APPROVED: Roberto R. Calderón, Major Professor Sandra Mendiola García, Committee

Member J. Todd Moye, Committee Member Harold Tanner, Chair of the Department of

History David Holdeman, Dean of the College of Arts

and Sciences Victor Prybutok, Vice Provost of the Toulouse

Graduate School

THE CREATION OF FICTIONAL HISTORY IN THE TEQUILA INDUSTRY

Cynthia A. Nichols

Thesis Prepared for the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

December 2016

Nichols, Cynthia A. The Creation of Fictional History in the Tequila Industry. Master of

Arts (History), December 2016, 87 pp., 7 figures, bibliography, 46 titles.

The creation of fictional history in the tequila industry due to changes in government

policy, trade agreements and big business.

ii

Copyright 2016

by

Cynthia A. Nichols

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..iv

Chapters

I. INTRODUCTION………………………......……………………………………………………………………1

Historiography………………………………………………………………………………………..9

II. THE MYTH OF THE MAGUEY…………………………………………….......………………………28

Mayahuel, Goddess of Agave..............................................................…...29 Los jimadores, the Caretakers of Agave………………………………………….…...38 Lo mexicano and the Spirit of Mexico………………………………………………….44 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….…...51

III. CREATION OF AN INDUSTRY………………………………….......…………………………………..56

Beginning of an Empire………………………………………………….……………………..62 After the Mexican Revolution……………………………………….……………………...67 Neoliberalism, NAFTA, and Present Day……………………………………………..70 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….77

CONCLUSION.....................................……………………………………………………………….80

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………83

IV.

iv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Figure 1: Map of tequila producing states in Mexico………………………....………………………………………3

Figure 2: Gabriel Flores mural at Tequila Sauza………………………………………………………………………..36

Figure 3: Freshly trimmed agave head……………………………………………………………………………………..39

Figure 4: Rare flowering agave plant……………………………………………………………………………….……….41

Figure 5: Chart showing growth of the tequila industry……………………………………………………………61

Figure 6: Chart showing company sizes in the tequila industry………………………………………………..71

Figure 7: Agave fields on the main road to Tequila…………………………………………………………………..74

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Famous comedian George Carlin once said, “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila,

floor,” when he discussed the effects of tequila. The pervasion of tequila into the popular

culture of the United States since the late 1970’s and early 1980’s shows how intricate the

trade relationship between Mexico and the United States grew after the signage of the North

American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. NAFTA freed up trade between Canada, Mexico

and the United States to an extent that it had never been before.

Carlin was not the first celebrity to mention the beverage, or the last. The spirit was

found various places in both American and Mexican popular culture. Tequila was also

referenced in numerous movies and songs as representative of the spirit of Mexico. Pancho

Villa, a revolutionary leader, further promoted the popularity of tequila, as images showed him

swigging tequila from a cantina before he rode off to conquer injustice.1 Research showed that

the impact of the tequila industry on Mexico was far more profound than popular culture

references indicated. The tequila industry created a rich history of Mexican folklore and

drastically changed the landscape of the country, but it altered the relationship between

Mexico and the United States, as well.

The first chapter discusses the historiography of tequila and the industry that

surrounded it. This information was presented because it provided a basic knowledge of the

1 Marie Sarita Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico. California: Stanford University Press, 2014, 43-51. Jeffrey Pilcher. “Jose Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm: Food, Drink, and the Touristic Consumption of Mexico.” Holiday in Mexico: Critical Reflections on Tourism and Tourist Encounters edited by Berger, Diana and Andrew Grant Wood. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2010, 222.

1

tequila industry from its conception to current day. It also showed the overview of the changes

that occurred in the industry and how it evolved. The historiography showed not only the

changes in history, but the changes in the way that researchers studied tequila. Researchers

originally studied tequila from strictly a scientific approach, but it gradually switched to its

cultural and economic properties.

The second chapter encompasses the myths and folklore that accompany tequila. This

included stories of the ancient Aztec goddess of the agave plant, Mayahuel, and how with her

help, pulque originated as a drink that served people for everyday use as well as ceremonial

purposes.2 Ancient tribes produced pulque from the agave plant, and used the beverage for

nourishment and ritual purposes. Mexican masculinity in regards to the consumption of tequila

also played an important part in its history, and developed partially through Pancho Villa’s

legacy as a revolutionary. Villa greatly promoted the popularity of tequila on both sides of the

border, despite both Mexico and the United States’ controversial views of him.3

Also discussed in Chapter Two will be the typical misconceptions that non-natives have

about the way tequila is consumed in Guadalajara. Guadalajara, located roughly forty-five

minutes from the town of Tequila, where tequila is produced, is one of the largest metropolitan

centers in the area. Visitors of Guadalajara in the past fifty years found the tequilas considered

name brands in the United States, were not necessarily the most popular or easy to find there.

While some restaurants featured different brands of José Cuervo, very rarely was that brand a

2 Chantal Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila: The Modern Age of Mexico’s Most Traditional Spirit. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2015, Location 300 out of 4755.

3 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 53.

2

“gold” tequila. Average Tapatíos, people from Guadalajara, who preferred tequila usually chose

out of the three main categories of aging: silver, reposado, and añejo.

Companies marketed tequila as a beverage enjoyed by itself, or mixed in a margarita.

Marketing led consumers to believe margaritas were the traditional way Mexicans enjoyed the

beverage. Research showed this was not the case, and that marketing strategies in the U.S.

differed from the reality in Mexico. Few places featured tequilas that typically grace the

bottom shelf of liquor stores in the United States. Instead, the cheaper tequilas on the menu

were normally local brands that cannot be found outside of the country. Restaurants also did

not feature margaritas prominently their drink menus. Instead, the patron chose their tequila,

and it was served with a glass of ice and a bottle of Squirt, which was known as a Paloma.

Margaritas were not completely absent, however, and could be found at most tourist spots.4

Figure 1: Map of tequila producing regions in Mexico.

4 Research trip. Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to visit sites where tequila is produced and consumed. [March 17-20, 2016.]

3

The third chapter of this thesis presents the various changes the tequila industry

underwent, it shows how the rapid growth of the industry vastly changed the town of Tequila

and the areas surrounding it, and explores how this affected Mexico’s economic relationships

with other countries. Tequila is produced from Blue Weber Agave plants which are allowed to

grow in five states in Mexico: Jalisco, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas (as

underlined in the map on Figure 1).5 Jimadores were people who cultivated tequila. They

passed this occupation down through the generations, but now mainly by day laborers and

hired help make up this field.6

A product originally handcrafted by Mexicans for Mexicans is now exported all over the

world to 120 countries, and Mexico sends approximately eighty percent of all global exports to

the United States. This is twice the amount of tequila that is consumed by Mexicans.7 Some

companies, such as Sauza, have brands specifically manufactured for export into the United

States. Companies are also aware of the growing amount of United States residents of Mexican

descent, and this was evident in their campaigns that boast authenticity and heritage. The third

chapter also covered the various marketing strategies of tequila companies.

The reputation tequila had in other countries, has not gone unnoticed by marketing

executives, who used it to their advantage. Many companies have specific brands designated

5 José Orozco. “Tequila Sauza and the Redemption of Mexico’s Vital Fluids, 1873-1970.” Alcohol in Latin America: A Social and Cultural History. Ed Gretchen Pierce and Áurea Toxqui. University of Arizona Press, 2014, 186. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 1256 out of 4755. Ana G. Valenzuela-Zapata and Gary Paul Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 2004, 46-47.

6 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 6 out of 4755. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 43-44.

7 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 194 out of 4755. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 63-64.

4

for the party consumer who enjoys the quantity of their liquor over the quality. For example,

fifteen million gallons out of thirty-five million gallons exported to the United States every year

was one hundred percent agave.8 The rest of the exported tequila is called mixto because

companies distill almost half of the finished product from corn or sugarcane instead of agave.9

Other companies also recognized the desire for something top shelf and distinguished.

This gave rise to companies producing brands like Clase Azul, and Fortaleza in small batches and

packaged in handcrafted bottles.10 Tequila Fortaleza is owned by Guillermo Erickson Sauza who

was the great-great-grandson of Cenobio Sauza. Guillermo’s goal was not to have the biggest

company, but to have the best tasting tequila. By making his tequila the traditional way, with

stone-crushed agave, he claimed it resulted in a more authentic tequila than the mechanically

shredded agave that Tequila Sauza used.11

The United States seemed to take George Carlin’s words to heart. Tequila is found

throughout colleges at numerous frat houses and spring break parties, and most people

associated it with their own drunken youth, or that of others. Almost every adult in the United

States who consumed alcohol can recall an encounter they had with the liquor that some

believe has hallucinogenic properties.12 Enter into any bar or restaurant in the United States

today, and one can find a variety of beverages featuring the spirit tequila. The third chapter

8 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 127 out of 4755. 9 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 89 out of 4755. Jeffrey Pilcher. “Jose Cuervo and the

Gentrified Worm,” 234. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 76. 10 Clase Azul. “Tequila Clase Azul.” Last modified 2012. Accessed May 17, 2016. www.claseazul.com. Sarah Bowen. Divided Spirits: Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production. Oakland: University of

California Press, 2015, 51. 11 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1148 out of 4755. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan.

¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 48. 12 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 106 out of 4755. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the

Spirit of Mexico, 59.

5

explores this popularity, and how tequila quickly grew into an international success, which

caused its demand to escalate throughout the world.

Lately, however, tequila evolved into a more sophisticated beverage. Companies crafted

boutique, aged, and small-batch brands to appeal to higher-end consumers. What was once

touted as the “Spirit of Mexico,” and believed to fully embody Mexican life and heritage,

morphed into an international industry that is no longer administered by small family-owned

companies, but instead by large corporations.13 Some celebrities even endorsed and

participated in the manufacture of their own brands of tequila. George Clooney and Randy

Crawford own a portion of Casamigos and Sammy Hagar contributed to the production of Cabo

Wabo.14 This change in the tequila industry is discussed further in the third chapter.

With the growth of the industry, tequila seemed to be less about the production of a

truly Mexican beverage, and more about the creation of profit. Neoliberalist policies changed

the culture in the tequila industry. Over the past fifty years tequila became industrialized.15

Numerous tequila companies, previously owned by Mexican corporations changed hands to

foreign investors who merged with other liquor companies, such as Beam Suntory who owns

Tequila Sauza, Jim Beam, Pinnacle, Maker’s Mark, Cruzan, and Basil Hayden’s, to name a few.16

Herradura is now owned by Brown-Forman, an American firm, and Patrón is distributed by

13 Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 14. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 2. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 2472 out of 4755. Pilcher. “Jose Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm.” 232.

14 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 2226 out of 4755. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 55. 15 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 2011 out of 4755. 16 Beam Suntory. “Our Heritage.” Beam Suntory about History. Last modified 2015. Accessed April 1, 2015.

www.beamsuntory.com/about/history.

6

Bacardi which has facilities on four different continents. 17 These corporations industrialized the

tequila making process and produced more tequila at a reduced cost.

José Cuervo remained one of the last companies completely owned by Mexicans. Half of

the seven million cases the company sold in 2012 shipped to the United States. This made up

approximately one-third of the industry’s production.18 While the company manufactured a

majority of their brands using the mixto method, they produced higher-quality aged brands as

well. Their Reserva de la Familia brand is housed in a unique series of bottles created by several

different Mexican artists which retails for approximately one hundred dollars a bottle.19

This operational streamlining influenced the farming of agave as well. Some companies

hired biologists to genetically clone the plants that produced the ‘best’ tequila, but views

toward this approach vary. Ana Valenzuela-Zapata, an agronomist, claimed the genetic

alteration of agave plants could lead to the destruction of the industry. While the Consejo

Regulador del Tequila (CRT), the bureaucracy that governed official tequila industry decisions,

argued cloning the most successful plants created the strongest crop, Valenzuela-Zapata

insisted this is what gave way to a dangerous monoculture that negatively affected the industry

in the late 1990’s.20 Disease easily spread from plant to plant because they grew in such close

17 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 2002 out of 4755. 18 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 517 out of 4755. 19 Ibid., Location 525 out of 4755. 20 Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, xxiv-xxv. Martineau. How the

Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 890 out of 4755.

7

proximity to each other, and were clones of one another. Valenzuela-Zapata posited crop

diversity would be a simple method to prevent this type of event from reoccurring.21

The Mexican government formed the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (Tequila Regulatory

Council), more commonly known as the CRT, due to the growing popularity of the tequila

industry. Officials designed this organization to protect the integrity of the methods of

production in the tequila industry. Considered one of the most regulated spirits in the world,

tequila is daily monitored by the CRT to supervise cultivation and harvest of agaves, labeling of

bottles, and collection of data.22 The CRT employed two different types of inspectors to travel

the five states that allowed tequila production and oversee the tequila-making process.

Agronomists sent by the CRT supervise the farming of agave, while chemical engineers verify

production.23

While popular culture in the United States led us to believe tequila was an extension of

Mexico, this was just not true. After researching tequila, it was evident this alcohol transformed

from a uniquely Mexican drink, to a spirit manipulated to conform to the consumer preferences

of a primarily United States market. Influenced by neoliberal policies and trade agreements,

such as NAFTA, the tequila industry changed from being composed of small, handcrafted

companies to large conglomerates which left no space for anything but big business. This was

seen by studying the historiography of tequila and what researchers already contributed to the

field, as well as comparing the myths and factual information about the spirit, and examining

21 Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 55-57. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1036 out of 4755.

22 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 2002 out of 4755. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 5. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nathan, ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 47.

23 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1012 out of 4755.

8

the evolution of the once hacienda-based industry into the international, two billion dollar

annual industry it is today.24

Historiography

Tequila’s current popularity is a stark difference from what it was in the past. Originally,

elites relegated tequila to the lower classes in rural Mexico. Now tequila is shipped and sold in

countries all over the globe, but during the time of the Spanish conquest, elites considered it an

antiquated beverage only consumed by the poor or working-class. The roots of tequila

production began centuries ago with the Aztec civilization in Mexico, long before the Spanish

conquest. People did not produce tequila until after the Spanish conquered the Aztec peoples.

Instead, pulque was the beverage of choice, made from the fermented juice of the agave plant.

Mescal was also a popular drink among indigenous peoples.25 Eventually after they noticed a

distinct difference in the taste of mescal produced in the Jalisco region by a specific strain of

agave, people referred to mescal manufactured there as tequila.

