Sarah Bowen - Divided Spirits : Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production

First, I express my gratitude to all of the kind and generous people who welcomed me into their homes, offices, and distilleries. Every story that was shared with me has contributed to the richness of my understanding of tequila and mezcal and the institutions that regulate them.

My research in Mexico was supported by the Rural Sociological Society, the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Centro de Estudios y Programas Interamericanos at the Instituto Tecnolgico Autnomo de Mxico, and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. My research in Europe, which served as an important comparison with my work in Mexico, was supported by a Fulbright Institute of International Education Grant to the European Union, by the Center for European Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and by the French development and research organization CIRAD.

I am indebted to the many people who helped make my research in Mexico possible. Doa Guadalupe Michel welcomed me to the first place I lived in Mexico, more than ten years ago. Doa Lupitas house provided a wonderful place for conversation and served as my introduction to many Mexican foods, traditions, and telenovelas. Professors Peter Gerritsen and Ana Valenzuela Zapata offered their guidance at early stages of this project and became valued collaborators and friends. My ongoing collaborations with Marie Sarita Gaytn, which began when we met while doing fieldwork in Jalisco, have been fruitful and fun, and I continue to learn from her. Representatives of the Tequila Regulatory Council facilitated my access to interview contacts and statistical data. Alejandro Macas Macas shared his calculations on agave prices with me. Cati Illsley was one of the first people I talked to when I began studying the mezcal industry, and I am grateful for the depth of her knowledge and for her commitment to social justice and environmental sustainability. Jorge Larson Guerra and the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) generously allowed me to use their map in this book. I appreciate the willingness of Pedro Jimnez and David Suro to go above and beyond in answering my many questions, and I thank David for sharing his beautiful photos with me.

I am also thankful for the scholars who have shaped my thinking about food systems and development. Many people gave me valuable feedback throughout this project, including Keera Allendorf, Brad Barham, Jane Collins, Kathy DeMaster, Michaela DeSoucey, Marie Sarita Gaytn, Peter Gerritsen, Jess Gilbert, Cristina Grasseni, Jill Harrison, Pete Nowak, Heather Paxson, Michael Schulman, Amy Trubek, and Jonathan Zeitlin. I am especially grateful to Jane Collins, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for her guidance during the earliest stages of my research and for her insightful advice throughout this process. My interactions with Gilles Allaire, Franois Boucher, Tad Mutersbaugh, Marie-Christine Renard, Gerardo Torres Salcido, Denis Sautier, and others associated with the SYAL (local agrifood systems) network in Latin America and Europe influenced and deepened my thinking about ideas related to terroir, embeddedness, and local development. I appreciate the valuable comments and questions I received at seminars and workshops organized by Matthew Booker and Chad Ludington, Neil Caren and Andrew Perrin, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, and Cristina Grasseni and Heather Paxson. David Lobenstines apt suggestions helped make this book clearer and easier to read. I also thank Jim Bingen and two anonymous reviewers for their useful feedback.

I appreciate the assistance of the excellent team at the University of California Press. I thank Kate Marshall, my editor, for her vision and her faith in this project. Stacy Eisenstark, Jessica Moll, and Tom Sullivan did a great job of guiding me through the process of publishing this book.

My colleagues and graduate students in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University, and those associated with Voices into Action: The Families, Food, and Health Project, supported me throughout the process of writing this book. I thank Michaela DeSoucey, Kim Ebert, and Sinikka Elliott for their advice and encouragement over the years, and Brett Clark, now at the University of Utah, for encouraging me to write this book. I thank Annie Hardison-Moody, in the Department of Youth, Family, and Consumer Sciences, for helping me find the time I needed to finish this book. The graduate students in my seminar on sociology of food pushed me to better articulate my conclusions about alternative markets and neoliberalism. My graduate research assistant, Dayne Hamrick, helped analyze legislative documents and newspaper articles and assisted with the coding of some of my interviews. He also carefully assisted with the proofreading of this manuscript in its final stages. Another graduate student, Lillian MacNell, did the GIS analysis for the map of the DO regions.

I am most grateful for the support of my family over the years. My parents, Curt and Karen Bowen, fostered my love of reading and writing and my curiosity about new places. I am thankful for their unwavering belief in me. My sisters, Betsy and Alissa Bowen, visited me at all of my research sites. They support me in many ways and make me laugh like no one else. My children, Simon and Anna Nance, inject a sense of adventure into every day. They give me hope for the future, and I look forward to one day sharing my favorite places in Mexico with them. Finally, I thank Mark Nance, my partner and fellow traveler. He convinced me that I could write a book, and he read multiple drafts of every chapter. By commenting on my work, taking care of Simon and Anna during my travels, and making our house a great place to come home to, he made it possible for me to write this book.