In the posthumously titled Mexican Parnassus, several nude figures struggle with each other against a cloudy blue sky, with a scarlet curtain incongruously draped to one side. Orozco shows little interest in anatomical precision, emphasizing instead the grabbing and thrusting motions of this supernatural bacchanal. Two of the figures hold oversized catrinas, mugs of spiraling green glass, overflowing with a white foamy beverage known as pulque, a popular alcoholic drink made from the fermented sap of the maguey. Despite the local reference, however, the actors here relate more to classical mythology than Mexico’s indigenous past or present. In the first issue of the magazine Forma, published in October 1926, Jean Charlot wrote a laudatory article on the murals decorating Mexico’s pulquerías. Though his admiration for their ingeniousness and authenticity was shared by Diego Rivera, Edward Weston, and others, Orozco was more critical: in a July 1928 letter to Charlot, Orozco wrote that despite the humor of such murals, “I hope the next step will be to do away with them. It’s high time we were getting civilized, although then we may not be as picturesque.” This quote helps us understand Mexican Parnassus as well as other paintings by Orozco related to the consumption of pulque, most notably Have Another One [Échate la otra] (1930; Cleveland Museum of Art), in which a grumpy couple holding catrinas flank a vat of wine. Although in terms of composition, such pictures may be indebted to the naïve pulquería murals, Orozco (as well as reformist bureaucrats seeking improved public health and beer company executives seeking greater profits for their competing product) believed that the traditional pulque—which was unpasteurized and inexpensive—encouraged the debauchery of the lower classes and restricted modern progress. For Orozco, even when the gods drink pulque, the result is anger and lust.

Vide James Oles. Arte moderno de México. Colección Andrés Blaisten. Mexico. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2005.