Research on tequila encompassed several different fields of history which included

cultural, political, economic, and transnational. These varied approaches highlight the

importance of tequila as the drink of a nation, and show the integral part that this beverage

played in Mexican efforts at nation building. The historiography shows how thoughts and

24 Ibid., Location 194 out of 4755. 25 The terms ‘mescal’ and ‘mezcal’ can be used interchangeably. The beverage is typically spelled ‘mezcal

in Latin American countries, and referred to as ‘mescal’ in the United States. For consistency, unless part of a quote or brand name, it will be spelled ‘mescal’ in this document.

9

research on tequila evolved over the years, and how free trade between the United States and

Mexico.

Mylie K. Walton’s article entitled “The Evolution and Localization of Mezcal and Tequila

in Mexico,” was one of the earliest published articles that addressed the growth of the

production of mescal and tequila. Walton was a geographic attaché for the U.S. Department of

State. Revista Geográfica featured this article in 1977, and displayed a brief, cursory knowledge

of the production of tequila. This article focused primarily on a small subset of history that

explored the changing scientific classifications of the multiple types of agave plants in Mexico.

Walton discussed how the species of agave plant the Aztecs used to create pulque differed

biologically from the species of agave plant native Jaliscienses used to make tequila. Walton

attributed the emergence of tequila to the Spanish introducing the distillation process after the

conquest in the 1500’s.26

Another important contribution this article made was that it discussed the basics of the

process in which tequila was produced and explained typical jargon that someone unfamiliar

with tequila would not know. Both mescal and tequila come from the agave plant. After

harvesting, the plants ferment. Then locals placed the agave in either a pit or oven to be

cooked. The base of the plant was the only part of the agave plant used. Workers who

harvested these agave hearts call them piñas.27

26 Walton, Mylie K. “The Evolution and Localization of Mezcal and Tequila in Mexico,” Revista Geográfica. No. 85 (June 1977), Published by: Pan American Institute of Geography and History, 115.

27 Ibid., 113-114.

10

This information was critical in providing an understanding of the basic process of the

production of tequila. While this article provided rudimentary information about tequila, and

its ancient ancestor, pulque, it left out much of the social aspects of this drink. This article

approached the subject almost from a scientific viewpoint rather than engaging the reader on a

social level. However, the amount of social information, or lack thereof presented provided the

researcher with an idea of the popularity of tequila. While the United States exported tequila

at a small rate during the 1950’s and 1960’s, popularity and consumption occurred a few

decades later in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Unfortunately the historiography of tequila experienced a large gap after Walton’s

article, with research not resuming until after 2000. Research did not uncover any articles or

books published during this time period that pertained to the history of tequila. The export of

tequila skyrocketed in the 1990’s, as consumers demanded higher qualities and quantities of

tequila.28 One can posit until its popularity surged after the passage of the North Atlantic Free

Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, the topic was not of much importance to historians.

Information about the way tequila was transported and sold was also important in the

historiography of this subject. In Organized Crime and Democratic Governability, authors John

Bailey and Roy Goodson, both government professors at Georgetown University, presented a

collection of works about the increase of crime in Mexico since the Spanish arrival and

conquest. Several of the chapters in this book focused on smuggling contraband across the

border, and more specifically the role of tequila as contraband. They also showed how

28 Pilcher. “José Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm,” 233.

11

different Mexican companies produced beer and liquor, like tequila and mescal, specifically for

distribution in the United States.

Louis Sadler’s chapter aptly named, “The Historical Dynamics of Smuggling in the U.S.

Border Region,” covered a large span of time from Spanish conquest to present day. He built

this history through using numerous interviews he conducted, his own personal experience

with border control, and information from various FBI files. He explained how a frequency of

smuggling between the United States and Mexico existed, and how this frequency became so

great during Prohibition in the United States, that it eventually led to the formation of the

Border Patrol in 1924. He further asserted the formation of the Border Patrol was necessary to

assist the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers lacked the proper resources to complete their

duties because they could not halt liquor smuggling, which included tequila, rum, whiskey, and

cordials, during Prohibition.29

Sadler also pointed out that smuggling made up a part of the tumultuous history

between the United States and Mexico, much like other countries with shared international

borders. Contrary to popular belief, he cited the flow of illegal goods often went both ways.

Before the Mexican Revolution, smugglers made a living transporting alcohol, like tequila,

pulque, and rum. During this time the sale of alcohol across borders was legal, but it required

the purchase of a tax stamp. Smugglers created a higher profit margin for themselves by selling

29 Louis R. Sadler. “The Historical Dynamics of Smuggling in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region, 1550-1998: Reflections on Markets, Cultures, and Bureaucracies.” Edited by John J. Bailey and Roy Godson. Organized Crime & Democratic Governability: Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands. [Pittsburgh]: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000, 165.

12

alcohol illegally, without a tax stamp.30 During the Mexican Revolution, the demand for

weapons and ammunition far outweighed the demand for alcohol. This caused smugglers to

switch their focus to aid the war effort. Once the war ended, alcohol was priority contraband

once again. Later, when alcohol was more readily available, smuggling stakes increased to drugs

and human trafficking.

His chapter did excellent work at weaving in detailed information that showed how it

was common for women to be successful smugglers. He also showed how smuggling provided

a way for the poor to make a living and provide a life for their families. However, more

research could be done on some of the larger players in the smuggling industry. Financially

disadvantaged people trying to survive were not the only ones who illegally transported

contraband across the border. Other smugglers trafficked different goods solely to make a

large profit margin. Sadler provided numerous details when he described the intricacies of the

law enforcement on the border, however, he did not sufficiently address any known corruption

that likely occurred within the Border Patrol.

Similar to Sadler, historian Francisco Javier Molina Ruiz, investigated the smuggling

market between Mexico and the United States, but did so by looking at the smaller

geographical area of the borderland region. He discussed a regional history of the borderlands

from the 1900’s to present day by using many primary sources such as police reports, FBI files,

and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) records. He posited the borderland created a

30 Ibid., 164.

13

geographical space that is uniquely Mexican American because of the different ideas and

cultures that were in such a close proximity to one another.

Due to this interconnectivity, cities and states like Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Tijuana,

Baja California, and Tamaulipas generated massive amounts of wealth during Prohibition by

supplying Americans with easy access to the vices they were missing in the United States.

These vices included casinos, horse races, saloons, and brothels.31 Not only did the border

provide a place for people to go to indulge in these vices, but it also produced vice. Border

cities produced major amounts of alcohol for the explicit purpose of selling it in the United

States.32

Molina Ruiz’s chapter provided a well-rounded transnational history that expanded on

the complicated, integrated relationship that both countries had with one another. He also

discussed class and gender in the context of smuggling. The chapter provided much information

about the various business endeavors that went on in the border region, and he presented

statistical information with the assistance of abundant charts and graphs.

While local residents consumed pulque, tequila, and other mescal wines in Mexico for

centuries, many scholars credited the Mexican Revolution, and Prohibition as two of the key

time periods that people brought these alcoholic drinks into the United States. Gabriela Recio’s

article discussed the increase of smuggling during the time frame of 1910-1930. While her

31 Francisco Javier Molina Ruiz. “Border Zone Dynamics.” Edited by John J. Bailey, and Roy Godson. Organized Crime & Democratic Governability: Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands. (Pittsburgh): University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000, 180.

32 Ruiz. “Border Zone Dynamics,” 182.

14

article was about the illegal transport of all contraband, alcohol, more specifically tequila, was a

major part of this.

Her transnational border history posited the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 caused

the creation of very profitable black markets in Mexico, which she estimated to be worth

millions.33 By sifting through numerous Secretary of State files, Department of State

documents, Internal Revenue Service papers, and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) files, Recio

strove to shed light on the longstanding complicated trade routes between Mexico and the

United States. Her research showed that a majority of illegal goods found their way to the

United States via Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.34 The article provided a good macro view of

illegal trade routes, but spread focus to all matter of contraband, not just alcohol.

Equally important to transportation networks, was how distilleries managed to produce

tequila so successfully in Mexico. In ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, the authors

discussed the agave plant’s biological and cultural history from the 1950’s to the early 2000’s.

Ana G. Valenzuela-Zapata, a botanist and Gary Paul Nathan, a historian teamed together to

study both sides of this issue. Analyzing the way locals cultivated agave, gave historians insight

into the specific traditions of Jalisco, and how commercialism affected it.35

They posited tequila transformed from a traditional Mexican beverage to a

transnationally known and consumed drink with the introduction of the margarita in the

1970’s. After Americans got a taste of tequila mixed with lime juice and orange liqueur,

33 Recio, Gabriela. “Drugs and Alcohol: US Prohibition and the Origins of the Drug Trade in Mexico, 1910-1930.” Journal of Latin American Studies. Vol. 34, No. 1. Cambridge University Press (February 2002), 27.

34 Recio. “Drugs and Alcohol,” 33. 35 Valenzuela-Zapata and Gary Paul Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History.

15

consumption in the United States doubled.36 Today tequila has a distinct place in popular

culture, and is found anywhere in the United States as a prominent representative of our

southern neighbor.

Researched using agricultural records, field experience and oral traditions, this book

contributed details about the farmers who grew agave for centuries, and how caring for the

plants was part of their bond with nature. It also communicated how commercial growers

jeopardized this delicate balance by trying to industrialize the growing process. In an attempt

to maximize their profits, companies commissioned entire fields to be planted with the same

strain of agave. When planted this way, it made it incredibly easy for bacterial infections to

spread, thus destroying an entire crop, and wasting several years’ worth of work.

Another method of examining the tequila industry was found in the book Holiday in

Mexico. The book in its entirety discussed tourism as a whole, but one chapter focused solely

on tequila. This chapter differed from the botany perspective as it lent insight into the tourism

industry. The chapter, “Jose Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm: Food, Drink, and the Touristic

Consumption of Mexico,” written by Jeffrey Pilcher delved into the specific consumption of

tequila by tourists in Mexico. The book served as a compendium of information because it

combined several different chapters on various spirits and food related to tourism in Mexico.

Pilcher’s chapter dealt solely with the consumption of tequila with respect to historical relations

with foreigners, and encompassed the time period slightly before the advent of tequila, in

36 Ibid., xxiii.

16

1857, up to present day.37 This history took the approach of a national history of Mexico with a

concentration on the business side of tourism.

In his chapter, Pilcher posited tequila was one of the many ways that Mexicans

simultaneously produced the ideas of culture and nation. By insistent marketing of tequila as

an authentic Mexican beverage, Mexicans promoted and projected an idea of their culture to

other countries. In doing so, however, Pilcher questioned the sincerity of the representation of

Mexican culture in the United States. He supported this idea by explaining the origin of the

worm found in the bottom of certain bottles of tequila, and how it was merely a gimmick

employed by manufacturers to market tequila to more Americans.38 Tequila became

synonymous with the culture of Mexico and this further represented the way that the tourism

industry commodified culture. Many tequila companies made a fortune in the way that they

marketed their products to consumers. According to most brands, tequila is essentially Mexico

in a bottle, readily available to drink or to be purchased as a souvenir.

However, Pilcher seemed to disagree with this notion by providing numerous examples

of products touted as being Mexican, but which had no actual roots in the country at all. He

cited non-ethnic businessmen Dave Pace and Elmer Doolin as prime examples. These two men

created the successful corporations of Pace Picante Sauce and Fritos corn chips, respectively.39

This showed that Mexicans were not the only ones capitalizing off products supposedly

representative of their culture. He also discussed how American culture created upscale

versions of Mexican cuisine, and the tequila industry responded to this by offering upscale

37 Pilcher. “Jose Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm,” 220. 38 Ibid,, 222. 39 Pilcher, “Jose Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm.” 228.

17

tequila. Some brands even compared their product to fine wine, and suggested it be consumed

in a similar fashion.40

These advances in the tequila industry, and the consumption of Mexican cuisine and

beverage as a whole, left Pilcher asking some larger questions about the future of Mexico. He

questioned whether this type of tourism was representative of the culture of Mexico, and if it

was sustainable at the rate it was currently occurring. Fellow authors Valenzuela-Zapata and

Nabhan, Marie Sarita Gaytán, and Sarah Bowen shared the concern for the economic future of

Mexico and the sustainability of the tequila and tourism industry.

Alcohol in Latin America also took a multi-layered approach to the study of the

production, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic drinks, including tequila. This book

featured chapters by different historians, and encompassed a large time period from the pre-

Columbian era to present day. Leaving no demographic unexplored, these chapters covered

what the elites thought about alcohol consumption, and how everyday people used the

beverages in their routines.

Chapters also featured women as prominent players in the alcohol industry, and Áurea

Toxqui discussed how female pulque sellers engaged in successful businesses alongside food

vendors. She explored the processes they went through during 1850-1910, to try to save their

businesses from liberal reforms that threatened their livelihoods. These women proved they

conducted their businesses as upstanding moral citizens by petitioning the Mexican

40 Ibid., 234.

18

government when they felt reforms would harm their businesses.41 Even though pulque is not

the same as tequila, the treatment of those that sold it by government officials was remarkably

similar. Mescal and tequila producers also faced restrictions on growth and sales by local and

federal governments in an attempt to discourage alcoholism.

José Orozco’s chapter entitled, “Tequila Sauza and the Redemption of Mexico’s Vital

Fluids, 1873-1970,” examined the differences between mescal and tequila and helped show

why tequila ultimately surpassed mescal in popularity. Orozco explored the general evolution of

tequila from mescal, and how tequila first made its way to the United States via Cenobio Sauza

in 1873. He did this by using a microhistory of the tequila industry told through the business of

the Sauza family. By using advertisements, interviews, and secondary literature, Orozco

completed his “quest to understand how tequila became Mexico’s national drink.”42

Orozco also began his chapter with a brief explanation of how tequila was produced,

and what actually differentiated it from mescal. Farmers made mescal from the distilled,

fermented juice of approximately 136 different variations of agave plants found throughout

Mexico, whereas farmers in the municipality of Tequila made tequila from one species of agave

plant, the Blue Weber agave plant.43 After explaining where and how people produced tequila,

Orozco branched out to discuss the families responsible for the manufacture, and distribution

of tequila.

41 Áurea Toxqui. “Breadwinners or Entrepreneurs? Women’s Involvement in the Pulquería World of Mexico City, 1850-1910.” In Alcohol in Latin America: A Social and Cultural History. Ed Gretchen Pierce and Áurea Toxqui. University of Arizona Press, 2014.

