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You can make out the silhouettes of our past, in the morning light.

People here have been cultivating this plant for millennia.

Farming it connects them to the land,

to their history.

Its fibers are coarse, its leaves sharp.

It is a struggle to grow,

an unlikely source of sustenance.

Those who harvest it, the jimadores,

use the same primitive tools their ancestors did.

The ancients believed it was a gift from the gods,

able to communicate the secrets of the soil,

To express the soul of the land.

Here in the highlands of Jalisco,

it's very common that we love to do everything by ourselves.

It's not very easy for us to delegate.

It looks so easy when they are doing it,

and they are very skilled, because they have

years and years doing this kind of job,

but it is hard.

Actually Guillermo, the guy with the hat,

he has been with us doing this for 42 years.

He learned this, the art of being a jimador,

from his father, from his uncles, all of his brothers.

Like, Guillermo's sons, he was able now to pay them for college.

So now they don't wanna be jimadores because now they have a degree,

they went to college, and their kids do not want to come and do this very hard labor.

That is why the challenge is to preserve the jimadores.

The good question is where are we going to get jimadores

for the next generation,

and that I couldn't answer what's gonna happen.

Look, I mean, there was a census here, it was done in 1998,

a census of 508 residents and now it is supposed that there are 230.

they want to see something, get something, have money

for buying clothes or shoes, or for their future

That necessity has caused a lot of people to migrate, many have gone north.

As I said, my son Temo also had to leave, because there was no work.

I didn't have any work for them and they were growing.

Remember that the vowel goes first.

Yes.

ser-vi-ces...

ser-vi-ces...

I don’t know what it says,

Repeat after me,

Don’t get distracted, you were fine.

Santiago.

I’m sorry.

We say the year we started is the same as my great-grandfather was born, 1898.

We are "mezcaleros" on both my father’s and mother’s sides.

and, in both families, women used to participate by selling mezcal,

In that time, in Santa Catarina Minas, a lot of mezcal was produced,

much more, I believe, than what we are able to produce now.

So you could say that we have a little over a hundred years making mezcal.

Now a days it is industrialized in many ways.

People have been selling mezcal like it is only an alcohol

but in its essence, it's truly so much more.

Yes, that is right; that's what I told him.

They need to cut this.

I fell in love with the world of mezcal, and the agave,

because over the years I understood

everything that I have been able to do in my

life, I owe to that plant and to that drink.

It’s like if you would search in my DNA you would find an Agave molecule.

Get in there because it is very heavy.

Let’s go over here.

You better hold it there and I'll raise it up here.

There, so it doesn’t slip.

Go up!

AGAVE El Espíritu de Una Nación

Thousands of feet above sea level,

often in the harshest of conditions,

the agave plant thrives.

The plant typically needs between six and ten years to reach maturity,

and it must be harvested by hand.

More than 200 species of agave exist on this planet,

and most are native to Mexico.

Some are farmed,

but many more grow wild throughout the countryside,

and can take twenty, even thirty years to ripen.

For centuries, mezcal has been a way of life.

Farmers make the spirit for their families,

their neighbors.

Sold in local markets,

in unlabeled containers. A part of every celebration.

When a child is born, a loved one is buried, when a couple is married.

As the saying goes:

It was long believed

that the Spanish brought distillation to Mexico.

But recent archaeological evidence suggests that

primitive stills were in use long before the conquistadors invaded.

It flourished in places with an abundance of

agave, like the states of Jalisco and Oaxaca.

Under Spanish rule,

mezcal was first banned,

then heavily taxed

but thirst for the spirit persisted.

One village in Jalisco made such delicious Mezcal,

that word of it spread far and wide.

Before it was a drink, Tequila was a place.

The mezcal from Tequila grew so famous,

that it came to be known simply as:

"Tequila"

Unlike mezcal,

which can be made from many different types of agave,

tequila can be made from just one,

the blue agave.

Demand for tequila has grown quickly.

Production practices were forced to industrialize.

Stainless steel replaced brick ovens.

Old stone mills were abandoned.

The most traditional methods for making tequila,

all but disappeared.

Everybody would prefer brandies.

It's a very Spanish thinking, probably, about fifty years ago.

and tequila was perceived as something that you

would consume if you had not enough money,

to go and buy a bottle of brandy.

That was, if I may say so, that was the Spanish influence.

