International Review for the Sociology of Sport 2014, Vol. 49(3/4) 435–450 © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1012690213499333 irs.sagepub.com “Drunk and Proud”, from the streets to the stands: America Football Club fans, aguante and alcohol consumption in Mexican football fandom Sergio Varela Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana- Iztapalapa, Mexico Abstract An ethnographic description of a typical match day of Ritual del Kaos barra fans provides elements to discuss the consumption of alcohol as a specific practice of aguante. For the young Mexican- organized supporters of professional football clubs the concept of aguante has become the key concept for their daily practices. America Football Club fans of Ritual del Kaos display aguante practices under different denominations. Three of them are descontrol, colorido and carnaval. These concepts are in some sense contradictory one to the other but at the same they are complementary. Descontrol is practiced as if was completely “irrational” and purely emotional. Colorido and carnaval are apparently pure organized and rationalized practices. Nevertheless, the three of them are a combination of emotional and rationalized actions. In that sense, the interpretation of this phenomenon will be given by the melodramatic imagination coordinates. Keywords aguante, alcohol consumption, America Football Club, barra culture, carnaval, colorido, descontrol, football fandom, Ritual del Kaos Introduction The purpose of this paper is to insert the Mexican barra 1 culture into the broad interna- tional discussion on “violent football fans”, whether they are called hooligans, barras- bravas, tifosi or torcedores. Among barra fans of Mexico City, heavy alcohol drinking is an important element of their “normal” practices. As will be illustrated by the Ritual del Kaos (RK) barra of Corresponding author: Sergio Varela, Posgrado en Ciencias Antropológicas, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana- Iztapalapa, Av. San Rafael Atlixco 186, Edificio F, Col.Vicentina, Delegación Iztapalapa, C.P. 09340, D.F., Mexico. Email: varelaaloleo@gmail.com; varelatinoamericanos@gmail.com 499333IRS 0010.1177/1012690213499333International Review for the Sociology of SportVarela 13 Article