Book Talk: Mezcal in Oaxaca: A Craft Spirit for the Global Marketplace
Ronda L. Brulotte
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 | 02:00 pm
Latin American and Iberian Institute (801 Yale Blvd NE)
801 Yale Blvd NE (campus building #165)
About:
Join the LAII and the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies for a discussion about the book Mezcal in Oaxaca: A Craft Spirit for the Global Marketplace, written by Ronda L Brulotte.
This presentation explores Oaxacan mezcal as a newcomer to the global market. Not only is mezcal Oaxaca’s fastest growing rural industry, but it also connects the region to an emergent network of producers, brokers, and consumers across the U.S.- Mexico border and beyond. Mezcal may be joining more well-known foods of Mexican origin commonplace in U.S. markets (corn, chile, chocolate), but its popularity is distinctly tied to the creation of a new class of global food consumers who prize mezcal as craft within the artisanal food movement; at the same time, its growing popularity is spurring questions about the sustainability of the industry.
Ronda L Brulotte (Anthropology, University of Texas) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Brulotte is an interdisciplinary scholar with training in sociocultural anthropology and Latin American studies whose research focuses on craft economies, critical heritage, and materiality culture in Mexico. Her books include Between Art and Artifact: Archaeological Replicas & Cultural Production in Oaxaca, Mexico (University of Texas Press 2012), Edible Identities: Food as Cultural Heritage (Routledge 2014) (co-edited with Michael A. Di Giovine), and Mezcal in Oaxaca: A Craft Spirit for the Global Marketplace (University of Texas Press 2025).
Notes:
This event is free and open to the public.
