It was May 5, 2014, and I had just moved to New York. After growing up in Mexico and years spent living in Europe, I expected a small cultural moment—perhaps a quiet celebration among Mexican expatriates. After all, in Mexico itself, Cinco de Mayo is not even one of our biggest holidays.
From the moment I landed stateside, Cinco de Mayo was everywhere: banners at the airport, ads in the streets, promotions in restaurants. On the taxi ride into Manhattan, I saw a news anchor wearing a sombrero under the headline “Cinco de Drinko.”
The spectacle is confusing at best—and an insulting caricature of Mexican culture at worst.
But Mexico’s relationship with spirits is far older, deeper, and more complex than that. And our culture is rich, not cheap. I learned this lesson in the Desert of Chihuahua.
The desert landscape is unforgiving. Temperatures swing wildly—freezing nights, scorching days. Water is scarce. Survival is not guaranteed.
Despite sotol’s comparisons to tequila and mezcal, Dasylirion is not a type of agave or a cactus. It is a wild desert plant that takes 15 to 20 years to mature. It can survive drought, wind, and extreme heat that would kill most crops. It grows where almost nothing else does.
As I watched my mother’s work, I became fascinated with the plant’s resilience. In the harshest environments, it stores what it needs to survive. When it is finally harvested and distilled, the result is a spirit that is strikingly clean and dry—literally just plant and water.
Its flavor is familiar yet distinct—leaner, cleaner, softer, and more restrained than many expect from Mexican spirits.
Now, sotol is re-emerging—and beginning to be seen as the third pillar of Mexican spirits.
Sotol sits squarely in that shift.
Northern Mexico rarely appears in the American imagination as a place of refinement or craftsmanship. It is more often framed through the lens of migration or border politics. Yet the region holds a deep tradition of determination, lucha, and resilience—qualities embodied by the sotol plant itself.
It reminds us that Mexico is not a caricature of sombreros and shots. It is a country of layers, dimensions, and discovery.
And perhaps we might take a lesson from the desert—one particularly useful in the times we are living through: resilience, patience, and the quiet power of growing where others believe nothing can.
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