Hitler became obsessed with Mexican pulque. So much so that he sent the Nazis to film a documentary about this “drink of the gods”

Latin American food culture is fascinating. Knowing the origin of some of the most famous dishes is an exercise in understanding the importance of cultural mixing. Also know the customs that, on many occasions, have food as a common thread. Focusing on Mexico, its food and drink is so delicious that it has not only conquered half the world, but also won the heart of the most unexpected individual: Hitler.

Specifically, a drink called pulque that obsessed the Führer so much that he ordered a documentary to be made about it. The easiest way? Send a team of Nazi filmmakers to Mexico.

Back to the Aryan race. There are several things that obsessed the leader of Nazi Germany. One was to take care of his image as a proverbial leader as a kind of messiah who was going to save Germany. He was also said to take care of his body, was teetotal, did not smoke and was vegan. Of course, it seems that he took drugs like there was no tomorrow and some of the statements may have been for the benefit of the gallery, because the fact that he was teetotal has a huge asterisk.

In his quest to enhance his health and that of the Aryan race, Adolf Hitler ordered research into both the origins of the Aryan race (which almost obsessed Himmler more than the Führer himself) and a series of foods and drinks that would allow the body to achieve its maximum potential. And that investigation led him to pulque.

pulque. It is an alcoholic beverage with a content of between 3 and 6% alcohol whose origin is pre-Hispanic. It is also known as aguamiel and is made from the fermentation of agave, a plant with several very interesting uses. It is estimated that the consumption of pulque, or something similar to pulque, dates back to the 4th century BC and has been used throughout history in medicine and rituals, being relevant in myths and legends of Toltecs, Mexica and other peoples.

In fact, in some cultures there were very strict rules. So much so that if you were under 70 years old and they caught you drinking pulque, you were punished. And be careful not to get drunk in public, since there was also punishment. Priests, nursing women, women about to give birth, and the sick could also take it. Come on, the main ingredient that interested Hitler was not agave, but rather it was an ancient drink that priests and elderly people tasted and that also had a mystical component. He was also told that it was a medicinal drink.

The documentary. Such was the fascination that the Nazi leader must have felt that he sent his main director, Hubert Schonger, to Mexico to record a documentary about the production process of pulque. The team traveled to the Apan Valley and Puebla to make the recordings and, in 1936, with the name Pulquebereitung in Mexiko -The production of pulque in Mexico, by its name in Spanish-, the result was a silent documentary of about 12 minutes.

What can we see in it? Laborers cutting agave, transporting the materials, extracting the mead, preparing the drink, loading it into barrels on the backs of donkeys and, from time to time, having a drink. And, when it was projected, a person read a 14-page script telling what was being seen on the screen. After World War II, the documentary was lost (I imagine it would be one of Hitler’s last priorities and whoever kept the tape in those final moments of the war).

70 dollars. However, something happened in 2006. At a public auction held in Berlin, the material came to light as one more piece among many others and, for a payment of 70 dollars over the Internet, a collector named Javier Gómez Marín became with the tape. Gómez Marín is a specialist in pulque and has in his collection all types of crafts related to the drink, this documentary being one of the jewels of the collection and which he himself has described as “the Holy Grail of pulque.”

Unfortunately, and as stated in El Sol de Puebla, this documentary is rarely screened. When it is shown, it is in conferences or exhibitions that have pulque as the protagonist. Currently, the film is in the possession of Gómez Marín, but specialists from the University Center for Cinematographic Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico digitized the 16-millimeter original for preservation.

The Puebla hacienda. In the end, pulque was one of Hitler’s obsessions, but thanks to his fixation with a drink that he considered a “magic potion”, he sent a team of filmmakers who allowed him to portray the daily life of Mexico in the mid-1930s. And it was not the only one, since Schonger made three other productions before returning to Germany.

One of them about corn production, another about the Mayan culture and another, which we can see on these lines, about a German hacienda in Puebla.

Images | AlejandroLinaresGarcia, Bundesarchiv

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