Italy has grappa, Russia has vodka, Jamaica has rum. Around the
world, certain drinks--especially those of the intoxicating
kind--are synonymous with their peoples and cultures. For Mexico,
this drink is tequila. For many, tequila can conjure up scenes of
body shots on Cancun bars and coolly garnished margaritas on sandy
beaches. Its power is equally strong within Mexico, though there
the drink is more often sipped rather than shot, enjoyed casually
among friends, and used to commemorate occasions from the everyday
to the sacred. Despite these competing images, tequila is
universally regarded as an enduring symbol of "lo mexicano."
"Tequila Distilling the Spirit of Mexico" traces how and why
tequila became and remains Mexico's national drink and symbol.
Starting in Mexico's colonial era and tracing the drink's rise
through the present day, Marie Sarita Gaytan reveals the formative
roles played by some unlikely characters. Although the notorious
Pancho Villa was a teetotaler, his image is now plastered across
the labels of all manner of tequila producers--he's even the
namesake of a popular brand. Mexican films from the 1940s and 50s,
especially Western comedies, buoyed tequila's popularity at home
while World War II caused a spike in sales within the
whisky-starved United States. Today, cultural attractions such as
Jose Cuervo's "Mundo Cuervo" and the Tequila Express let visitors
insert themselves into the Jaliscan countryside--now a
UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site--and relish in the nostalgia
of pre-industrial Mexico.
Our understanding of tequila as Mexico's spirit is not the result
of some natural affinity but rather the cumulative effect of
U.S.-Mexican relations, technology, regulation, the heritage and
tourism industries, shifting gender roles, film, music, and
literature. Like all stories about national symbols, the rise of
tequila forms a complicated, unexpected, and poignant tale. By
unraveling its inner workings, Gaytan encourages us to think
critically about national symbols more generally, and the ways in
which they both reveal and conceal to tell a story about a place, a
culture, and a people. In many ways, the story of tequila is the
story of Mexico.
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