A transition from indigenous to European technology in colonial Mexico: The case of tequila

摘要

"Tequila is a pale flame that burns through walls and flies over roofs to soothe one's feeling of despair... On the surface, tequila knows no borders, but some climates are more favorable, just as some hours seem to have been wisely designed to belong to tequila...It is at the highest twilight of doubt and perplexity that tequila teaches us a consoling lesson, its ever-present voice, its wholehearted indulgency." ~ Alvaro Mutis The world-famous alcoholic beverage known as tequila can be produced legally only along a strip of western Mexico. It is obtained from an agave tree that grows in that region and is commonly known as maguey, a word of Caribbean origin [1]. In the sixteenth century, the Spaniards adopted this word due to the many different versions of the word maguey that existed in the native Mexican languages spoken at the time [2]. Moreover, several different types of maguey pervaded the warm and moderately humid lands of central and southern Mexico (Fig. 1).