A lot also had to do with the Mexican movies,

with the charro drinking out of the bottle, getting drunk

and pulling the gun, and start fighting and all of that.

That was kind of the image that the tequila would have.

The more that the consumer started learning in the last thirty years,

about 100 percent agave tequila. Hey, tequila

is not only for shooting and getting drunk.

Now, you can enjoy the

taste, the flavor, the subtle nuances from one tequila to another tequila.

The more that the people started understanding that,

tequila became more and more and more popular.

The more you know about something,

the more that now you have the tools to appreciate that something.

This originally was very poor land.

Very few crops would grow here,

so we are used to work hard in order to finally get something out of the soil.

50 years ago we used to produce 8 months a year,

And now it's all year round nonstop.

The people the is already working with us is people,

Third and fourth generation of the same families that started working

With grandfather or great grandfather.

It is an extended family that has been with us In good and bad times.

Good Afternoon, Guys!

I was studying agriculture, because I thought

well My father he's the master distiller,

He's a chemical engineer.

He knows he's stuff on producing tequila.

When I came back from college with my title I said:

"Ok, I'm ready let's go to the fields"

And he told me: "I'm glad that your back, because

I'm sick and tired been sitting at an office"

"And taking decisions and dealing with paperwork and doing all of this"

"So now, you sit on my chair and do what I would do, and I'm going to the fields.”

And I said: "Wait a minute. There's something wrong here."

"I know a little bit about drinking it, but nothing about producing tequila,"

"and of course, I don't know how to run a company,"

"and you want me from overnight to take your place here?”

He said, "Well, I'll be close by, I'll be in

the fields. So if you have any questions,"

"you can always go and ask me,"

"but yeah, that's your role. Sit in my chair and do what I would do."

My brother is one of the most intelligent people in this world.

He knows about everything and about numbers, about engineering. He's so smart.

He is also, I've got to be honest with you, he's a little rough on the edges,

because he is really temperamental. He gets upset really easily

and I'm not saying this like a bad thing,

because I think you need this kind of character

in order to be the head of a company.

You can't be soft all the time, or happy all the time.

So I think every time he comes and looks at how the agave is moving,

how the ovens are loading,

I think he's always thinking in that part,

"How am I gonna grow?"

"But without losing my people and without losing the quality."

Now we are having this big shortage of agave,

and I think that's one of the most highest points of pressure,

because you know that if we don't have agave, the rest of the production is dead.

Agave shortages are not uncommon in the tequila industry.

Increased demand for one hundred-percent-agave tequila,

translates into a greater need for agave.

The rise of agave prices in recent years has been relentless.

Like all spirits, distilling tequila requires a vast amount of raw materials.

It is no coincides that we use the word spirit.

to refer to whiskey,

or brandy,

or tequila,

or mezcal.

To distill something is to reduce it to its most basic essence.

To make tequila or mezcal,

the agave must first be cooked.

For tequila it is steamed.

For mezcal, it is roasted underground.

Then cooked agave is then crushed, extracting its sweet juices,

which are then fermented.

Yeast transforms sugar into alcohol.

Next comes distillation.

Typically in copper pot stills,

but in certain villages,

mezcal continues to be made in small clay pots.

When the spirit of the agave is extracted,

all the information it stores,

transmitted over its lifetime,

from the sun, soil, and water, is preserved.

To drink it is to taste the land where it was made.

Here, where we are, all this land was planted

with agave, and it belonged to my grandfather

The agave were so big that a mule was barely able to carry them…

Carrying three, four loads every day

To fill the oven with agave would take at least a week, a week and a half

I was 16 years old when I started to harvest agave by myself. My grandfather

considered giving my father the little old distillery as a gift.

Now I can tell you that we no longer transport the harvest on beasts of burden,

now we carry in a truck, the agave I mean.

I have six children, 3 women and 3 men.

This is my little son, Kevin.

I brought your coffee…

Ok, put it over there. Did they already drink coffee?

Yeah, I think so. The beans are already on the stove.

That’s right, son… it is called "resaque."

- And you pour water, in the other one, the one that is in the tank?

- That one is called the "snake?" - Yes.

-And why do you do it like that?

-Because that’s how it must be covered

-And the other strip?

-Now it's tied up.

-Now it's tied up.

-Pass me the rope.

-Is this the rope?

-Give it to me.

Then you put one of these on to make it heavier,

so the force of the mezcal can’t lift it up.