42 José Orozco. “Tequila Sauza and the Redemption of Mexico’s Vital Fluids, 1873-1970” in Alcohol in Latin America: A Social and Cultural History. Ed Gretchen Pierce and Áurea Toxqui. University of Arizona Press, 2014, 185-186.

43 Ibid., 186. Since his publication, the regulations on tequila production have shifted. Currently, tequila can be produced in five different states in Mexico.

19

The Sauza family, along with the Cuervo family, were two of the oldest manufacturers of

tequila. Orozco’s research also showed that Cenobio Sauza was the first person to legally

export tequila to El Paso del Norte in Texas in 1873.44 This helped cement the family’s

reputation as one of the most dominant tequila producers in Mexico, and their legacy

continued for three more generations. He also cited Prohibition as a massive turning point for

the tequila industry asserting that a significant expansion occurred during this time.45

In her chapter, Gretchen Pierce discussed the effect that Mexico’s anti-alcohol

campaigns had on the people that sold alcoholic beverages. She used a combination of

archives and government papers to form her research on different regulations that pulqueros,

cerveceros, and mescaleros experienced during the period of 1910-1940. In her national

history of political alcohol regulations, Pierce focused on the small producers and sellers, and

considers class and gender. While the United States experienced Prohibition, their southern

neighbors experienced a trend in temperance as well.46

Pierce cited many prestigious families traded pulque both legally and illegally because of

the stability it provided with its consistent demand. The poor people also sold liquor in their

communities as a way to make ends meet in an unstable economy. The anti-alcohol regulations

presented an extra risk to alcohol merchants because in some regions the production and sale

44 Ibid. 45 Ibid., 193. 46 Gretchen Pierce. “Pulqueros, Cerveceros, and Mezcaleros: Small Alcohol Producers and Popular

Resistance to Mexico’s Anti-Alcohol Campaigns, 1910–1940.” Alcohol in Latin America: A Social and Cultural History. Ed Gretchen Pierce and Áurea Toxqui. University of Arizona Press, 2014, 164-165.

20

of alcohol was illegal on both sides of the border.47 While the legality of alcohol was an issue in

Mexico, few merchants discontinued their businesses because the profits were too significant.

Another contributor to the historiography of tequila is historian Marie Sarita Gaytán. Her

book was a comprehensive history of tequila as it relates to the economy and culture of Mexico.

The book spanned from the Aztecs using pulque in ceremonial rituals up to modern-day

consumption. Much like Walton’s article, Gaytán captured the legends and rituals in which

pulque was used. However, her book took this research one step further by addressing more

cultural issues that assisted in building the industry. By examining the business of manufacturing

tequila, Gaytán provided insight into why tequila became the national drink of Mexico, and the

implications this had on the region of Jalisco as a whole.

She explored the success of tequila by looking at the concept of lo mexicano, which she

identified as the “idea, or fiction of a collective unified Mexican national consciousness.”48 She

believed Mexicans in cinema, literature, and radio perpetuated this collection of ideas. She

stated the origin for this phenomenon occurred after the revolutionaries overthrew Porfirio Díaz

was overthrown in 1911. This caused the country to search for ways to strengthen Mexican

identity. Her interpretation of the success of the tequila industry differed slightly from that of

Pilcher in the way that she placed more weight on the nationalistic surges that Mexico

experienced, instead of the consumption demand of the United States.

Gaytán furthered the common belief of tequila representing the masculinity and strength

of Mexico by examining the film industry. Advertisers soon marketed tequila through the

47 Ibid., 169. 48 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 6.

21

entertainment industry via various different methods. Films produced during the Golden Age of

Mexican cinema, which ranged from approximately 1936-1959, showed every male character

drinking tequila. Films showed charros, rancheros, and casanovas all swigging from tequila jugs

to prove their masculinity. The charro was a national figure who emerged during the Porfiriato as

a hero that represented manliness, nationality, and power all in one package. Filmmakers

immortalized this image in movies that portrayed a more romanticized version of Mexico,

typically using Jalisco as a backdrop.49

Advertisements depicted men drinking tequila as being heroic and brave, while the

women who accompanied them were demure and chaste.50 Where native women consumed

pulque for centuries without stigma, people considered women who drank tequila masculine and

looked down upon by males in society. This came as no surprise however, considering elites

always frowned upon consumption of alcohol by females.51

The gender approach to the consumption of tequila was a complicated one and differs

depending on what side of the border it was viewed from. While residents of both Mexico and

the United States viewed the advertisements Gaytán spoke of, Prohibition in the United States

changed the way society saw female drinking. When Prohibition forced the consumption of

alcohol in the United States underground, women found more opportunity to consume it. People

often consumed alcohol in someone’s home which implied a domesticity drinking in public

49 Ibid., 49. 50 Ibid., 9. 51 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 25.

22

lacked.52 So while advertisements portrayed Mexican women as models of temperance, the

women in the United States often drank alongside their husbands.

Gaytán also published an article with fellow historian Sarah Bowen about the effects of

neoliberalism on the tequila industry. They cited many changes that occurred with the

regulations in tequila policies that the neoliberal government obscured. Examining changes in

regulatory policies from the 1970’s to present day, the two authors showed a transnational

political and economic history.53

Their article showed that by consistently promoting tequila as Mexico’s national drink of

choice, the Mexican government essentially “de-Mexicanized” the tequila industry. What was

previously known as an industry founded on the strength of local communities, and produced

according to the ancient traditions of indigenous people is now increasingly influenced by

multinational companies. By using their wealth, these corporations succeeded in asserting

control over regulatory committees, local communities, and the direction that the industry took

as a whole. They cited that these changes happened due to the broader implications of

neoliberal politics.

George T. Díaz continued the study of borderland smuggling and contraband in his book of

regional, transnational history that encompassed the decades from 1900 to present day. His

smuggling history concentrated more on the broader area of all contraband, but still contained

vital information pertaining to tequila. He explored the rampant alcohol smuggling that occurred

52 Pilcher. “Jose Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm,” 233. 53 Marie Sarita Gaytán and Sarah Bowen. “Naturalizing Neoliberalism and the De-Mexicanization of the

Tequila Industry.” Environment and Planning A. 2015, vol. 47, 267–283.

23

during the United States Prohibition, as well as the shift from alcohol to drugs. Díaz’s

concentration on a macro-history of smuggling was informative for a broad audience, but left

some of the details of the distribution of tequila open for interpretation.

Society mostly accepted the smuggling of tequila and mescal in the early 1900’s. If law

enforcement apprehended a smuggler, the court considered the scale of their operation, method

of transport, and their gender. If the offender was a female whose operation was small and

transportation was nonviolent, the courts often released them. They also released ill or elderly if

they were caught transporting illegal substances.54 This leniency allowed for many poor

Mexicans to support themselves and their families without fear of ruining their reputation.

Even after the prosecution of illegal trafficking increased, females circumvented

apprehension quite easily because the area lacked female custom agents. Laredo did not

receive their first female customs agent until 1913, and many stations did not get one until

much later.55 This freedom allowed females to hide contraband, like tequila, under their

clothing without being detected.

Over time intricate, illegal trade routes formed between Mexico and the United States.

Tequileros would smuggle tequila, using pack animals, across the border where they handed it

off to Tejanos, who sold the tequila wholesale to Anglo bootleggers. These bootleggers then

transported the tequila to major demand centers such as San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Houston,

and Dallas for distribution.56 Díaz posits that the complexity of these routes implied that the

54 George T. Díaz. Border Contraband: A History of Smuggling across the Rio Grande. Austin: University of Texas Press. 2015, location 1314-1321.

55 Díaz. Border Contraband, location 1326. 56 Ibid., location 1829-2086.

24

organized trafficking of alcohol occurred during Prohibition, and that these routes remained

intact for later use with drug cartels.

For a more cultural approach to the study of tequila and its consumption there is

Deborah Toner’s book, which examined the conflict between the consumption of alcohol as a

form of nationalism and patriotism, and as a disease which hindered the progress of the nation.

She researched this social and cultural history by using archival records, government papers,

and art work. Her book primarily featured the views of the intellectual, political, and economic

elite.57 The elites often overestimated their own importance in society and tended to

exaggerate the negative effects of alcohol in the nation.

Toner stated that a lot of information can be gleaned by studying the way a society

consumes their alcohol. Her research, like Gaytán’s upheld the idea of tequila and masculinity

as being inexplicably intertwined. The idea of tequila as a national construct became

prominent through the use of fictional literature and film. She came to the conclusion that the

government used the representation and consumption of tequila as a traditional Mexican drink

as a form of nation-building tool.

The last book featured in this historiography covered the time span from the first known

usage of agave to produce a beverage up until modern day. Ian Williams concentrated on

tequila from a global viewpoint and provided a history of tequila as a national business

commodity. He pointed out that other spirits are produced in multiple locations, but tequila is

an anomaly in the fact that it was the only spirit to be produced solely in Mexico.

57 Deborah Toner. Alcohol and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Mexico. University of Nebraska Press, 2015.

25

The first chapter of this book laid out the basic history of tequila by beginning with

ceremonial uses of pulque by the Aztecs and the eventual formation of tequila as its own

variety of mescal. The majority of this book, however, concentrated on the modern history of

tequila in the twentieth century. Williams discussed the industry and its growth from a

backwater, small-town beverage to a beverage now known and consumed across the globe.

Williams noted how as of late a trend emerged of companies changing focus from

producing large quantities of average quality tequila to producing small quantities of luxury

brand tequilas. By increasing the quality of tequila and the amount of time they are aged,

companies have greater profit margins than those with more massively produced brands. The

tequila industry currently directly employs 30,000 people in the Jalisco region.58 This trend

inspired changes in the mescal industry as well. Growers in Oaxaca and the vicinity formed

their own regulatory committees in the same vein as the tequila industry. Each region that has

produced mescal for centuries wanted to have the same success as the growers in the Jalisco

region.

There is still an abundance of information to be uncovered about tequila, such as the

extent of the affect consumerism had on the nation of Mexico, and the small native businesses

that struggled to survive in regions like Jalisco and Oaxaca. These sources presenedt a starting

point for further research on tequila’s ability to assist Mexico in building a national identity.

Each source provided a slightly different view on how tequila impacted the Mexican people and

58 Williams, Ian. Tequila. A Global History. London: Reaction Books Ltd, 2015.

26

their economy, culture in the United States, and global trade. The production, distribution, and

consumption of tequila affected the culture, politics, economy, and foreign relations of Mexico.

27

CHAPTER II

THE MYTH OF THE MAGUEY

This chapter discusses tequila, its many myths, and its origins from the maguey, or

agave plant. These myths often circulated via marketing campaigns from specific tequila

companies, or tourism advertising promoted by the tourism industry and the Consejo

Regulador del Tequila (CRT). Thoughts of tequila, its consumption, and history conjured

different memories from different people in both the United States and Mexico. The prevalent

themes found in the popular culture version of tequila’s history were the legend of the Aztec

goddess Mayahuel, the vital role the jimador played in creating this spirit, and the feeling of lo

mexicano as it contributed to the assertion of tequila as the ‘Spirit of Mexico.’

These common misconceptions about tequila included the history of the Aztec goddess

Mayahuel and how locals believed she made agave and by proxy, tequila available to them for

their enjoyment. Various entities such as tequila companies, the CRT, and the tourist industry

often repurposed her story. Many prominent brands featured the occupation of the jimador as

a group of people endowed with safeguarding the integrity of the industry. However, this

occupation greatly changed throughout the years. Other sources, more notably Deborah Toner

and María Sarita Gaytán, credited the feeling of lo mexicano as created in part by tequila.

Finally, most tequila companies, and drinkers referred to the beverage as being the ‘Spirit of

Mexico’ as they claimed it is the one true, authentic product that fully embodied Mexican

culture.59

59 Williams. Tequila, 5. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 109. Toner, Alcohol and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, 75-76.

28

The examination of these three major components of tequila folklore, showed that

these constructs set forth by the tequila industry and other government agencies were not truly

representative of the Mexican culture. The growth of the industry did not occur because of the

production of an authentic Mexican product, but as a result of favored emerging and

established neoliberal administrations in the late twentieth century that attempted to cement

Mexico globally in an advantageous economic position. With the passage and implementation

of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) starting in 1994, the United States, along

with other countries gained increased access to Mexican resources. Once other countries

obtained ownership in the tequila industry, tequila stopped being an authentic Mexican

beverage, and transitioned to being another international industry exploited for profit.60

Mayahuel, Goddess of Agave

One of the oldest myths that surrounded tequila was that of the Aztec goddess

Mayahuel. Originally worshipped by the Aztecs circa the fourteenth and fifteenth century, she

was the goddess of what the indigenous people called the maguey plant, or agave plant. The

deity’s popularity recently experienced a comeback and started trending again in 2006. Her

involvement in the tequila industry was a quite recent phenomenon.61 When discussing the

history of the $2.7 billion tequila industry, tequila aficionados often conjured her name. Seen by

many tequila enthusiasts as the Aztec goddess of tequila, they celebrated her throughout the

industry. There was even a restaurant as far away as New York City whose namesake is

60 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 105. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 118. 61 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 106. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location

160 of 4755. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 96.

29

Mayahuel. The trendy lounge featured upscale food and an equal blend of tequila and mescal

based drinks. The tequila and tourism industries often used the story of Mayahuel in the

history of the spirit in order to link the beverage to the traditional past and ancient heritage of

Mexico. Some saw this tie to the past as a way that the authenticity of tequila further cemented

itself in a consumer culture that lately became fascinated with cultural commodification.62

However, there was a fallacy in the claims that Mayahuel was the goddess of tequila

and played an intricate part in the history of the beverage. Mayahuel and the religious rituals

that surround her existed long before the production of tequila. The ancient Aztecs, who

worshipped Mayahuel, along with numerous other deities, did not drink tequila. In fact, the

ability to distill liquor did not reach Mexico until approximately the sixteenth century. Aztecs

consumed pulque, fermented sap from the agave plant.63 Said to be the goddess of fertility and

agave, Mayahuel’s story varied based on which historical religious text, or tequila history is

consulted.

The most popular version of her story originated with her caught in the crossfire of a

war that occurred between the god Quetzalcóatl and the evil goddess of the sky, Tzitzimitl.

