Alcoholismo en mexico

ESPACIO URBANO, LA VIDA COTIDIANA Y LAS ADICCIONES: UN ESTUDIO ETNOGRÁFICO SOBRE ALCOHOLISMO EN EL CENTRO HISTÓRICO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO
Guillermina Natera*, Rosalba Tenorio**, Eugenia Figueroa***, Guillermo Ruíz***

El infier no de los vivos no es algo que será, hay uno, es aquel que existe ya aquí, el infier no que habitamos todos los días, que formamos estando juntos. Dos maneras hay deno sufrirlo. la primera es fácil para muchos: aceptar el infier no y volverse parte de él hasta el punto de no verlo más La segunda es peligrosa, exige atención y aprendizaje continuos: buscar y saber reconocer quién y qué en medio del infier no, no es infier no y hacerlo durar y darle espacio. Italo Calvino, Las ciudades invisibles

SUMMARY
Objective This study is exploratory and descriptive innature. Its principal objective is to explore the influence of urban space on the individual as regards alcohol consumption. For this purpose, an ethnographic study of the area was undertaken, focusing on a special group of alcohol consumers known as teporochos (for whom the equivalent term in English would be homeless alcoholics). The assumption is: The availability of alcoholic beverages andthe infrastructure, together with the hyper-urbanization of the area, and the agglomeration of general production conditions (added value of the space, circulation of capital, commerce, production of cheap labor, etc.) has contributed to the creation of unusual groups of alcohol, and more recently, drug users. The first part of the study includes a theoretical description of the principal categoriesused: a) the concept of city, b) urban infrastructure and c) everyday life. Included in the results is a description of part of the context in which consumption takes place and to which two of the aforementioned groups of alcoholics belong, namely homeless alcoholics and stevedores; the way these groups are perceived by the neighborhood is also described. Method The study was based on fielddiaries and a semi-structured

interview. The procedure consisted of surveying a total of 668 blocks corresponding to the historical area, and registering the places where alcohol is sold and consumed. The lifestyles of the groups being studied were reconstructed on the basis of interviews and the data recorded in the field diaries of events linked to the production, sale and consumption of alcoholin the area. Twenty-six social workers participated in the study. The Historical Center of Mexico City, where this study was conducted, is so called because it was the site of MexicoTenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexicas (the indigenous people which founded Tenochtitlan), as a result of which it still preserves the remains of pre-Hispanic constructions. The grid of what is now Mexico City wasdrawn up in the sixteenth century, retaining elements of the ancient pre-Hispanic grid consisting of districts intended to be exclusively inhabited by Spaniards, although this was never in fact achieved, since the Spaniards required the services of the indigenous population to enable them to lead comfortable lives. Squalid slums sprang up around this area which were gradually integrated into thesupposedly exclusive capital, making it one of the oldest cities in America. During the period of Spanish domination, this area was the seat of viceregal power and therefore the center of the political and social life of New Spain. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Historical Center of Mexico City has been the

* Investigadora Titular C, Jefe del Departamento de InvestigacionesPsicosociales del Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente. Calz. MéxicoXochimilco 101, San Lorenzo Huipulco, Tlalpan. 14370 México, D.F. Tel. 56552811 ext. 153. Fax. 55133446. ** Lic. en Trabajo Social, Investigadora Asociado A. Centro de Ayuda al Alcohólico y sus Familiares (CAAF). *** Lic. en Trabajo Social/Lic. en Psicología, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente....