32. The crazy end of the fishermen's festival

The fishermen's festival did not end that day of the Virgen del Carmen. During the following days, in each house, there was a party. One of the neighbors prolonged the party for 4 days, in which he took out his sound equipment with huge speakers on which he sat, drinking and drinking uncontrollably.

The noise reached the school where the teachers could not give classes, nor the students could listen to them, and even the dispensary of Dr.Maxima, who also could not sleep with so much noise, so she went to ask her neighbor who was three blocks away to turn off the equipment and end the party.

-I don't feel like it. It's clear! -They were the drunkard's words that he shouted with all his strength, while his wife accompanied him with a glass full of alcohol and the drunks of the town also accompanied him, at times. In his house, his children, who were in school uniforms, could not leave the house, because their parents threatened them and remained terrified. watching his father go crazy with alcohol.

Alcoholism was actually the biggest drug problem in the entire country, it was the means by which the Spanish conquerors conquered America, their main chemical weapon. The prisoners in the prisons of Spain, with a ship, weapons, horses and alcohol became the conquerors of the continent, Alcohol was the god they worshiped at masses when they said that wine was the blood of Christ, and in America, they made huge cane plantations from which they extracted sugar, which became the main agricultural export product of their colonies and was the place where alcohol from sugar cane or panela was manufactured, which was converted into rum, coveted drink of the English, French and Dutch pirates of the Caribbean.

Alcohol helped convert the indigenous people into Catholics since alcohol was the center of the festivities. that in general, they were in honor of Christ, the Child God, one of the thousands of virgins or saints, who even gave their name to the most important day of the place, or to the towns and cities. than like Saint Thomas. they had a saint of their devotion, the day of that saint could be drunk with debauchery.

Alcoholism became a social pathology for indigenous people, mestizos, and especially for fishermen in America, who said that it helps them endure seasickness, caused by long hours on their boats.

In Santo Tomás, as in all the fishing villages of the coast, the canteen was the one that the fishermen called with their music.

"If you don't lower the volume or turn off the equipment, I'll be forced to go to the police," the doctor threatened.

- And do you think I'm afraid of the police? - Well, if you believe that you are very wrong.

The doctor went to the police and returned in a patrol car with two officers, who persuaded the drunk to turn off the equipment, go to sleep, and allow his children to go to class, but after a heated argument with the drunk and his young wife. , who was more bellicose than her husband.

Máxima returned to her work, where she had people waiting, but while she was attending, loud and strange noises rang out on the china of the dispensary, which alarmed. She and everyone in the waiting room went outside to see what was happening, she thought it might be an earthquake, but it was the drunk, who was throwing huge stones on top of the dispensary from the street, screaming.

. Damn doctor, you are not going to ruin my party. There goes another stone so that he knows who he is messing with and she threw another large stone, which they turned into a drum at the dispensary.

Máxima could not believe the attitude of that man, who could lose all reason when he drank, she wondered where he was, it seemed incredible that there are human beings like this, capable of everything when drunk.

The enraged patients attacked the drunk, who fell to the floor where they wanted to kick him. Máxima managed to contain them, the bloody man stood up and staggered to his house.

At night, like almost every day, she went to eat in the dining room, one block from the dispensary, which only worked nights. Upon arrival, some women who were not from the town were enjoying the good food they sold there, especially rice with shell and shrimp, or good coffee with cheese empanadas.

Those women were prostitutes, who came to work in the new brothel of an Ecuadorian migrant to Europe, who had returned due to the bonanza that the country was experiencing at that time.

- No, this place is not like the others, which have wooden tables and chairs, a television to watch porn, a dance floor for nudists and those who dance, but rather have luxury armchairs, the months are more reserved, there is a show with a presenter, we are presented as artists, on the second floor, the rooms are comfortable, not those two-by-one rooms, with even cement beds.