Existing religious writings said Quetzalcóatl journeyed to the sky to kill Tzitzimitl and end their

feud. When he could not find her, he stole her granddaughter, Mayahuel, instead. Claiming his

love for her, he then hid her on Earth by disguising her as a tree. Tzitzimitl descended to Earth

searching for her and uncovered their plot. In a fit of rage she split the tree in half, killing

Mayahuel. Outraged Quetzalcóatl murdered Tzitzimitl and then buried Mayahuel. From her

62 Williams. Tequila, 5. $2.7 billion was the estimated industry worth in 2009. 63 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 108. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location

54 out of 4755. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 15.

30

burial site the first agave plant grew, and when harvested, it produced a sweet nectar like

honey, and locals used its leaves to make walls, plates and paper.64

Later, it they found this nectar tasted even better once it fermented. They produced

this crudely made beverage by letting the plant nectar sit and ferment. Then they consumed it

without being distilled. The end result was a thick, milky liquid with a slightly sour taste and a

phlegmy texture.65 Pulque retained many of the original nutrients found in the agave plant

itself, and was full of necessary vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin B, and carbohydrates. This

proved to be essential to the community because it provided them with nourishment when

other sources of nutrients were scarce.66

Since it came from a plant instead of an animal, it was an affordable way for many

people living in poverty to provide for themselves and their families. However, pulque still

retained alcoholic properties and remained greatly regulated by indigenous officials. Common

consumers were the elderly and pregnant women because of the extra nutritional benefits the

vitamins provided them. The consumption of pulque for other than strictly nourishment was

traditionally reserved for use in religious ceremonies by religious leaders. Pulque played such a

64 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 19, 106-107. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 300-337 out of 4755. Eloise Quiñones Keber. “Mayahuel and Maguey: Sustenance and Sacrifice in an Aztec Myth.” Latin American Indian Literatures Journal. Vol. 5, No. 2. Pennsylvania (Fall 1989), 73. Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. ”Mayahuel” London: Thames & Hudson. 1993, 112. Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. “Maguey.” London: Thames & Hudson. 1993, 108. Williams. Tequila, 54-55.

65 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 20. 66 Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated

Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. “Pulque.” London: Thames & Hudson. 1993, 138. Williams. Tequila, 49.

31

vital role in the lives of the ancient Mexicans of central Mexico that the drink had its own circle

of gods which were collectively known as Centzontotochtin, or the 400 rabbits.67

In addition to Aztecs conducting rituals using pulque, other peoples such as the Mixtecs

and the Zapotecs from Oaxaca produced it as well. While biologists date agave plants as far

back as ten million years ago, the research conducted showed the Zapotec civilization was the

earliest recorded group of people that used the plant in their daily lives. These cultures all

collected agave from the wild and used the fermented sap as part of their daily lives. During

exploration and after the Conquest, the perceived perpetual state of drunkenness by the

natives initially shocked and appalled the Spanish. At first the Spanish crown sought to ban

pulque altogether as a way to promote their own spirits through trade and commerce, and

dominate the people they considered savage. 68

However, pulque was such an integral part of life among the indigenous peoples that in

1795 Spanish King Carlos IV realized instead of spending time and resources trying to prohibit it,

they could use its popularity to generate income. He began taxation on the beverage as early

as the mid-seventeenth century.69 While taxing pulque led producers to skirt the law and

created a substantial market for pulque that bypassed the existing tax laws. The revenue

pulque brought into the government coffers was still very significant because it paid for colonial

administrative expenses including war, street maintenance and repair, and prison employee

67 Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. “Rabbit.” London: Thames & Hudson. 1993, 142. Williams. Tequila, 52.

68 Miller and Taube. “Pulque,” 138. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 19. Williams. Tequila, 30. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 158 of 4755.

69 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 415 out of 4755. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 25.

32

salaries, among other things. This marked the beginning of government involvement in the

distribution of beverages made from the agave plant.70

Mayahuel was an autonomous Aztec deity that symbolized the importance of pulque in

society. She was not a part of Spanish colonial culture, or the mestizo culture that developed as

colonization occurred. As previously mentioned, the distillation of tequila did not occur until

almost one hundred years after the height of the Aztec reign. Also, the Aztecs had very little, if

any control over the area that became the town of Tequila, or the larger region that is currently

known as Jalisco and the Amatitán Valley. Thus the worship of Mayahuel did not have any

strong ties to the community living there by the turn of the seventeenth century.71 Therefore,

while Mayahuel arguably was as a prominent figure in the history of pulque, she did not really

affect the history of tequila as much as the tequila industry would like consumers to believe in

contemporary society.

Also, after the introduction of Catholicism to the Post-classic Central Mexico region the

Aztecs governed, many people that included Mayahuel in their constellation of gods,

transitioned to worshipping the Virgin of Guadalupe.72 The worship and popularity of

Mayahuel, along with other Aztec gods dwindled as religious doctrine and practices shifted

toward Catholicism. Some even meshed characteristics of the goddess with the Virgin of

70 Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 423 out of 4755. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 29.

71 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 111. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 18 out of 4755.

72 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 109. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 22 out of 4755.

33

Guadalupe. As early as 1772, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe surfaced with the rays of light

surrounding the virgin being depicted as agave leaves.73

Eventually iconography of the goddess disappeared completely, and by the time tequila

became widely known and marketed in Jalisco, and throughout Mexico circa the 1950’s,

Mayahuel was a remote icon of the past. Until she resurfaced in the modern marketing

strategies of neoliberalized tequila companies, the public only knew and associated her with

pulque, not tequila. With the political neoliberal shift, which is discussed extensively in the

following chapter, companies resuscitated past icons, such as Mayahuel and sought to sell the

culture of Mexico to foreign consumers via the tequila industry. The tequila and tourism

industries promoted Mayahuel as representative of how important ancient myth and religion

was to Mexican culture.74

Despite the lack of Mayahuel’s involvement with tequila, she still received credit in the

industry, primarily from the CRT. In the book Tequila por Quien Lo Hace, the CRT classified itself

as the “Guardians of the Heritage of Mexico and Its People.”75 They considered her an

important part of the history of tequila and the CRT pushed for Mexican consumers to

celebrate and explore their history by purchasing tequila. By using iconography of Mayahuel in

tequila advertisements and travel brochures, the tequila and tourism industries targeted both

Mexican and Mexican-American travelers by inviting them to reconnect with their new fictional

history.

73 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 109. 74 Tequila Por Quien Lo Hace. Edited by Abad, Elvira. Rotomagno, S.A de C.V. July 2010, 22. 75 Ibid., 8.

34

Many images of Mayahuel, in multiple mediums adorned the walls in the Te Quiero

Tequila museum located in Guadalajara. These ranged from paintings that depicted her among

agave plants, to statues, all of which the museum commissioned Mexican artists to create. The

museum, situated in an older house outside the historical district, claimed to house the largest

collection of tequila in the world. The museum also sold tequila and promoted a specific brand

each week. The tour guide explained the different types of tequila, distillation process, and

ageing process, but also focused on Mayahuel. The museum contained an entire room devoted

to the goddess and the tour guide carefully explained the legend of Mayahuel and insisted that

she was one of the main reasons consumers were able to enjoy tequila today.76

Surprisingly though, further imagery and discussion of Mayahuel outside the museum

was scarce. While books and articles found in the United States about tequila contained plenty

of references to her, locally she was almost non-existent. This furthered the idea that the use of

the story and iconography of Mayahuel was a construct of the tequila industry’s marketing

strategy to sell the culture of Mexico abroad, along with tequila.

The tour of the distillery at Tequila Sauza, featured a mural completed in the 1950’s by

Gabriel Flores that illustrated the creation and subsequent effects of tequila, as seen in Figure

2. However, the mural, along with other areas showcased during the tour contained no imagery

of her, nor did the tour guide mention her at all during the portion of the tour that contained a

brief history about tequila. The guide instead focused on the company’s own history,

76 Research trip to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to visit sites where tequila is produced and consumed. [March 17-20, 2016.]

35

contributions to the industry, and the ways that Sauza differentiated themselves from the

competition.77

Figure 2: The Gabriel Flores mural at Tequila Sauza. Photo by author.

Public spaces in the City of Guadalajara lacked any Mayahuel iconography, as well. The

City of Guadalajara, by its proximity to Tequila traditionally served as a transportation, and

more recently a tourist hub. The most prevalent historical figure in the greater Guadalajara

area appeared to be Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who was one of the leading figures of

Mexican Independence. Murals and statues abounded in the city, as well as in the neighboring

artisanal town of Tlaquepaque. Artist José Orozco greatly publicized Father Miguel Hidalgo and

his legacy in numerous murals in the Instituto Cultural Cabañas and the Palacio de Gobierno.

Other artists memorialized different contemporary heroes at the monument Rotonda de Los

77 Research trip to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to visit sites where tequila is produced and consumed. [March 17-20, 2016.]

36

Jaliscienses Ilustres, which showcased the people that Jaliscienses feel influenced their lives the

most.78

Ancient, indigenous representations in the city were not lacking, they just did not

include Mayahuel. Imagery of the Aztec god Quetzalcóatl occurred throughout the city of

Guadalajara, especially at the Plaza Tapatía, which featured a large statue and fountain of the

god. While the tequila and tourism industries focused on the legacy of Mayahuel and

emphasized her importance in Mexican culture, artwork and public imagery in the city of

Guadalajara and the surrounding towns of Tequila and Tlaquepaque did not indicate that is the

case. While historical landmarks showed that heritage was important to locals, the legacy of

Mayahuel was not as common in this region of Jalisco, or Mexico as the literature about her

indicated.79

Gaytán cited the reason for Mayahuel’s involvement in the tequila industry as part of

the “hacienda fantasy” that large tequila companies created for marketing purposes.80 She

explained the “hacienda fantasy” as a manufactured history that promoted the people that

produced tequila as adhering to a certain lifestyle, and portrayed them as following a specific

set of beliefs and values in order to assist in the commodification of Mexican heritage as an

instrument for generating corporate profits.

She described this fantasy as full of paradoxes because the Guadalajara Chamber of

Commerce used, “reincarnated landscapes and fictitious figures that obscured realities of

78 Research trip to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to visit sites where tequila is produced and consumed. [March 17-20, 2016.]

79 Ibid. 80 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 91. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location

2472 out of 4755. Tequila Por Quien Lo Hace, 22.

37

modernization and economic struggles.”81 Mayahuel contributed to this fantasy because she

helped transport people back in time to a more traditional Mexico, whose actual history is

mostly obscured and one which consumers were mostly unaware. The industry relied on the

naiveté of consumers in order to impart their own manufactured history onto the public and

increase revenue in the process. The inclusion of Mayahuel in the story of tequila, and the

belief that consumers were purchasing an authentic Mexican product increased due to the

long-standing history of the Aztecs.

Los jimadores, The Caretakers of Agave

Traditionally, only one group of people was responsible for the growth, maintenance,

and harvesting of agave plants. Called jimadores, these men dedicated their lives to producing

the best agave plants possible. Tequila companies credit the dedication of their jimadores with

their tequila’s success almost as much as they do their agave and distillation method. The

jimador historically had the final say when it came to the proper care of the plants as they grew,

all the way through to deciding when was the perfect time to harvest each plant. The value of

the jimador was so critical that Herradura even produced a 100 percent blue agave tequila in

1994 called El Jimador.82 Much like Mayahuel, the veneration of the jimador as a cultural icon

was a recent emergence, with the first reference found in a 1983 Tequila Sauza coffee table

book that documented the heritage of the company.

81 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 95. Martineau. How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 2484 out of 4755. Toner. Alcohol and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, 75-76.

82 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 53. Williams. Tequila, 110.

38

Often on distillery tours, the jimador was one of the few employees that visitors met

other than the tour guide.83 The guide presented him to the group typically as a middle-aged,

friendly, knowledgeable man with whom the distillery entrusted their crop. The guide

emphasized the amount of physical labor that went into the harvest and explained how the

jimador dedicated his life to working in the fields to not only produce high-quality agaves, but

to support his family as well. Typically such tours included the jimador demonstrating how to

properly trim a piña, as seen in Figure 3. The jimador was seen as a physical embodiment of the

traditional Mexican values; hard work, family, and unity, that go into producing tequila.84

Figure 3: A coa and a freshly trimmed agave piña. Photo by author.

83 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 99. 84 Ibid., 100-103. Research trip to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to visit sites where tequila is produced and

consumed. [March 17-20, 2016.]

39

Before the popularity of tequila soared, the occupation of a jimador mirrored the

previous story. Jimadores spent a majority of their lives working the same fields for the same

distilleries, and remained well-versed in the art of planting and growing thriving agave plants.

The local community considered being a jimador a noble career which workers passed down

through the generations. The belief was that they imparted their knowledge onto their sons

who then continued the successful growth and harvest of agave. These men donned all white

clothing, as was typical of the Mexican campesino, or peasant, to attempt to stay cool in the hot

agave fields, and began work early in the morning. A typical day in the life of a jimador included

workers spending the day doing a variety of activities that ranged from planting new crops,

inspecting the plants for pests, selecting some to prune, and ultimately harvesting the ones that

were deemed ready.85

However, since the rampant industrialization of the production process during the

Porfiriato, the role of a jimador today is drastically different. While major companies such as

Cuervo, Herradura, and Sauza showed visitors the importance of the jimador to the industry,

they very rarely portrayed an accurate picture. The job was no longer exclusively a

generational job, as many companies were no longer owned and administered by individual

families, but by impersonal transnational liquor conglomerates.86 The switch to these larger

owners, which began during the Porfiriato, stalled during isolationist policies that followed his

regime. After neoliberalism took hold in the 1980’s, larger companies became more wide

85 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 102. Williams. Tequila, 34. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila. Location 1419 out of 4755.

86 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 104.

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spread which created a switch in values too, where companies concerned themselves more

with ways to increase production, cut costs, and raise profits.

Industry changes also led to a decrease in existing jobs, or changes from full-time to

part-time positions. This caused many families to migrate to urban areas where they had a

better chance of securing sustainable and better paid work. The increase in demand from the

U.S. in the 1960’s initiated one of these changes, and caused wide scale mechanization of a

majority of factories. The introduction of more machinery to the cooking and distilling

processes increased production and reduced expenses. Companies cooked agave faster,

distilled it faster, and did so with less oversight. Changes in the way agave grew also reduced

job opportunities. Companies brought fertilization techniques and herbicides into the growing

process. Growers cloned agave plants instead of leaving them to flower and reproduce

naturally, as seen in Figure 4.87

Figure 4: A rare agave plant that was allowed to flower in the Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla International Airport. Photo by author.

