A Mexican brewery has started making Malverde Beer, — that’s “cerveza” to you Gringos — named after the legendary Jesús Malverde. According to the not-so-low-rent correspondent out of Mexico City, Cerveceria Minerva actually began brewing the beer last year. Some of us were a little too buzzed to notice.
Malverde is one of several men said to be “the Mexican Robin Hood,” stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Some people thus consider him the patron saint of the homeless and destitute. (There are other contenders for this title.)
Some Mexican comic books feature narcocorridos, smugglers and hit men, but the Green Evil is definitely not to be confused with the Green Hornet or the Green Arrow. The Green Evil evokes the image of marijuana. Many people who smoke marijuana claim how it makes them feel is something of a miracle. It is Malverde’s rumored association with personal healings and blessings, plus the association with the green evil of marijuana, which has made him the patron saint of drug dealers.
It’s uncertain whether Malverde actually lived — “Malverde” is actually a fairly common Mexican surname — but he is alleged to have lived in the late 1800s; he was executed by the governor of Sinoloa in 1909.
Also uncertain is whether my wearing Jesús to court every day has any impact on the success of my law practice. At the very least, it gives Freddie and the other bailiffs the reasonable suspicion they need to frisk me and saves me a ton of money on massages.
