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Tequila Wars: José Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico with Ted Genoways and Manuel Aragon
Saturday May 24, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm MDT
4 Grace Atrium
This session is is a must for history lovers and people who are interested in spirits!

A revelatory history of the vast tequila empire born from the fires of the Mexican Revolution.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, José Cuervo inherited his family’s humble distillery, La Rojeña, in the Tequila Valley. Within a decade, he had transformed it into a complex national enterprise that would become Mexico’s leading producer of tequila. Cuervo grew his kingdom of agave by acquiring thousands of acres of estates throughout the valley; he brought electricity and a railroad line to Tequila, so he could reach drinkers across the country. But when the Mexican Revolution erupted, a charge of treason and a death threat against him by Pancho Villa forced Cuervo to flee. His disappearance turned him into an obscure, shadowy historical figure—despite having one of the most famous names in Mexican history.

In Tequila Wars, award-winning author Ted Genoways restores Cuervo to his place as a key player in Mexico’s formative period. Before the revolution, Cuervo’s acclaim spread worldwide, and once war broke out, Cuervo remained an impresario, kingmaker, and cultural force. In the face of his own government’s corruption and the nationalism of his northern neighbors, Cuervo reached American drinkers by establishing Mexico’s covert form of cross-border commerce with the United States. As the largest and most important distilleries in the Tequila Valley recognized the threat posed by Mexico’s unraveling, Cuervo also lobbied for suspending normal competition in favor of “a union of tequila makers”—what would become the first Mexican cartel.

With extensive original research, including access to the secret archives of the Cuervo and Sauza families, Genoways follows the violent, unpredictable, and hugely profitable world of tequila through the story of its most successful maker. The first biography of Cuervo, Tequila Wars uncovers the history of the man who would forever change not only the business of tequila, but international relations between Mexico and the United States.

Speakers
avatar for Manuel Aragon

Manuel Aragon

Manuel Aragon is a Latinx writer, director, and filmmaker from Denver, CO. He is currently working on a short story collection, Norteñas. Norteñas is a collection of speculative fiction short stories centered in the Northside, a Mexican and Mexican- American centered part of Denver... Read More →
avatar for Ted Genoways

Ted Genoways

Author and journalist Ted Genoways has penned a definitive, revelatory history of the vast tequila empire born from the fires of the Mexican Revolution. TEQUILA WARS: José Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico (on sale May 6, 2025) is a gripping, propulsive, and... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm MDT
4 Grace Atrium

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