Good Luck or whatever it was... my mezcal was in very high

demand, and they started to ask me for more and more and more.

We can fill 30 percent, up to 50 percent of our

orders... because we can’t produce very much.

What could it be? I think it is the quality, because an

industrialized product is not the same as an artisanal one.

As I tell you, I thank God I'm not a greedy man

but I try to deliver quality not quantity.

that’s what moves me, motivates me a little.

Excuse me.

The fire, is the act of consuming matter,

that serves as the base for transforming into another matter

makes me wonder about transcendence of the agave

while it’s true the moment we harvest It's life in the soil is finished,

While it is also true that we need the fire to transform the wood,

these two elements, represent the death of something,

they also represent the birth of something new,

in this case, mezcal.

And thinking about rituals or what the fire has represented in human history

It’s around the fire that the family congregates,

it is blessed and begins a new cycle.

Since the moment that my dad passed away, we were all sad,

but we said "Ok, he’s gone and with what he taught us let's move forward."

Well it’s the burden of everything, over a hundred years of tradition on our shoulders

and a big legacy. Obviously we do not want to lose it, and live with dignity.

Furthermore, we can help people from the community,

so they can achieve their dreams, just like we did.

Obviously, Graciela is the type of

character: "We're going to do it like this!"

She grounds us, and now we all know what to do,

We need someone that tells us, "let's go!" Right?

The new one is coming down beautifully. I'm seeing if it stains.

No, well it's been a while.

No, but, was this the last one?

- Yeah but not yet. It does it when it's not warm.

No, now that it's warm it won't do it.

This one... the second one smells good. The

one over there smells good. It's very sweet.

- Yeah this one here is still from the batch we filled up with

the 475 liters. We still need 25 liters to make up the 500.

The distilleries used to be structured in an old fashioned way

in where the men worked the field and the women stayed in the kitchen.

but as I mentioned: "I didn’t enjoy being in the kitchen,"

I don't enjoy cooking, or maybe that's just my rebellious way.

But, my mom said that I had to learn how to cook for when I got married…

But, before she could finish the phrase “when

you get married...” I ran out of the kitchen!

and I didn't want to learn to cook because of that.

In that sense, even though my dad was raised in

this small village I think he had a very open mind,

because he never restricted us to be in a way, I mean,

he never told us, the women, we had to get married,

My dad’s goal was that for his children to go to college.

At the same time, he instilled in us a deep love for what we did,

When I asked myself what I was going to do in the future?

I said, "well, I have done everything on my list." Right?

My checklist: my research, I did it, my book, I did it, I did this, I did that.

Now what do I do?

And so, I realized that the only thing I was really passionate about was mezcal.

What my spirit said to me was....

"I want to be in the field, I don’t want to be in the city."

Nowadays, everybody is an expert in mezcal.

In that time, what we were doing was crazy,

because in that time, the tendency was to be very technical, industrialized,

to make a massive amount of product.

we’re not going to make quantity, we’re going to make something special,

We’re going to educate the consumer

everybody said, "these people are crazy!”

I'm a firm believer in that progress starts through education.

and I believe that because this is what I have seen in myself.

At the distillery we put it in the oven to see if it is cooked.

A spirit's ideal compostion embodies

the biological,

environmental,

cultural,

even economic practices from the place it is made.

And as consumers yearn for authenticity,

Mezcal is an ideal structure.

Mezcal is a story of economic triumph for Mexico.

Exports have tripled over the past five years.

Producing the spirit provides a way for communities across rural Mexico

to earn a living from their traditions,

but its popularity has also attracted foreign interests.

Every major spirits company across the globe now wants its own brand of mezcal.

And the disparity between the spirit's commercial

success and the prosperity of the families who make it

grows ever wider.

And yet, the mezcal market is a fraction of tequila,

a global business worth billions of dollars.

Tequila's growth doesn't seem to be slowing.

But the more the world demands the spirit,

the greater the pressure on natural resources in the place where it is made.

You want something modern, mechanized, and industrial,

you can get it very easily in the market,

but there's always someone that is looking for something a little bit different,

Al something that might have a soul, may have a heart.

Those are the people that we are working for.

We are not isolated in this planet.

So her mom was killed,

the employees from the fields brought her to me so I could take care of her.

My dilemma's what to do with her because I wanted to release her,

and now the vet tells me that she is getting used to the human people.

