ABOUT THIS BOOK

Staying sober is a daily struggle for many men living in Mexico City, one of the world's largest, grittiest urban centers. In this engaging study, Stanley Brandes focuses on a common therapeutic response to alcoholism, Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), which boasts an enormous following throughout Mexico and much of Latin America.

Over several years, Brandes observed and participated in an all-men's chapter of A.A. located in a working class district of Mexico City. Employing richly textured ethnography, he analyzes the group's social dynamics, therapeutic effectiveness, and ritual and spiritual life. Brandes demonstrates how recovering alcoholics in Mexico redefine gender roles in order to preserve masculine identity. He also explains how an organization rooted historically in evangelical Protestantism has been able to flourish in Roman Catholic Latin America.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Stanley Brandes is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

REVIEWS

This is an impeccably crafted work by one of the most widely respected anthropologists of his generation. . . . I am quite confident that it will become not only the standard reference on the cultural study of alcoholism in Mexico, but also one of the very best overall social science contributions to the study of Mexican culture produced in the last fifty years.

— Marcelo Suarez-Orozco

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. Moral Support in Mexico City
Chapter Two. Religious Adaptations in Alcoholics Anonymous
Chapter Three. Meeting and Moving
Chapter Four. Storytelling
Chapter Five. Gender and the Construction of Manhood
Chapter Six. Blurred Boundaries and the Exercise of Social Control
Chapter Seven. Illness and Recovery
Chapter Eight. Sobriety and Survival
Appendix A. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous/Los Doce Pasos de Alcohólicos Anónimos
Appendix B. The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous/Las Doce Tradiciones de Alcohólicos Anónimos
Notes
References Cited
Index