These images document the people and daily life of the tequila producing region in Jalisco State, Mexico, primarily in and around the agave fields, haciendas and distilleries, and the town of Tequila itself, where the traditions and rituals of making tequila have been passed down for centuries. 

Throughout Mexico’s long, complicated, often violent history –– from Aztec warriors to the Spanish conquistadores to Pancho Villa to the drug gangs of today ––  one drink, an ancient sacrament and gift from the gods, has remained a constant: tequila. Blue Agave, the source of tequila, has been cultivated, fermented and enjoyed for over 9000 years. Over time many traditions and rituals were born, later incorporated into and modified by conquering cultures. In the 1500s the Spaniards applied their brandy distillation technology to fermented agave juice to create what we call tequila. This history is completely unknown to most Americans. After photographing in Mexico periodically over twenty years I thought I was excluded from this ignorance. Then while reading Salman Rushdie’s “The Ground Beneath Her Feet,” I was struck by a scene where the protagonist sees naked men in vats of agave juice making tequila. I thought the image too precise and unusual to be completely fictional, and that the author must have observed this himself. In my work, I'm attracted to the mystery of our existence, the contradictions and incongruities of everyday life, and this image struck me as deeply mythological and pulled at my imagination. So I began the process of discovery that led me to realize that actually I knew very little about tequila, Mexican history or its culture.