87 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 105. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 54.

41

Jimadores still retained some of their traditional job roles during the shift to distilleries

owned by corporations, but their overall role changed. Companies relied on biologists and

chemicals for increased production more so than the wisdom of the jimador. The demographic

of the average jimador changed as well. The average pay remained the same from 2000 to

2012, and job responsibilities became more strenuous, which lowered the average age the

workers retired, and as a whole made this job only for the most physically fit.88 This shift in

occupational status was fairly recent as implied by the information in Ana Valenzuela-Zapata

and Gary Paul Nabhan’s book, published in 2003. When they wrote, the occupation of jimador

was still a decent way for men of all ages to make a living, not just the single men who were the

most physically fit.89 In works published since then, the change from noble sage to migrant

worker was most noticeable.

Most jimadores were young men who worked the fields in groups of ten to fifteen in

what are called cuadrillas. Sometimes they worked the same fields every day, but mostly they

went where they were hired. They also no longer wore classical, stark white uniforms either.

Agave fields were home to snakes and scorpions, therefore most modern jimadores protect

themselves with thick jeans, work boots, and shin guards.90

An average day for the cuadrilla began at around 5:30 in the morning, and lasted

anywhere from eight to twelve hours, depending on the harvest size. The men did all of the

88 Bowen. Divided Spirits: Tequila, 115-117. 89 Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 43-44. 90 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 99-100. Research trip to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to

visit sites where tequila is produced and consumed. [March 17-20, 2016.] Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 34.

42

cutting and harvesting by hand and then manually carried the agaves, which weighed

approximately 100 to 200 pounds each, to the truck. After the harvest was complete, the men

must unload the truck and split the piñas before their day was complete. For their work, they

got paid $15 pesos for every kilogram that they brought in, which was the industry average for

the past twelve years. An average cuadrilla can harvest three tons of agave per person per day,

which would bring their daily wage to $32 US dollars.91

Author Sarah Bowen argued their pay was horribly low, and in her book she conducted

numerous interviews with those that worked the fields and they all lamented how difficult it

was to support their families with these low wages.92 Some of the men cannot even work as

jimadores full-time, but instead found work only two or three days out of the week. For the

rest of their income, they followed the harvesting season of various crops, or looked for other,

lower paying positions within the industry such as fumigating crops, to supplement their

income.93

In response to the industry boom in the 1990’s, some tequila corporations also

imported manual laborers from nearby Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state. Due to the state of the

economy in Chiapas, these estimated 1200 workers, used to working for extremely low wages,

came to work the fields. The tequila companies increased their profits by further propagating

91 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 115-117. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 99. Walton. “The Evolution and Localization of Mezcal and Tequila in Mexico,” 114.

92 However, the occupation of jimador is still higher paying occupation than the 2015 Mexican daily minimum wage. In Guadalajara this rate amounted to what exchanged to 4.69 US dollars, as reported by the Mexican Gulf Reporter.

93 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 118.

43

this low wage system.94 The previous jimador system, which employed mostly local workers,

funneled money back into Jalisco’s economy, but this newer method increased profits for

foreign corporations while providing substandard wages for their non-Jalisciense employees.

This method of increasing profits by employing laborers who were not as educated about the

cultivation of agave, pushed the industry farther away from its roots and corporate public

relations notwithstanding, contradicted the role of the jimador as one steeped in tradition.

Despite these differences, the cultural entity of the jimador still resonated with modern

tequila consumers, and was a valuable part of the industry’s marketing campaign. Numerous

companies’ websites boasted that their brand was cultivated with the upmost care and

knowledge in order to produce the most superior tequila.95 The description of the middle-aged,

hardworking, compliant indigenous jimador provided a sense of nostalgia to tequila consumers

south of the border. It also implied an enhanced level of quality to the American who was

sipping an exoticized tequila that they believe experts with familial ties to the plants harvested.

Using the jimador as a marketing technique was another way the tequila corporations sold

nostalgia, much like they achieved with the marketing of Mayahuel as the goddess of tequila.

Lo mexicano and the Spirit of Mexico

Imagery of tequila abounded, and it often included strong, virile men consuming the

beverage before they rode off into the sunset to defend Mexico’s honor. This idea of tequila

94 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 105. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 118. 95 Beam Suntory. “Our Heritage.” Beam Suntory about History. Last modified 2015. Accessed April 1, 2015.

www.beamsuntory.com/about/history. Clase Azul. “Tequila Clase Azul.” Last modified 2012. Accessed May 17, 2016. www.claseazul.com. Mundo Cuervo. “More Than 250 Years of History.” About Cuervo. Accessed April 1, 2015. www.josecuervoexpress.com/en/sobre-cuervo/250-anos-de-historia.html.

44

promoting masculinity and embodying the true spirit of Mexico pervaded the history and

marketing of the spirit. Depending on what source one consulted, the validity of these beliefs

were drawn into question. According to the tequila companies and the CRT, this was absolutely

true. However, if one consulted the Mexicans in the agave-growing and tequila producing

regions, or historical texts, the theory falls profoundly short.

Gaytán defined lo mexicano as, “an idea, or fiction of a collective unified Mexican

national consciousness.”96 Many saw this idea as necessary to the successful development of a

unified Mexican nation. The movement to create a unified, strong Mexican country occurred

due to the internal struggles that Mexico experienced from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

During the rule of Porfirio Díaz, from 1876 to 1911, the revolutionaries who fought against Díaz

emerged as national heroes. Research showed that Díaz publicly praised the mestizo

population as a progression of the blend of Spanish and indigenous culture, when in reality his

programs and land policies tended to favor the elites and corporations.97

A charro was a masculine figure that worked on a hacienda as a farmer, or cowboy, and

some of these men later joined the fight against Díaz. The Mexican Golden Age in the 1940’s

and 1950’s produced films that romanticized their lives. Literature presented the stories if

charros as well, and often these stories promoted traditional gender roles and emphasized the

importance of the male as the protector and provider of their family and country.98 Their

96 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 6. 97 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 36. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location

1337 out of 4755. 98 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 50. Toner, Alcohol and Nationhood in Nineteenth-

Century Mexico, 75-76. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 14.

45

identity of being strong revolutionaries who assisted in the fight against the inequalities they

faced became greatly intertwined with images of manhood and power.99

When the Porfiriato ended in 1911 with the overthrow of Díaz and the end of the Mexican

Revolution occurred in 1920, Mexicans looked for a common thread that united them as a nation.

Officials sought different ways to encourage unity among the people of this fragile country. The

people looked towards local themes and issues to attempt to find something truly Mexican they

could call their own, and one of those common threads was tequila.100 Agave grew only in

Mexico, and at the time, people only produced tequila in Jalisco, so the spirit was definitely

unique to the country.

Also, numerous corridos, or ballads, featured soldiers drinking tequila. Corridos were folk

performances people used to communicate common ideas about, and to illustrate the

resistance.101 Mescal, not just tequila, was representative of the poor and middle-classes. While

elites could afford imported alcohol and food items from other countries, these lower classes

experimented with local ingredients and beverages. Thus, mescal became a common thread

among non-elites that they shared during the Porfiriato, the revolution, and establishment of a

united Mexico.102 Soon, Mexicans believed tequila to be a popular beverage that could unite the

nation.

99 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 49. Toner, Alcohol and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, 73. Pilcher. “Jose Cuervo and the Gentrified Worm,” 222.

100 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 9. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 19.

101 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 52. 102 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 2-3, 21. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 37.

46

The large number of Mexicans who migrated north to the United States in the early

twentieth century bolstered this belief. When mining and railroad work decreased, foreign

investors laid off Mexican workers. This caused the disenfranchised workers to seek employment

elsewhere, and many migrated to the United States, often times aggressively recruited by

industrial and agricultural employers. These people brought their own culture and thoughts

about alcoholic beverages with them to their new homes. Tequila enabled them to also bring a

piece of Mexico with them as they moved away from their native country.103

How did tequila, and not mescal or pulque become the country’s national beverage?

Tequila, then produced only in the state of Jalisco, represented the in the entire country despite

the fact that it is now produced in five. Of all of the states in Mexico, Jalisco involved itself the

least in the revolution. As a whole, the state was very conservative, and not actively a part of

overthrowing Díaz. Pulque tied Mexicans to their roots and broadcasted their rich history. If not

pulque, surely mescal embodied a much wider sector of the Mexican population, and was more

popular than tequila, with Mexicans.

While pulque, at one time could have won the title of “the spirit of Mexico,” it did not

measure up in a modern society for several reasons. First, it could not withstand transportation

conditions. Typically pulque soured shortly after it was made, possessing a shelf-life of three

days. Thus it was necessary for people to consume pulque locally, close to its point of origin.

This made exportation to nearby states and the United States by rail impossible. The beverage

103 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 58.

47

soured before it even reached its destination.104 In order to promote the unity of Mexico via a

beverage, Mexicans needed an exportable product. Mexicans needed something bottled and

easily transported when they travelled north, across the border.

Another reason why pulque could not compete with tequila was that it was not as

marketable as tequila. Pulque was bitter and harsh tasting in comparison to the smooth, citrus

flavor of tequila. Elites drank imported spirits from Europe, or whiskey from the United States

because of the nature of production. They considered the distillation process to be somewhat

modern. Many of them thought of pulque as an old-fashioned drink that represented the pre-

Columbian past they worked so hard to forget. The temperance movement in the early 1900’s

did not wholly stop the consumption of alcohol, but elites used it to classify some alcohol, such as

tequila and beer, as appropriate, and to malign others, such as pulque as inappropriate. To them,

pulque was déclassé. It represented another source of conflict between the modernity they were

trying to create, and the backwards way of the indigenous people they viewed as holding them

back.105

If pulque was not fit to be the spirit of Mexico, at the time Mexicans certainly consumed

mescal more widely than tequila. Theoretically, it represented a wider sector of the Mexican

population and mescal did not focused solely on those from Jalisco. However, some considered

mescal still to be not modern enough to be representative of the new country they wanted to

104 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 37. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 110 of 4755.

105 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 32. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 452 of 4755. Toner, Alcohol and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, 193.

48

build.106 Tequila appeared more mainstream and modern because of the production and

distillation process it underwent in comparison to that of mescal. People produced mescal

produced in underground ovens and only distilled it once, whereas tequila traditionally roasted in

brick ovens and producers distilled it at least twice, if not more.107 This difference in production,

along with certain tequilas being aged in barrels, closely aligned tequila with the imported spirits

that Mexicans typically consumed.

Tequila, however, was something that elites related to, and it was familiar to most

Mexicans. Even though distilleries for it only existed in Jalisco, people living in other states heard

of the beverage. It was a distilled spirit, like their other drinks of choice, and most preferred the

taste over pulque. The taste of tequila was so recognizable by those who consumed imported

spirits that at first, Tequila Sauza marketed it as Mexican whiskey.108 Then owner, Cenobio Sauza,

as previously noted, exported tequila to the United States first in 1873 via El Paso del Norte,

which is currently known as Cuidad Juárez.109 He also took his tequila to Chicago’s World Fair in

1893 to officially introduce the spirit globally, where it won international recognition. Sauza

showcased the spirit again in San Antonio in 1910 under the name of ‘mescal wine.’110 The close

association of tequila with other distilled liquors gave tequila an international advantage that

pulque did not acquire.

The area that produced tequila in also influenced its popularity. The valley that agave

grew in and the surrounding areas of Jalisco quickly became more industrialized and modern.

106 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 32. 107 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 3. 108 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 40. 109 Williams. Tequila, 107. Orozco. “Tequila Sauza and the Redemption of Mexico’s Vital Fluids,” 186. 110 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 4. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 110 of 4755.

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Investors purchased property to build distilleries on the affordable land found in Jalisco. In 1830,

only nine distilleries existed in the area, including those owned by Cuervo, Orendain, and Sauza.

By 1897, records showed forty-five .111 Existing distilleries and budding entrepreneurs quickly

took advantage of the agave-growing climate, and expanded their businesses. Money from the

tequila industry, in turn poured back into the state of Jalisco and caused industrialization of the

area.

Another geographical advantage tequila had over mescal was the proximity of the valley

to the town of Tequila and to Guadalajara. Distributors easily accessed Guadalajara by road from

the town of Tequila, where other mescal producing regions such as Oaxaca were not able. To

further the ability of tequila to be sold across the country, in 1888, the railway line that stretched

from Guadalajara to Mexico City was completed. This gave the distilleries in Tequila easy access

to both domestic and foreign markets. Mescal did not have the same access to international

trade, and therefore did not flourish as easily.112

Oaxaca, the state that primarily produced mescal, was left out of the industrialization

process and remained a more traditional state.113 Investors and businessmen later preferred

Jalisco over Oaxaca because it was more industrial and modern. Government officials and leaders

in the tourism industry preferred to promote the more progressive state of Jalisco as the face of

Mexico, and some even went as far as to call Jalisco the most Mexican state in Mexico. The

111 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 34. 112 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 34. 113 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 31.

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tourism board referred to Guadalajara as the “quintessential Mexican destination” for travelers,

and considered it one of the most vital cities in Mexico as far as business and industry.114

In short, Mexicans did not chose tequila as the ‘spirit of Mexico’ because it was truly

believed to represent all of Mexico’s inhabitants, but they chose it because of the location that

produced it and its marketability. All Mexicans did not naturally prefer the spirit, nor did it have a

significant impact on their lives. Tequila was more palatable to the elites, who had the money to

invest in Mexico’s future. Mexican officials thought Jalisco was a better state to promote. It was

more modern than most states in Mexico, and it projected the image that Mexico wanted to

portray to the world as representative to its culture. The tourism industry, coupled with the

tequila industry felt that more money could be made and funneled back into the Mexican

economy by focusing on tequila from Jalisco versus mescal from Oaxaca and other less developed

states.

Conclusion

While the legend of Mayahuel made a good backdrop for a museum, the crisply dressed

jimadores made the Ruta de Tequila more scenic, and tequila heralded as the ‘Spirit of Mexico’

mades a good marketing slogan, the accuracy of these ideas is lacking. Imagery and writing does

not display Mayahuel brandishing a copita of tequila, or even mescal for that matter. The

jimadores of today no longer tend to the agave like their grandfathers taught their fathers before

114 “Guadalajara.” Mexican Tourism Board. 2012. visitmexico.com/Guadalajara. Accessed June 15, 2016.

