The organization and hierarchical system in the cabarets of the San Juan de Dios neighborhood

Abstract

This article analyzes the social organization and hierarchical system that characterized cabarets in the San Juan de Dios neighborhood of Guadalajara during their peak in the 1960s and 1970s. Using a sociological and anthropological approach, the author examines the cabaret as an urban microcosm in which specific social relations, differentiated roles, and clearly defined power structures were established. The study describes the hierarchical division of labor—owners, administrators, musicians, performers, waiters, security staff, and women engaged in client interaction—and shows how prestige, authority, and status were constructed relationally within this marginal space. The article also explores the ambivalent nature of the cabaret as both a site of ludic liberation and a space of control, domination, and exploitation, particularly with regard to women. Although cabarets functioned as spaces that temporarily suspended conventional social norms, they simultaneously reproduced hierarchical structures and inequalities inherent to the dominant social order. The article concludes that cabarets constituted singular social spaces that enabled the resignification of identities and practices while exposing the tensions between marginality, power, social recognition, and exploitation in urban life.