Now she will be an easy prey for the hunters,

if she's alone, so I dunno what to do with her here, just keep her in the garden…

Or… Or what to do?

We are focused on sustainability with the one philosophy in our head,

which is not what kind of world are we leaving to our children,

is what kind of children are we educating to leave into this world.

What happens in the market is that eventually there's a crisis.

The price goes up to the clouds and everybody gets excited about agave,

even people that never had an agave plant in their life.

Everybody starts planting agave at the same time.

Seven years after that, guess what?

There's more agave than what the industry can process.

The price comes crashing down. Everybody says, “Oh, what a lousy business!"

"I don't wanna hear about agave anymore in my life!”

This cycle keeps repeating over and over, but it has been happening for 120 years,

so what is really amazing or surprises me is that with such a long history,

still, we don't get it. We don't learn.

It is very common here that the people that plants agave,

they keep on planting agave over and over, and over again in the same field,

and they are exhausting the soil.

They are extracting all of the nutrients.

We have seen, we have been witnessed on how the agave gets,

weaker and weaker, and more subject to diseases.

So, for some people their philosophy is that time is money,

let's get out of the soil and let's get out of the industry as much as possible,

in the lowest possible time.

For us, having five generations doing this growing agave,

taking care of the land,

it's a matter of we expect to have at least another 5 or 10 generations behind us,

that will keep on using the same land.

So it is our duty to preserve that land for them.

It's a matter of a philosophy,

so we have to take care of it and educate our children,

to be responsible for the future generations.

Since elementary school, I was telling you

about this dream of having a library, right?,

about having a library in the community.

This land is so much better than the first one that they donated to us…

Because otherwise, try to figure how the construction

would be like a house in the mountains, right?

the ground wouldn’t have been able to be leveled

and would’ve been more difficult for the people to access.

Edgar has always been my accomplice; ever since we were little.

Ever since college, he always built with adobe.

His first construction was with adobe brick.

He has designed everything that's in the distillery, in my home, etc.

I told him "I need your help."

And he started coming, and little by little I got him involved.

From what we create, something has to remain here.

And somebody, other kids from the town, other young

people from the town, will be able to study.

And surely they have crazy ideas just like I did at one point. Right?

So, if I can help someone else achieve their dream, or help awaken them;

well, that'll be my contribution to the world.

Agave has been a cornerstone of the culture in Mexico for millennia.

Pollinated by birds, bats, and insects,

the plant has been a source of nutrition for humans

for 11,000 years.

Over the ages,

people have roasted and eaten the plant's flesh,

and dried the leaves to weave into clothing,

bedding, and roofs for their homes.

They used the fine needle at the tip of each spiky leaf

for sewing garments and for bloodletting ceremonies.

Agave was sacred to the Aztecs.

They drank its fermented sap as a way to communicate with the gods.

Today, agave fields dot the landscape.

But researchers fear,

as a vast monoculture, blue agave is at risk.

A lack of biodiversity may have genetically compromised the plant.

Farmers have noticed that their crop is more

vulnerable in the face of pests and disease.

And like other farmers, tequila's agave growers

have suffered great losses in bouts of extreme weather in recent years.

Now we are at La Alteña, the destilería That was begun by my grandfather,

And then my father, and now us.

And, now here this is the section where the agave…

There was not even the thought about making mixto tequila,

mixing something else. It was just pure 100% agave.

There have been moments that there was not enough agave,

and the government decided that to allow some producers,

to use less and less agave and substitute the agave for sugar cane.

So that is the wrong direction to go.

This is tequila.

A hundred percent agave.

We are proud to say.

We will have.. We are proud to say.

We are making.

That we are making.

Possibly the best tequila from this country.

The best tequila from this country.

The people who make this Tequila says that there is no one another like this one.

For me labeling bottles is a matter of practice, so I'm

sure I would do it wrong at least the first three bottles.

- It’s part of the learning, do you think that I don’t know

that the more you ruin the more you learn?…

I'm the youngest in this family, so, maybe I didn't work here since the beginning.

But some part of my growing,

my childhood, belongs to these people and to this place.

I studied architecture. I'm an architect.

So I was working back in Guadalajara in this great firm.

I was really happy. I was making, I was doing what I really enjoyed

was designing and building, and I have to be honest.

My brother Carlos invited me

and asked me to give the family business a chance

because I didn't know anything.

So that was the main reason why I came here, because I wanted to give it a try.

