercialization of indigenous beverages by Spaniards and the arrival of industrial beers from Europe