Blue Agave and Its Importance in the Tequila Industry
Tequila, North America's first distilled spirit and first production alcohol, is known to most North Americans as a fiery beverage consumed during week long vacations in Mexico or by inebriated college students. Vast over-commercialization and misinformation concerning the product obscures the economic importance of the Blue agave (Agave tequilana Weber) the tequila-making industry, and their place in Mexican history. There are 136 known species of agave, but only one is used to produce tequila (2,p.4).
During their exploration of the New World in the late 1400's and early 1500's, Spanish conquistadors discovered a fermented beverage called pulque that was produced by the Nahuatl. The Nahuatl are the original inhabitants of the area of western Mexico who primarily used pulque in religious ceremonies and for medicinal purposes in their culture. The primary ingredient in the fermentation process of pulque was the agave. As the early Spaniards ran out of brandy, they searched for a source of fermentable sugar for distilling. They experimented with the agave, which was abundant in the volcanic soils in the Sierra Madre region surrounding Guadalajara. The species that produced the most full-bodied taste was the Agave tequilana Weber, the blue agave or agave azul (1, p.1).
In 1600, the first tequila factory was established by the "father of tequila," Don Pedro Sanches de Tagle, Marquis of Altamira. Don Pedro also was the first to begin cultivation of the blue agave for distilling (2, p.2) and in 1636, Governor Don Juan Canseco y Quiñones authorized the distillation and manufacture of mescal, in order to facilitate tax collection on production. However, Spanish rule suppressed tequila production and in 1785, the production of all native distilled spirits was banned. In 1792, the ban was lifted but tequila production did not flourish again until Mexican independence in 1821. In the early to mid 1800's, many tequila distillers began large-scale production. Some businesses eventually failed but two of the largest are still in business today. The first licensed manufacturer was Jose Antonio Cuervo who began cultivation in 1758. His Casa Cuervo proved very profitable. By the mid-1800's, his families fields had more than 3 million agave plants. Cuervo was also the first distiller to put tequila into bottles. Today Cuervo is the largest manufacturer of tequila, with a huge export market. In 1873, another major distiller, Don Cenobio Sauza, acquired La Antigua, a company founded in the early 1820's.
The sale of food products in the market of Tlatelolco with its various colors, shapes, smells, and sounds “unified Native American cuisines while preserving rich regional variations; [epitomized] the social relationships that depended on the feeding of gods and people; and [preserved] the cultural significance of taste for pre-Columbian cooking and eating” (9-10). Cuisine played an important part in the constructing of social hierarchies in Mesoamerica, and to this day continues to shape individuality not only in Mexico, but also for every country. Traditional forms of Mesoamerican cooking mainly belonged to women, and three simple utensils including a cazuela, a metate, and a comal, allowed them to frugally make delicious tortillas. But they “derived much of their self-worth from skill at the metate, the ability to grind maize so they could feed tortillas and tamales to their husbands and children,” (14-15). This single crop has permitted for these lower-class women to preserve and refine the pre-Columbian cuisine of tortillas and tamales. Mexicans have always been and still are a people of corn, in spite of numerous attempts to change this, partly in thanks to the female
Attempts at pinning down Camelot have also proved fruitless. Wood describes the difficulty in locating Camelot, saying, "A late local tradition connected Arthur with a hill fort, and when the Camelot Research Committ dug there, they caused a sensation…The Excavators did not, in fact find Camelot, nor was anything turned up to connect the place specifically with King Arthur" (51). This serves to...
One of the methods to acquire food for the Cahuilla was through Gathering and Harvesting seasonal foods. One of the most notable food the Cahuilla’s enjoyed was the Pinion Nuts. Pinion Nuts derive from a pine tree that is local to the South Western California and upper Mexico. The pine tree contains a small edible s...
Mary Shelley was an extremely talented writer who used many different techniques to make Frankenstein so engaging. Her most notable tool was how she managed to entwine stories within each other. Other books may do this once in their story but Mary Shelley repeatedly does it allowing us to see the story in other peoples perspectives.