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them. More commonly they are day laborers just trying to eke out a living in an area controlled

by the tequila industry, much like the workers in the ‘banana republics’ of Central America.115

The idea of lo mexicano portrayed constantly in film, television and radio further

projected the construct of tequila as an inherently Mexican beverage to the rest of the world.

While the sexism of lo mexicano was not as prevalent today as tequila is openly consumed by

both sexes, the after effects still linger in brand marketing and design. Tequila 1800 used

celebrity spokesperson Ray Liotta to promote their brand by claiming that he is a ‘man of taste

and who knows what he wants. ’The ‘spirit of Mexico’ is still deeply intertwined with masculine

imagery. For example, Hijos de Villa Tequila is placed into pistol-shaped bottles to remind the

buyer of the revolutionary history of Mexico. The name of the brand, Hijos de Villa Tequila,

translates into ‘Sons of Pancho Villa,’ using Pancho Villa’s legacy as a marketing tactic.116

With the rise of the ‘foodie’ culture also came the rise of culinary tourism, where travelers

sought out unique cultures with the hope of experiencing them through their food and drink.

Foods traditionally consumed in Mexico enticed the U.S tourist because they provided an

alternative to the packaged, processed foods that are typically available.117 As the members of

the hippie counterculture grew concerned about consuming natural food aged and gained

corporate workplace occupations, their ideas translated into a desire for more authentic food.118

115 Richard Alan White. The Morass. United States Intervention in Central America. New York: Harper & Row, 1984, 319.

116 Tequila 1800. “Enough Said.” Last modified 2015. Accessed July 12, 2016. www.tequila1800.com. 117 Pilcher, Jeffrey. “From ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ to ‘Mexican Truffles’: Culinary Tourism across the Rio

Grande.” In Culinary Tourism edited by Lucy M. Long. University of Kentucky Press: Kentucky, 2004, 78. 118 Pilcher. “From ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ to ‘Mexican Truffles’,” 84-85.

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Many tourists craved these natural dishes since typical Mexican cuisine skipped the industrialized

growth that the food industry experienced from the 1850’s through the 1900’s.119

A study entitled “Travel Activities and Motivation Survey,” conducted by the Ontario

Ministry of Tourism reported that seventy-one percent of all adult American travelers

participated in at least one culinary activity in 2004 and 2005. Culinary tourism in Mexico did not

just encompass the travels of United States tourists to various destinations in Mexico, but the

travels of fellow Mexicans as well. Since the implementation of a railway system, the Mexican

middle-class toured different states in their country and experienced local cuisine.120

Mexican food is one of the top three favorite ethnic foods in the United States, along with

Chinese and Italian food. While ethnic foods served in the United States rarely completely

emulated the original cuisine, they still gained popularity with multiple cultures. The American

variation of Mexican food typically fell under the category of Tex-Mex, and fare such as queso,

margaritas, and fajitas were also served in Mexico as well. 121

The Mexican government supported tourism since 1920 as a tool to revitalize economic

and political stability after the Mexican Revolution. By encouraging tourism from United States

citizens, the Mexican government attempted to strengthen their relationship with the United

States. The industry continued to grow internationally in 1968 when Mexico hosted the Olympic

Games.

119 Pilcher. “From ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ to ‘Mexican Truffles’,” 81. 120 Pilcher. “From ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ to ‘Mexican Truffles’,” 84. Roberta Roberti. “Have Food? Will

Travel.” Travel Agent Central. Questex Media Group, August 1, 2008. 121 Pilcher. “From ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ to ‘Mexican Truffles’,” 92.

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Private resources mainly funded the tourism industry after the Mexican economic crash of

the 1980’s, when the government had to pull their funding. Organizations like UNESCO (United

Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) funded some tourism ventures after the

economic crisis, by promoting programs that preserved certain cultural aspects of Mexico. As of

2013, Mexico was the top destination for United States citizens travelling abroad, the leading

international destination in Latin America, and ranked tenth in terms of international tourist

arrivals worldwide, receiving upwards of 39.4 million visitors that year.122

With culinary vacation packages becoming more popular in Mexico, there is another spirit

that is trying to capitalize on the success of tequila, and may challenge its existence as the ‘Spirit

of Mexico.’ The mescal industry secured their own DO in 1994 which stipulated that mescal could

be produced in all of Guerrero, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas, as well as in parts of

Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas.123 While the mescal market is not as large as tequila, it

is growing rapidly. From the years 2005 to 2014, the production levels of mescal increased from

approximately 400,000 liters to over 1.5 million.124

Foreign companies took notice of this, and some began to market their own brand of

mescal. For example, Tequila Clase Azul, a luxury tequila company whose tequilas range from $70

to $2100 a bottle, spent two years trying to launch their own successful mescal brand. Tequila

Clase Azul considered themselves an ultra-premium brand and marketed their spirits as being

122 Helene Balslev Clausen and Szilvia Gyimóthy. “Seizing Community Participation in Sustainable Development: Pueblos Mágicos of Mexico.” Journal of Cleaner Production. Vol. 111. Part B. Amsterdam: Elsevier (Jan. 16, 2016), 321. José de Jesús Hernández López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional. ¿Patrimonialzación o Privatización?” Andamios: Revista de Investigación Social. Vol. 6, No. 12. Distrito Federal, México: Universidad Autónoma de la Cuidad de México (December 2009), 43.

123 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 4. 124 Ibid., 27.

54

distinguishable from others because of their ties to local neighborhoods and their artisan

handcrafts. Clase Azul employed the native Mazahua people to make and hand paint the bottles

for their tequilas and mescals.

This use of local businesses contributed to the feeling of nostalgia that consuming tequila

gave to its consumers. This appropriation of indigenous people as a commodity aided in

furthering the capitalistic gains of large corporate companies. Also, the handcrafted bottles help

further the claims that tequila is truly a Mexican beverage. Owned by the company Productos

Finos de Agave, S.A. de C.V. which also produced Casamigos and Avión, Clase Azul branched out

and created Durango Clase Azul Mezcal. Durango Clase Azul Mezcal, mirrored the rest of the

company’s tradition by being handcrafted and produced locally. It retailed for upwards of $200

USD, making it one of the higher priced mescals and it was quickly gaining a foothold in the

market. The ability for Clase Azul remain successful in an international market showed that

mescal has the potential to replace tequila as Mexico’s spirit of choice.

55

CHAPTER III

CREATION OF AN INDUSTRY

A recent 2016 United States radio advertisement for Tequila Cazadores asked the

consumer to, “remember where they came from,” while enjoying their double distilled tequila.

The examination of tequila advertisements and pop culture references, gave an impression that

the industry was full of nostalgia, history and a true embodiment of Mexican values and lifestyles.

However, the business of tequila was far more complicated than marketing, labels, and

manufactured history. The production of tequila grew from small and local, exporting 8,800 liters

in 1948, to a global industry that employed tons of thousands of people and exported

approximately 250 million liters of tequila annually.125 The success of this industry highly

depended on a number of factors besides cultural history which included changes in politics,

shifts in economics, and an increased in involvement with international companies.

This chapter examines the history of the tequila industry chronologically from the

beginning of the first distillery to present day. It explores the impact that NAFTA had on the

tequila industry, what economic affect this had on Mexico itself, and how this affected business

relations with the United States. It also looks at how these changes altered life in the towns that

produced tequila, and if these economic programs were in fact successful.

This chapter also discusses how the various changes in Mexican history and foreign

relations impacted the tequila industry, and how tequila morphed into the massive market that it

is today. The town of Tequila began as a small village founded in 1530 by the Spanish. Massive

deforestation and rich soil from the nearby volcano created agricultural land suitable for growing

125 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 27. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 65. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 128 of 4755.

56

agave.126 The state of Jalisco emerged as a tequila-growing region in the early nineteenth century

as a result of the political and modernization efforts of President Porfirio Díaz from 1876 to

1911.127 The industrial and infrastructural modernization that occurred in Jalisco during this time

increased the area’s economy, which primed it for international trade and entry into a global

market.128

The introduction of tequila into the United States in 1873 by Cenobio Sauza, via Paso del

Norte, also brought significant changes to the industry. Despite Mexico being contiguous to the

United States, tequila experienced a transnational trajectory for more than a century in the

borderland regions before formal entry into the U.S. market.129 The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

thrust mescal from Tequila into the spotlight, and gradually expanded the market into all areas of

the United States. 130 This market growth led tequila companies to search for ways to increase

their profits and renovate their distribution processes. Some tequila companies such as Cuervo

and Sauza built bottling factories in mid-twentieth century across the border in states like

California, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky, which already had functioning spirit bottling

facilities, to speed up the distribution process.131

126 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 8. Williams. Tequila, 66. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 483 of 4755.

127 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 3. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 45. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 2482 of 4755.

128 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 32-33. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 39-40. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1336-1340 of 4755.

129 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 6. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 3-4. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1173 of 4755.

130 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 4. Williams. Tequila, 107-108. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1177 of 4755.

131 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 88. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 511 of 4755.

57

In the early twentieth century Mexico renationalized its resources when it ousted foreign

businesses from industries such as railroads, mining, and agriculture in an effort to boost the

economy. The tequila industry grew despite the renationalization of Mexico’s industries, and

exports spiked during both World Wars. Tequila experienced a larger popularity boost during the

late 1970’s and early 1980’s when Mexico privatized their national resources, and encouraged

foreign investment in the country. Other countries such as China, South Africa and Spain

capitalized on tequila’s popularity boost by growing similar species of agave to produce their own

tequilas.132 The production of counterfeit tequila led to the industry securing the first non-

European Denomination of Origin rights to protect their legacy in 1974. With the demand for

tequila growing, some American entrepreneurs wanted to take advantage of the new industry by

producing and marketing the beverage themselves. This led to the creation of Patrón in 1989 by

John Paul Dejoria, founder of Paul Mitchell haircare products and Martin Crowley, both residents

of the United States.133 Austrian businessman Martin Grassl established Porfidio, another tequila

company that in 1991.134 Tequila then received official recognition by the European Union in

1997.135

In 1994, Mexico joined NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) to increase their

international economic standing. This trade agreement promised to boost the economies of

Mexico, the United States, and Canada. One of the benefits of signing the treaty was that the

132 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 70. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 129. Williams. Tequila, 137. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1360 of 4755.

133 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 53. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 46. Williams. Tequila, 26. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 2229 of 4755.

134 Williams. Tequila, 95. 135 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 4. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 10. Valenzuela-Zapata and

Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, 46. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1383-1386 of 4755.

58

agreement provided the tequila industry with better protection. It also fostered trade between

Mexico and other countries, which further increased tequila’s global visibility. This entrance into

the global market changed who owned tequila companies, wealthy non-Mexican individuals or

larger U.S. and European corporations bought many distilleries and brands. With global visibility

came the recognition of the town of Tequila as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site in 2003. 136

This new NAFTA partnership led to the creation of other sources for community projects,

like the Pueblo Mágico, in which the Secretary of Tourism awarded grants to cities in Mexico. The

program anticipated for these ‘Magic Cities’ to use this government funding to better their

community, and increase the standards of living. Recipients of the award received a grant that

ranged from $50,000 to $700,000. The theory behind the award system was that if a city used the

money to invest in themselves by making infrastructure improvements and allowing the tourism

industry to flourish in the area that everyone would be much better off than before.137

136 Per the UNESCO World Heritage website, www.whc.unesco.org/en/about, the purpose of the UNESCO World Heritage title is to ensure the protection of natural and cultural heritage, provide emergency assistance for World Heritage sites in immediate danger, support public awareness-building activities for World Heritage conservation, encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage, and to encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world's cultural and natural heritage. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 110. Williams. Tequila, 17. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 96. López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional,” 43. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 160 of 4755. Larry Knapek. “Bryant announces formation of NAFTA superhighway caucus.” The West News (West, Tex.), Vol. 104, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 18, 1994, newspaper, August 18, 1994; West, Texas. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth716611/m1/2/?q=NAFTA: accessed August 1, 2016), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting West Public Library.

137 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 115-116. López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional,” 47-48. Clausen and Gyimóthy. “Seizing Community Participation in Sustainable Development,” 318. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 3090 of 4755.

59

The town of Tequila drastically changed when it received this award in 2004.138 The

notoriety brought on by the improvements made from the Pueblo Mágico allowed the Consejo

Regulador del Tequila, (CRT) to secure a grant of $1.5 million from the Inter-American

Development Bank to establish the Ruta de Tequila in 2009. The Inter-American Development

Bank, developed in 1959 by the Organization of American States, received funding from forty-

eight sovereign entities. The bank remains one of the largest sources of funding for the finance of

projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The CRT touted the route as the path toward

sustainable tourism and their co-sponsor Cuervo, assured it would be beneficial to micro, small,

medium and large businesses.139 All of these changes intended to boost the town’s profile as

both a domestic and foreign tourist destination while increasing the financial standing for all of

the town’s inhabitants.

However, unlike the Pueblo Mágico promised, the existing elites and large business

owners only secured these benefits. Small business owners claimed they have yet to see any

increase in business from these initiatives, and some even state their businesses took a financial

hit because the Ruta de Tequila did not stray from the main road and bussed groups of tourists

right past their businesses on towards the big name distilleries. The distilleries also offered food

and some even offered lodging, so tourists never left the compound.140

138 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 116-117. Clausen and Gyimóthy. “Seizing Community Participation in Sustainable Development,” 321. López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional,” 47-48.

139 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 117-118. Williams. Tequila, 94. Clausen and Gyimóthy. “Seizing Community Participation in Sustainable Development,” 321.

140 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 48. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 11. López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional,” 55. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 489 of 4755.

60

The first six months of 2012, from January to June, CRT records showed 145 tequila

companies registered in Mexico. Of these companies, thirteen were considered large, thirteen

were medium, twenty-two were small, and ninety-seven were microbusinesses, as seen in Figure

5. The thirteen largest companies, which constituted only 9 percent of the total number of

companies, produced 84.5 percent of all of the mixto tequila, and 72.7 percent of all of the pure

Blue Weber agave tequila in the industry. José Cuervo was the only company of these thirteen

that remains owned by Mexicans. The other twelve large companies shifted ownership to mainly

U. S. based transnational foreign corporations over the course of the past sixty years.141

Figure 5: The breakdown of the tequila industry by company size.