To know what my father built,

and what my brother and my sisters were working.

But I have to be honest, I thought that I was not going to like it.

The first sip feels very strong.

-Most of all it is on the tongue.

- You feel it on the tongue, but in the second sip you can feel it is tastier

more pleasant, why? Because it’s already soaked up.

- Just because of the difference of 3 percent? I thought that it was more.

Well, cheers!

What I'm afraid is that because of the boom of

Mezcal, Mezcal can be forced to start running.

Start mechanizing everything and start using all

of their resources with not a lot of future.

So actually, what I think that Mezcal can learn from Tequila is not to make,

the problems, mistakes, that we made in the past.

I hope that I will never see a mezcal mixto with 49% sugar cane.

I hope that they will avoid that.

So I think that the Mezcal industry

has to learn from our mistakes in tequila industry,

Not to go in certain directions.

We still can learn from mezcal to remain loyal to your roots.

Remain loyal to your traditions.

Remain loyal to who you are, where are you coming from.

Cause your past is your present and will be your future.

I swam across the Río Grande seven times,

Here we learned everything about the river and it was very easy for me to swim it.

But helping six other people that didn’t know anything about crossing was hard

There were many of us,

I wasn’t proud of going to the United States,

It was an ordeal.

We went orange picking in Florida,

A truck used to pick me and my group up at 5 in the morning,

To take us to the orange fields

Very often that we were coming back at 11 or 10 in the night, very tired,

Just to take a bath, prepare something for lunch

and leave everything ready for the next morning,

Very shameful, it was a bitter time for me.

Then as I told you, well, because of the same necessities

another of my sons had to go there to suffer

not to go party or be a tourist,

he went to suffer.

Then the work of making mezcal popped up

and I got the idea to tell him to return

“come back, You are doing a job that is not yours"

and working with strangers and here I can offer you a job,

Thanks to the market for mezcal”

One of my daughters graduated nursing school in Oaxaca,

and she went to do her social service in a clinic in Chacahua, in Puerto Escondido,

And there she met this American guy, Judah

He was sick and went to the clinic and I think

that when he arrived he got well because…

There he met my daughter and they became friends, until they got married.

And that’s it, he established a bar on the beach,

and he was selling my mezcal, he came and took 50 or 60 liters.

And so I told him: “But get me to the market on the other side”

always with that idea “Get me to the market on the other side.”

I didn’t give up on that idea

After 8 months he got permission to take the first little sample,

Mateo was the first one to come back meanwhile

Temo was in the USA but when the work grew,

I got the idea to tell him to come back so we could produce more mezcal,

and now even Kevin is working with us, taking his shovel, planting baby agave,

putting the "pinas" into the oven. We all collaborate

Well, I’m proud to have them here because now they are part of “Vago”

Temo and Mateo have learned so much.

There is already a small financial cushion, a savings of money,

To maybe build their houses, or for their weddings

thanks to the mezcal work, thanks to the agave.

Cheers!

I was in Guadalajara and then Jenny, my sister, called me saying,

"You know what?" We're getting flooded.”

I had to be there. I had to try to see how big is the damage.

The rivers were all so overflowed

that there was no way to get into the distillery.

At that moment, most of the employees,

were already at the distillery.

They heard that we were getting flooded and without us calling them,

everybody came in order to see what can I do to help.

We couldn't stop the distillery.

We had agave cooking in the ovens,

and the boilers were not working.

So it was a matter of we need to keep up and running now.

It took about 36 hours.

But with my sisters, with my kids, with me, all of us,

there was not such a thing as the boss, and the employee. It was just us together.

This is our home, this is our business. This is what we have to do.

My grandfather thought it was a good idea to build the distillery,

in the lowest part of the ranch, because the water would come by gravity.

Nowadays…

It was good at that time, but now that is the problem.

We are the lowest part of the ranch,

so all the water will concentrate here.

And still people doesn't think on global warming.

Well, ten years ago we had the first flood here in eighty years.

Two years ago we had the second. This year we had the third,

so it's more and more and more often.

We had snow in 1997 for the first time in 130 years.

We had snow in March last year.

So, it's getting worse and worse and worse.

Just another little stone on the road, that's it.

The bridge collapased....

The river washed the land away

We didn't discover mezcal, we didn't invent anything,

no one is really doing anything completely new.

