Tequila, A Quintessential Mexican Town
The Boston Globe - Travel - Sunday, October 21, 2012
Just beneath the angel statue at the front corner of the town square, a young girl in a frilly lavender dress runs through a swirl of soap bubbles, her arms outstretched, a magic wand waving above her head. Her smile is so large, it’s like the first time a child sees snow. Above her rises the rough stone facade of the Santiago Apostol church whose tower is topped by a great neon cross with a tiny heart at its center.
The deliciously sleepy town of Tequila — population 30,000 — is quintessential Mexico. At first blush it’s hard to imagine that it is at the center of a big industry, yet the city’s coat of arms is festooned with the agave plant used to create the spirit that is the economic heart of the region.
Here, men wear cowboy hats, Wrangler shirts, jeans, and boots, and children scramble freely through the streets. Much of the town is surrounded by distilleries such as Cuervo and Sauza. Beyond them are thousands of square miles of the spiky, blue-tinged agave plant whose middle, known as the piña for its pineapple shape, is cooked and crushed to create the juice that is distilled into Mexico’s national spirit and is a big favorite north of the border.
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