141 Mixto tequila is tequila that is only comprised of fifty-one percent blue agave sugars, with the rest be made up of other sweeteners. Duncan Tucker. “Last of the tequila giants set for foreign ownership.” The Tequila Files. August 6, 2012. Accessed June 21, 2016. Thetequilafiles.com. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 104. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 49.

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Beginning of an Empire

Tequila was originally just an exceptional form of mescal wine made from the agave plants

that grew in the rich volcanic soil in the Amatitán Valley in Jalisco. Biologists dated the origins of

the agave genus back as far as ten million years.142 Previously discussed, the agave plant provided

indigenous peoples with food, drink and textiles for centuries. When, exactly, the first distillation

process occurred, however, is still up for debate. Some claimed that indigenous people

developed the technology on their own before the Spanish Conquest, while others believed that

the Spanish learned the technique from the Arabs and brought it with them overseas. Still others

maintained the Filipino coconut cultivators brought the technology over from the Chinese.143

One thing was certain though, by 1650, citizens of the town later known as Tequila petitioned the

Spanish crown to establish a township, and began laying the foundation for a colossal industry.144

The tequila industry really grew after the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821). The

massive land reform led by the administration of Ignacio Comonfort (1855-1857) occurred several

decades after the wars that happened from 1855 to 1867, and paved the way for future

industries. The Lerdo Law, named after Finance Minister Miguel Lerdo de Tejada sought to

break up large landholdings and spread ownership to the poorer classes. This Jeffersonian plan’s

main focus targeted the land held by the Catholic Church, which at the time was the largest

142 Williams. Tequila, 30. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 158 of 4755. 143 Williams. Tequila, 56. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 168. Martineau, How the Gringos

Stole Tequila, Location 607-610 of 4755. 144 Williams. Tequila, 66. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 96.

62

landholder in Mexico, as well as the smaller communal holdings. The goal of these highly liberal

reforms was to create freer markets through promoting the ownership of land. 145

The Lerdo Law, which passed in 1856, failed to provide Mexican farmers with a chance to

be independent entrepreneurs. Instead it facilitated investments from land speculators and large

landholding companies. The law did not provide financing options for the poor farmers,

therefore, most of the farmers could not afford to purchase the church or communal lands they

currently farmed. Under the new law, this land then went to auction to the highest bidder. Once

at auction, many upper-class Mexicans boycotted purchasing the land on religious grounds, since

most of it was taken from the Church. This left only larger companies to invest in purchasing the

land. This failed land reform paved the way for large tracts of land to be owned by companies and

corporations, instead of individual people. While this negatively impacted the small farmers, it

allowed larger families, like Cuervo and Sauza to acquire massive amounts of land to add to their

fields and distilleries. 146

The tequila industry, as well as other industries like railroad and mining, gained hold and

flourished in the 1870’s and 1880’s. The War of Independence limited the amount of

competition from foreign spirits and enabled the town of Tequila to focus on its own natural

resources and improve the growth and production of tequila. The area was fertile and with

running water, so agave plants grew easily. Soon, people began to tell a difference in the taste of

145 William D. Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform.” Law and Business Review of the Americas. vol. 16, no. 3. Dallas: Southern Methodist University. (Summer 2010.) 481-490. Emmanuelle Bouquet. “State-led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change: Land Titles, Land Markets, and Tenure Security in Mexican Communities.” World Development. Vol. 37, No. 8. Amsterdam: Elsevier (August 2009). 1392. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 119-120.

146 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 485-495. Bouquet. “State-led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change,” 1393. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 36.

63

mescal from Tequila and mescal from other locales. The official split between mescal and tequila

occurred in 1875, when the vino-mescal de tequila became known as its own beverage and not a

type of mescal.147 Tequila Sauza was one of the frontrunners in the industry, in part for their

participation in international competitions, such as world fairs and expositions in Madrid, Paris

and San Antonio. The Porfiriato (1876-1910) promoted this international activity as beneficial

because it heightened global image and furthered local productivity.148

Among the early tequila producers were current industry leaders such as José Cuervo,

Sauza, and Herradura.149 These companies began as small haciendas that housed traditional

distilleries, and make up a bulk of the current industry. José Cuervo is one of the oldest tequila

companies that is still in business today, and the company has the oldest distillery, La Rojeña.

Tequila Cuervo initially began in 1758 when a will deeded a distillery to José Antonio Cuervo.

Later in 1795, the Cuervo family received the first permit from the Spanish government for the

legal establishment of a mescal distillery.150

The founder of Tequila Sauza, Cenobio Sauza, originally worked for the Cuervo family in

1858. Sauza began his life in Jalisco and was landless, but he worked his way up the ranks at a

Cuervo distillery until he could purchase his own distillery in 1873. Since then, fierce competition

occurred between the two companies, with both leading the industry in its modernization. Sauza

was the first, however, to offer the beverage in easy to transport glass bottles. The cultivation

147 Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan. ¡Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History, xxiv. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 38. Williams. Tequila, 15-16. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 2. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1177 of 4755.

148 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 39-40. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 36. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1182 of 4755.

149 Williams. Tequila, 105-110. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 9. Williams. Tequila, 104. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 31. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1123 of 4755.

150 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 31-32. Williams. Tequila, 107-108.

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and distillation of agave by other tequileros grew in popularity as well, but in the late nineteenth

century, Cuervo and Sauza remained the two big names, together producing more tequila than all

other distilleries combined. At this time, Mexicans still owned the industry entirely.151

According to family history Aurelio López established Tequila Herradura in 1861. One day,

López walked through his agave fields and found a horseshoe. Seen as a sign of good luck, he

decided to build his original distillery, San José del Refugio, on that very spot. Herradura’s pride,

based on being the only tequila company that used strictly 100 percent blue agave in their

tequila, provided an advantage in the industry. For a large span of time in the mid-nineteenth

century Herredura distributed the only non-mixto tequila in the United States. Cuervo, Sauza,

and Herradura were the three companies which later led the pack of tequila companies that

dominated the industry.152

During the administration of Porfirio Díaz, from 1876 to 1911, the economy of Mexico

underwent many changes. His rule, commonly referred to as the Porfiriato, helped usher in the

Industrial Revolution when he offered tax exemptions and subsidies to encourage foreign

investment. This foreign investment increased the mining industries and allowed for the building

of railway and telegraph lines which were primarily owned by U.S. capital. Throughout the period

of 1883 to 1910, railroad and mining companies owned twenty percent of the national territory

of Mexico which amounts to roughly forty-two million acres of land. By the end of the Porfiriato

in 1910, foreign investment in Mexico, concentrated in the railway and mining industries, stood

151 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 35-36. Williams. Tequila, 107-108. 152 Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 57-58. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila,

Location 2925-2940 of 4755. Williams. Tequila, 109-110.

65

at $2 billion, with half of that coming from the United States. At the time this was the largest

investment abroad made by United States businesses.153

It would be these railway lines that proved to be so vital to the tequila industry. The

railway line allowed tequila to be transported from Guadalajara to Mexico City. From there, it

reached numerous different destinations via the network of railroads in Mexico City. The

Industrial Revolution also led to changes in agriculture and machinery as well. The demand for

tequila, coupled with advances in distillation equipment allowed the industry to grow. By 1888,

there were at least sixty haciendas distilling tequila.154

If the liberal land reforms of 1855-1867 did little to help the average worker, then the

changes made during the Porfiriato did less. While the Porfiriato greatly assisted in the growth of

the tequila industry as well as several other industries in the country, including railway,

subsurface minerals, telegraph, these changes did not enable the poor to become more

successful. The increase in business and investment in Mexico did not trickle down to the lower

Mexican classes because profits from these industries stayed with the companies that owned

them. Foreign companies that invested in Mexico, such as the railway and telegraph companies,

employed Mexican workers, but hired their own countrymen for supervisory and administrative

153 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 498-510. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 57-58. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 32-34. Teresa M. Van Hoy. “La Marcha Violenta? Railroad and Land in 19th Century Mexico.” Bulletin of Latin American Research. Vol. 19, No. 1 Wiley Blackwell. (Jan. 2000), 35.

154 Williams. Tequila, 68-69. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 38. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1347 of 4755.

66

positions. It was very rare that the average campesino, or farm worker, advanced past the status

of manual labor under the Porfiriato changes. 155

The emergence of a strong railway industry led to many problems for the peasant and

small landholding populations. In 1882, the Mexican government allowed private land to be

expropriated for projects like the railroads that were public works which displaced many

peasants from their land. Wealthy landlords called hacendados often owned the land left for

farmers to cultivate, and typically offered very exploitative rental agreements with the tenant

farmers. The oppressive financial conditions for the poorer classes created by the land reforms

and railway industries ultimately allowed Emiliano Zapata to lead to peasant farmers in ousting

Díaz from office and starting the Mexican Revolution in 1910. 156

After the Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution ‘ended’ in 1917 with a revolving door of unstable leadership,

liberal powers in charge, and the formation of a new constitution. The result was the Constitution

of 1917 that sought to return to Mexican peasants control of land by expropriating it from large

landholders and redistributing it among the poorer classes. The revolutionaries attempted to

form a land policy that corrected what the Lerdo Law had failed to do, and decreased the large

income inequality gap that led to the revolution.157

155 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 36-37. Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 512-515. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 45. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 1966 of 4755.

156 Bouquet. “State-led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change,” 1392. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 35-36. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 433 of 4755. Van Hoy. “La Marcha Violenta?” 33-35.

157 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 512-515.

67

This new land reform caused a shift in agave supply in the tequila industry. Between 1927

and 1942, the government redistributed the land of large landholders to peasant farmers via

ejidos, or plots of government issued land. Due to the restrictions in the amount of land that an

individual could hold, large tequila distilleries began to rely on smaller, independent farmers for

their agave supply.158 Changes from the land reform were detrimental to the tequila industry,

and almost led to its demise due to a drastic drop in available agave to be roasted and distilled

into tequila. This severe agave shortage occurred because many farmers were either unfamiliar

with cultivating agave, or could not wait nearly a decade for their first harvest. They chose

instead to plant other crops during the first few years they farmed their land. This, combined

with the economic distress from the Mexican Revolution, caused total tequila production to fall

from 10 million liters in 1901 to 2 million liters in 1930.159

The new constitution also called for the nationalization of the mining and oil industries.

The constitution, in theory, returned industries from private investors and placed them back in

the hands of government organizations. However, in the 1920’s, the United States petitioned for

an exception to this rule. The results allowed the current regulatory system to grandfather their

role in the industries. The United States citizens who owned land in Mexico were both members

of the elite class that could potentially influence the government and decisions, and members of

the farming class.160 The government made further exceptions to privately owned companies in

158 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 37, 120. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 981 of 4755. 159 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 37. 160 Halbert Jones. “Seeing Cardenista Land Reform from All Angles: The U.S.-Mexican Agrarian Dispute in

Context.” Latin Americanist. Vol. 54, No. 1. Wiley Blackwell (March 2010), 137-139.

68

the oil sector as well, even those owned by foreign entities.161 In the 1930’s acting president

Lázaro Cárdenas worked to balance these reforms while maintaining an effective relationship

with the U.S. and upholding Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy.”162

Even though the Constitution of 1917 promised restoration of ejidos, plots of land allotted

for campesinos to use, they were very difficult to obtain and the laws still favored larger

companies and landholders. While the constitution placed limitations on the amount of land that

could be held by one entity, it did not stipulate what would be done with the excess land. Many

with excess land sold it to family members, and still maintained normal use of it. Also, large

landholding companies saved their land from being expropriated to an ejido by either colonizing

it, or industrializing it. They colonized large plots of land with no government interference and

effectively ran their own city of workers. The industrialization of a tract of land with larger

agricultural equipment, mining sites, or factories, made it ineligible for expropriation because it

was no longer suitable farm land.163

Even when land became available for the ejidos it was still almost impossible for those

who worked the land they received to advance. Since they did not technically own the farm land,

it was unusable as collateral to take out loans for advanced farming equipment. Without the

necessary farming equipment, their crop yields remained the same, while larger industrialized

farmers increased their profit margins.164 Those who received ejidos and chose to grow agave on

them, were then at the mercy of the large tequila companies for pricing. If more agave grew than

161 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 514-516. 162 Jones. “Seeing Cardenista Land Reform from All Angles,” 139. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole

Tequila, Location 2504 of 4755. 163 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 517-521. 164 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 519-525.

69

the large tequila companies wanted to buy, it rotted in the fields and farmers bore the

responsibility of the loss. Records indicated that the price of agave did not rise above one peso

per kilogram between 1960 and 1980.165

By the 1940’s and 1950’s, the industrial sector for the most part replaced the agrarian

sector and a majority of the Mexican poor sought more sustainable work by emigrating from

rural areas to cities. This migration caused a majority of public funds to be funneled towards

urban development and away from rural areas. The examination of the decreased contribution

of agriculture to the nation’s GDP showed the neglect of rural Mexico. In 1940 agriculture

contributed 18 percent to GDP, whereas agriculture only made up 11 percent by 1970. The

United States’ involvement in World War II gave an opportunity for Mexico to send products,

crops, and workers to the United States. This also furthered Mexican immigration to the United

States.166

Neoliberalism, NAFTA, and Present Day

Agrarian reforms continued to take place over the next few decades, but to no real

benefit to the farmer. In 1982, the default crisis in Mexico allowed the World Bank and

International Monetary Fund (IMF) to annex the Mexican economy. The dependency on

foreign capital to bail Mexico out of their economic crisis resulted in Mexico ceding some of

their power over land regulations. The World Bank pushed for the use of individual land titling

over the use of ejidal property. The government also offered incentives and different

165 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 104-105. 166 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 521-526. Bowen. Divided Spirits,

120.

70

opportunities for investment in order to foster agricultural growth and more efficient

production. This made investment in Mexico by transnational corporations even easier, and

when analyzed, the affects can definitely be seen in the tequila industry, as shown in Figure 6

below.167

Figure 6: Growth of the tequila industry.

The administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari from 1988-1994 helped usher in

neoliberal politics that led to the privatization of Mexico’s resources. Salinas believed that

adopting a neoliberal-style government allowed market forces more freedom to create ideal

167 John Ross. “NAFTA and Mexico’s Agrarian Apocalypse.” Synthesis/Regeneration. Vol. 47. St. Louis: Gateway Green Education Foundation. (Fall 2008). Greens.org. Accessed June 28, 2016. Bouquet. “State-led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change,” 1390-1391. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 161 of 4755.