The Aztecs would use this plant for firewood, fencing fields, roof tiles, plates, dishes, paper, thread for all types of garments like shoes, and cloth. They would make nails out of the horns of this plant and would use its juice for wine, vinegar, honey, and sugar. Document 3, shows us the “Discourses of the Elders” this was written by an unknown author in the 16th century, an Aztec noblewoman described the education of “noble boys” and “noble girls”. The adults had begun to teach the boys how to battle, hunt, shoot a blowgun, hurl stones, how to use a shield and a hand sword, they also learned to throw hand spears, netting, and snaring. Other were taught “the different crafts” such as feather work, how feathers and plumes were arrayed, mosaic work, goldsmithery, jewel cutting, metal polishing, song composition, music, the science of the heavens, the study of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Others took to the fields or the flower gardens to teach them how to sow seeds, to plant trees and flowers, work the land. Girls were taught cleaning, cooking, sprinkling, making beverages, how to spindle, different kinds of embroidery, and dyeing of rabbit
Mexicans, as constructed by Menchaca, are a predominantly mestizo population whose mixed ancestry she traces to early Latin American civilizations. In 200 BC the largest city in the Americas, Teotihuacán, was founded. Teotihuacán would one day be the site of Mexico City, and by 650 AD there were between 120,000 and 250,000 inhabitants. (2) Groups that inhabited the region fro...
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a work of Gothic horror - a branch of romantic fiction characterized by its focus on sublime emotions. The genre is often inspired by nightmares with the intent to inspire horror and emotion in the reader.
Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Green Chile” describes a personal experience growing up with a staple food of the Southwest tradition. In the 3 stanzas and 45 eloquent lines, Baca uses symbolism through red and green chile peppers. The red chile peppers symbolize strength and progression and are also the peppers the author prefers. On the other hand, the green chilies represent youth, which are Baca’s grandmother's favorite. Both the red and green chilies are differentiated by the flavor and taste to tell a story of Baca and his history of growing up with his grandmother.
The knowledge that OTs have on fall prevention comes from research and EBP (Evidence Based Practice) this gives the OT knowledge on why falls happen and how to prevent falls from occurring. Occupational therapist can use this evidence and aim at certain areas to avoid falls, because sometimes it’s not the environment that person is in but the person themselves which causes them to fall. Client factors are another problem when it comes to falls in regards to leg weakness, medications, and poor balance these factors could also be life threatening for an elderly person. Educating patients is an important role in the occupational therapy process because this teaches that person fall risk and fall circumvention which gives that person a better understanding on fall prevention. Regardless of the setting, an OT can help older people reduce their risk of falling for example by giving a person adaptive equipment like a reacher by helping them reach for something that’s to low or too high for them to grasp which could result in a fall. Another example is a low rise bed which could keep that person from falling because that bed is too high to get in and
In the novel, Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley, implements a prevalent nineteenth century structure called epistolary within a frame narrative to introduce a sublime story. Through Robert Walton’s letters to his sister, Victor Frankenstein’s life story, and the monster’s interjection, the author provides multiple perspectives to the plot. By allowing each character to share their story that all contain differing point of views, it enables the readers to remain interested and informed. Through the three contrasting narrators, Shelley strengthens the roles of the characters as they respectively convey their emotions and input their personal thoughts.
Rock, D. (1987). Argentina, 1516-1987: From Spanish Colonization to Alphonsín. Berkley: University of California Press.
About fifteen years after Arthur’s birth, King Uther died of poison from Colgrim, who was the king of Saxons in Germany; they had been at war. Merlin, the legendary wizard who had been Uther’s advisor, was given the task to find a new king. Wishing it to be Arthur, he plunged a sword into a stone and enchanted it so that only the next king of England could remove it and placed the stone in front of the church in London for all to try to pull the sword from the stone.
A constitution is a written document that sets forth the fundamental rules by which a society is governed. Throughout the course of history the United States has lived under two Constitutions since the British-American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776. First in line was the Articles of Confederation (1789-1789) followed by the Constitution of United States of America (1789-present). The Articles of Confederation was the first formal written Constitution of America that specified how the national government was to operate. Unfortunately, the Articles did not last long. Under the words of the Article’s power was limited; Congress could make decisions, but had no power to enforce them. Also the articles stated that Congress was denied the power of taxation meaning the national government was given no money to regulate federal spending. Money could only be requested from the states and states had the ability to not guarantee the request. Among the lack of enforcement and taxation was the denied power to regulate commerce trade for the national government in other words the federal government could not build a strong economy. All these factors and others included lead to the fall of the Articles of Confederation. Guiding towards Constitutional Convention, where the present day Constitution was written and signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present on September 17, 1787. This paper discusses why the Founding Father’s designed the Constitution as they did and how this design has affected our system today.
II. Main Point 1: The Sinaloa Drug Cartel was created when a previous powerful drug cartel failed due to the arrest of its leader
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