I think that what we did at the end of the day; those of

us who ventured into this journey, we cleaned up the way

All we're doing is basically revealing something that was once hidden, it's

as if it had been a rough diamond and all we're doing is polishing it up.

Do the homework, the ones that your teacher asked you to do, okey dokey?

Do you want some sauce?

I left a tortilla on the stove…

Santiago, is there something burning? Ah, Santiago de los Ángeles…

-I don’t know when something is burned…

You smell, sweetie, usually it smells, when something is burning, it smells.

What do you figure, after how many years will we see this one?

- We’re filming the origin of the agave that Santiago will harvest.

The moment that you are leaving this world,

you're taking nothing with you but your experience, what you lived.

There's a new generation that comes pushing behind us,

so what we try to do is just kind of train them and,

prepare them for the future. Try to make them understand

that this company, this field, these agave's, all of this is not theirs.

They have to take care of them for the next generation,

so they are the guards, they are the keepers.

We are not here forever and therefore

who wants to be the richest, dead guy at the cemetery.

As long as you have decent way of living,

as long as you can provide your family with all of their necessities,

the rest is extra.

My father wasn't sick, he was a healthy man, he was 76.

That morning he went to the office to tell people what to do,

but he couldn't make it through the door, he suddenly faint.

We took him to the hospital and 20 minutes later he was dead.

I actually never had a chance to speak with him about what I was to do with my life.

I think that he must have been laughing about me, like

you are not going to perform as an actual architect,

you are gonna continue with my legacy,

but you' never expect that your dad goes out and never comes back.

I don't even begin to describe,

how, how Carlos felt in that moment,

because he was, now everything was on him,

all the responsibilities, all the good and the bad decisions

they worked together, they were like

everywhere and every decision they made them,

so, my father I think think he would be really proud to see,

to see that all his work is continuing by that line.

10 years ago I had the hypothesis,

that the small producers would disappear,

Because the tendency was industrialization

now it is exactly the opposite

Those small producers are blooming, emerging

and also there are many kinds of them,

From the one who's recovering the tradition of his

grandfather that was broken in the past two generations and,

he’s trying to rescue it.

To the one that didn’t have anything to do with this matter but,

is taking advantage from the moment and is setting up a distillery.

I mean, the most delicate part is the biological one,

because you need to leave agave as mother plants.

You need to plant more agave,

otherwise, we will have a museum of the mezcal in Oaxaca,

We will have a museum of what was...

of what was here.

You will see “these are pictures of the last samples of a kind of agave”, right?

That’s like the delicate point of all the history

What is happening is a pillage

of the biological and cultural patrimony, that represents the mezcal

in pursuit of a merchandise called mezcal.

I think that the only one who has the key is the consumer.

Some don't think of tequila as a cultural product.

Perhaps we should.

A spirit with sacred roots and rich history that can only be made here in Mexico.

A robust industry

that supports some seventy thousand families across the region.

A symbol of Mexican identity, in all its complexity.

The rise of the spirit in recent years has inspired

certain producers to look back at ancestral traditions.

Dusting off the tahona,

embracing brick ovens,

and returning to farming practices that

replenish the soil and respect the landscape.

It has sparked a movement toward more sustainable

practices throughout the tequila industry.

People here are looking to the future while heeding the past,

striking a delicate balance between satisfying the market,

While preserving heritage.

Are the bottles already here?

Yes they are,

They’re already washed, let’s fill them, they’re ready.

Just right there, put it down there and this one just put it down…

Ah yes, yes, yes

It fills up faster this way.

How do you feel about another son getting married?

Well, it's the same. It gets easier.

- The only one left is Kevin. - Kevin.

It is thought that my house is for him.

I guess he’s jealous already and in 3 or 4 years

will want to get married like his brothers, right?

I don’t think so.

-What are they doing?

-They’re praying, praying with the Priest…

-When will they go out?

-When the service finishes.

I, Cuauhtémoc García García, take you, Marisela Sánchez Altamirano, to be my wife,

I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad,

I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

I, Marisela Sánchez Altamirano, take you, Cuauhtémoc García García, to be my husband,

I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad,

in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.

Receive this ring as a symbol of my love, and eternal faith.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Oh… thank you, Aquilino.

This prehistoric plant,

a living dinosaur.

A vehicle for the secrets of the soil.

Following generations of tradition.

Transformed by fire.

Distilled to its essence.

To become a piece of our culture.

And share with the world.