71

conditions for independence and political freedom. Salinas argued that while the revolution

created a strong central state government, it did not, however, vest the state government with

a monopoly over property rights and industry. Therefore, Mexican society should be able to

make their own decisions regarding their national resources. Salinas took industries previously

considered nationalized such as the telecommunication, natural gas, railway, and banking

opened them to foreign privatization. This encouraged rapid and substantial investment by

foreign corporations.168

These neoliberal policy reforms changed the way agricultural business occurred in

Mexico. Any social contract rural people had with the state dissolved as the agricultural sector

opened up to foreign capital and trade. This change largely benefitted larger companies and

corporate investors. Any guarantee farmers had on set prices for their crops ended as

agricultural jobs fell from 23 percent to 13 percent of the Mexican workforce between 1990

and 2008.169

Major world events that occurred during the Salinas administration further influenced

neoliberal ideology in Mexico. The end of the Cold War in 1989, along with the fall of the Soviet

Union and the Gulf War in 1991, were all events the administration thought created a need to

reconsider the previous protectionist policies in place by the Mexican government. Economists

who worked in the Salinas administration argued that one of the main ways for Mexico to

168 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 525-530. Gavin O’Toole. “A New Nationalism for a New Era: The Political Ideology of Mexican Neoliberalism.” Bulletin of Latin American Research. Vol. 22, No. 3. Wiley Blackwell. (2003), 271-272. Bouquet. “State-led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change,” 1392. Bowen. Divided Spirits, 40-41.

169 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 120.

72

guarantee their national survival was to join the global market and experience a level of

interdependency with the United States.170

This emergence into global markets allowed for foreigners to permeate the tequila

industry. Patrón was one of those companies. Founded in 1989 by two United States citizens,

Patrón sales in the United States quickly took off. As of 2015, the brand was the best-selling

super-premium tequila brand in the United States. Porfidio was another tequila company,

established in 1991, launched by Austrian businessman Martin Grassl. Grassl also introduced a

premium tequila to the market that used French oak barrels in the ageing process for the first

time.171

The Pueblo Mágico program was among these neoliberal policies meant to encourage

foreign investment and promote international business in rural and remote areas. By selecting

a town to receive the award, the government hoped to encourage economic growth through

sustainable tourism by the conservation and preservation of history. Places that qualified for

the Pueblo Mágico title were places that possessed symbolic attributes, legends, history,

important events, day-to-day life, and ‘magic’ which emanated from all of its cultural

manifestations providing great opportunities for tourism.

The town of Tequila possessed these attributes, especially that of tourism with its

picturesque views as shown in Figure 7. More rigid requirements to receive the award

stipulated the town must be within a two-hour drive from an established tourist hub, have an

170 O’Toole. “A New Nationalism for a New Era,” 282. 171 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 53-54. Williams. Tequila, 95. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila,

Location 2224 of 4755.

73

interest of tourism in their local development plans, and have a population under 20,000

inhabitants.172

Figure 7: Agave fields by the main road in Tequila. Photo by author.

Pueblo Mágico in Tequila, however, neither conserved nor preserved. The program had

severe ecological and social impacts on the community. In towns that received the award,

Tequila included, reforms often excluded marginalized groups from places that were previously

public spaces. Initially, residents populated town center in Tequila daily with communal

172 Clausen and Gyimóthy. “Seizing Community Participation in Sustainable Development,” 318-321. López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional,” 47-48. Martineau, How the Gringos Stole Tequila, Location 3090 of 4755. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 115-116.

74

activities and markets with local vendors, now the program remodeled the area with bilingual

signage and commercial vendors. Also, the program destroyed the existing paved streets in the

town and replaced them with cobblestones to enhance the area’s exoticized nostalgia.173

Indigenous people living in Tequila said they have not felt the magic. The areas of the

town not seen by tourists faced numerous issues including the lack of a continuous water

supply, trash collection, public safety, street maintenance, street lights, and drug violence. Of

these problems, the water supply was most severe. The town lacked the infrastructure to

deliver water consistently to all areas of the town, and the supply faced pollution daily. One

liter of tequila produced up to ten liters of waste water. This water was often still undrinkable

after it passed through water treatment facilities.174

Also, in 1992, the government passed another land reform law, the Agrarian Law. This

law allowed the individuals with ejidos to sell them. Most owners already migrated, some to

larger urban centers in Mexico, and some moved north to the United States. Rather than return

to tend their own plot of land, the owners found it beneficial to sell their tracts to other

companies, businessmen, and vacationers. This law gave larger corporations a way to easily

buy up land in Mexico that they could use to build their businesses because one of the goals of

the Agrarian Reforms was to foster agricultural growth through incentives and the transfer of

land to more efficient producers.175

173 Clausen and Gyimóthy. “Seizing Community Participation in Sustainable Development,” 318. López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional,” 46-49. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 120.

174 Clausen and Gyimóthy. “Seizing Community Participation in Sustainable Development,” 318. López. “Tequila: Centro Mágico, Pueblo Tradicional,” 56-59. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 120-121.

175 Signet. “Grading a Revolution: 100 Years of Mexican Land Reform,” 524-530. Bouquet. “State-led Land Reform and Local Institutional Change,” 1390.

75

The creation of the CRT as a governing agency for the tequila industry in 1994 was

another result of neoliberal policies. The CRT was a private not-for-profit organization that the

Mexican government delegated to oversee all aspects of the tequila industry. This agency,

replete with all of the certification procedures and regulations allowed the industry to be more

transparent than before. This transparency fostered an environment where foreign investors

felt less financial risk in their choice to enter the industry. While the CRT created a more secure

way for transnational companies and foreign investors to enter the tequila industry, it

importantly also raised the barrier to market entry for smaller businesses. The formidable

bureaucracy and regulations that must be met to grow and produce tequila were often

overwhelming for small growers and microbusinesses.176

The combination of the Agrarian Law and the signing of NAFTA caused the displacement

of millions of farmers. Unable to afford to farm their ejidos, owners sold them, or just

abandoned them altogether. In 2004, research estimated that the displacement of 1.2 million

farmers occurred by NAFTA’s ten-year anniversary. With the average household containing six

members, the total of displaced persons due to NAFTA reached around six million.177 Statistics

showed that during Vicente Fox’s presidential term, from 2000-2006, 2.4 million Mexicans

migrated to the United States and displaced farmers made up 70 percent of those

immigrants.178

176 Bowen. Divided Spirits, 121. Williams. Tequila, 19. Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 125-129.

177 Ross. “NAFTA and Mexico’s Agrarian Apocalypse.” 178 Ross. “NAFTA and Mexico’s Agrarian Apocalypse.” Bowen. Divided Spirits, 21. Gaytán. ¡Tequila!

Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 125.

76

Signing NAFTA, Salinas reasoned, would aid Mexico’s involvement in the world

economy.179 While both President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Alberto Cárdenas,

Secretary of Agriculture (SAGARPA) from 2006 to 2009, touted NAFTA as having tripled the

Mexican agricultural exports to the United States, very few residents benefitted from the trade

agreement.180 Despite the increased level of exports, Mexico ran a $2 million deficit each year

in agricultural exports since the late 1990’s. The producers who benefitted the most from

NAFTA were not small farmers, but over 20,000 corporate entities that produced tomato,

avocado, tropical fruit and other specialty crops like tequila.181

Conclusion

The history of tequila is one that is varied and complicated. What began as a beverage

that Mexicans produced, consumed, and sold is now controlled by global corporations with

brands and packaging marketed to buyers who live in other countries. Events in both Mexican

and world history, such as the War of Mexican Independence (1810-1821), Porfiriato (1876-

1911), Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945),

Cold War (1948-1991), Gulf War (1990-1991), and the passage of NAFTA (1994) all significantly

impacted the formation of the tequila industry.

The Porfiriato created an environment that allowed for the expansion of the tequila

industry in a highly privatized Mexico. Even though some setbacks the industry suffered

179 O’Toole. “A New Nationalism for a New Era,” 275. 180 SAGARPA is a Mexican acronym for Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y

Alimentación which translated is the Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food. Ross. “NAFTA and Mexico’s Agrarian Apocalypse.”

181 Ross. “NAFTA and Mexico’s Agrarian Apocalypse.”

77

occurred because the renationalization of national resources in the aftermath of the Mexican

Revolution, the tequila business flourished and only continued to grow. Later, bolstered by the

globalization that occurred during the emergence of neoliberalism in Mexico, the tequila

industry successfully acquired international status as a widely distributed commodity.

While these historical events allowed the trajectory of the tequila industry as a whole to

skyrocket, everyday Mexicans did not reap these same benefits. Small-time, poor Mexican

farmers remained marginalized by governmental policies and regulations. Since colonization,

elites often left indigenous farmers out of decisions they made about the land they farmed, just

as big businesses and CRT regulations overruled modern-day farmers. This marginalization led

farmers to look for other ways to support their families and some decided to leave the area,

which caused an increased emigration from Jalisco and other tequila-making regions.

Some Mexican farmers even turned to drug cropping in order to make a living because it

became one of the few crops competitively produced for profit in Mexico. During Calderón’s

administration, drug cropping and trafficking became so prevalent in the rural areas of Mexico,

that he escalated the War on Drugs by deploying 30,000 troops into the Mexican countryside.

In 2007 alone over 2,000 Mexicans were causalities of the War on Drugs. Statistics show that

during the Calderón administration from 2007 to 2012, the killings averaged fifty-six people per

day.182

Texas borderland officials cited NAFTA as a main reason as to why automobile traffic

increased across the border by more than fifty percent. Texas congressmen and Mexican

182 Ross. “NAFTA and Mexico’s Agrarian Apocalypse.” Gaytán. ¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, 156. Molly Molloy. “The Mexican Undead: Toward a New History of the ‘Drug War’ Killing Fields.” Small Wars Journal. Digital Archive August 21, 2013. Accessed July 18, 2016. www.smallwarsjournal.com.

78

governors both agreed NAFTA increased the number of jobs and the employment rate in their

states. While tequila did not cause all of this increased traffic, neither did other legal trade.

Illegal trade, such as drug trafficking concerned Texas congressmen enough to convene a

Homeland Security Committee in 2004 to combat drug trade and prevent security issues.183

183 Mary Collins. “Homeland security committee meets at McAllen.” Newton County News (Newton,

Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 13, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 3, 2004, newspaper, November 3, 2004; Newton, Texas.

(texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth635210/m1/2/?q=NAFTA: accessed August 1, 2016), University of North

Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Newton County Historical

Commission.

79

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

Like most industries in Mexico, the tumultuous political environment in the country

greatly affected tequila, and the increase in globalization of businesses. Both of these factors

shaped the growth and trajectory of the tequila industry, and ultimately changed who owned,

produced, and consumed the beverage. The different political leaders who governed Mexico

controlled the amount of foreign involvement that was acceptable in the country, and dictated

not only the amount of land the government allotted for farming purposes, but who controlled

these lands. These leaders also made decisions in attempt to better the Mexican economy

which allowed certain concessions to large transnational corporations in order to secure their

investments in Mexico’s future.

Since the production of tequila highly depended on the easy access of mature agave

plants, the history of Mexico’s agriculture played an important role in the industry’s success.

The government designed land reform to specifically impact the agricultural sector and

reallocated tracts of land to poor farmers in order to aid in the development of subsistent

farming. However, in the late nineteenth century these reforms paved the way for United

States investors to capitalize on Mexico’s natural resources, build railroads and invest in

agriculture. Mexico’s dependence on foreign capital proved lucrative for many transnational

companies since the Porfiriato (1876-1911). While foreign involvement in Mexico fell slightly

after the Mexican Revolution, this dissonance did not last for long.

Dependency on capital from the United States only strengthened when Mexico signed

the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. The massive amount of foreign

80

capital invested in Mexico did not improve the lives of average Mexicans, but instead lined the

pockets of those U.S and European corporations that invested in the country. By aligning the

history of the tequila industry with the history of the Mexican economy, this thesis proved that

both national and world events, such as the Mexican War of Independence, Mexican

Revolution, World War I, World War II, Mexican economic crisis in the 1980’s, Cold War, and

Gulf War, impacted the tequila industry.

This thesis also showed the way that both the tourism and tequila industries capitalized

by commodifying the history and culture of Mexico. The revival of Mayahuel as a symbol of

Mexican heritage, the appropriation of the jimador as a construct of the ideal indigenous

worker, and the decision to promote tequila as the ‘spirit of Mexico’ over mescal, which had

more of a following with the Mexican population, showed this commodification. The creation

of a somewhat fictional history by transnational corporations to market tequila, or travel

ultimately led to the misrepresentation of ‘the Mexican culture’ in order to make a profit.

This misrepresentation of Mexican culture was a contributing factor which increased

tourism to Mexico as a whole. Tourists travelled to the country in search of experiencing the

culture they heard about from various advertisements, rather those be tequila, food, or tourism

advertisements. As previously discussed, some tourist areas even sold items, like margaritas

and queso that were not standard fare in Jalisco because there was a demand for those items

by tourists.

Distillery and museum guides also continued to impress the importance of figures like

Mayahuel and jimadores on their clients because that is what the industry perpetuated and

81

what consumers expected to hear when they toured these faux authentic places. Without

these stories, tourists did not feel their experience was authentic. This further perpetuated the

fictional history of Mexican culture these industries created in order to market their products.

The globalization that occurred in Mexico in the late twentieth century vastly altered

the tequila industry. What originally began as a beverage made by indigenous people and sold

locally, transformed to an industry that is almost entirely based on foreign capital. Of the

thirteen largest companies that produced over seventy percent of all tequila in 2012, José

Cuervo remained the only one that retained Mexican ownership. The ownership of tequila

companies by transnational corporations created the need for increased regulation of the spirit,

and led to the foundation of the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT). The CRT was put in place

as a regulatory agency meant to protect the integrity of tequila, but in doing so it created more

obstacles for smaller, Mexican-owned companies to overcome.

Instead, the CRT mainly served the interests of larger transnational companies, and

some smaller Mexican-owned companies went out of business because they could not afford

certification fees and mandatory equipment. Some of those small companies continued to

produce tequila, but called it mescal and sold it locally. That was an effective alternative until

the mescal industry started to follow in tequila’s footsteps and institute their own regulatory

committee, the CRM. All of the aforementioned changes resulted in the mass-production of a

beverage by foreign companies that is primarily marketed towards U.S. and European

consumers as an authentic Mexican spirit.

82

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