¡Tequila!: Distilling the Spirit of Mexico

By: Marie Gaytán

Narrated by: Darren Roebuck

Italy has grappa, Russia has vodka, Jamaica has rum. Around the world, certain drinks - especially those of the intoxicating kind - are synonymous with their peoples and cultures. For Mexico, this drink is tequila. For many, tequila can conjure up scenes of body shots on Cancún bars and coolly garnished margaritas on sandy beaches. Its power is equally strong within Mexico, though there the drink is more often sipped rather than shot, enjoyed casually among friends, and used to commemorate occasions from the everyday to the sacred. Despite these competing images, tequila is universally regarded as an enduring symbol of lo mexicano.

¡Tequila! Distilling the Spirit of Mexico traces how and why tequila became and remains Mexico's national drink and symbol. Starting in Mexico's colonial era and tracing the drink's rise through the present day, Marie Sarita Gaytán reveals the formative roles played by some unlikely characters.

Like all stories about national symbols, the rise of tequila forms a complicated, unexpected, and poignant tale.

The book is published by Stanford University Press.

©2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

A great social history of Taquila!

this book was fantastic for trying to understand to kill his role in Mexican culture.

History and culture

Good audio book, would have been better to hear a woman's voice to add a better perspective in the story telling.

Read it instead!

The book and subject matter are great, highly insightful and accurate. The guy who is reading it mispronounces just about every Spanish word which is irritating and jarring to anyone who knows the Tequila world. Probably better to just read in print.

Solid Book!

I enjoyed the book. It gives you a broad view on Tequila and it’s history. If you want to gain some understanding of this complex spirit this book is a good place to start.

Great book -dictation not-good

The narrator did not research prior to reading. He missed pronounced all of the Spanish words with a combination of Anglo and French pronunciation. This was very of putting and distracting for the content.It is imperative in a book that covers a lot of cultural content for the narrator to be at least minimally versed and open to proper pronunciation.