Review by Booklist Review
A book that's full of spirit and spirits, this is the first biography of man, myth, and legend José Cuervo. It centers on Cuervo's journey to becoming a tequila powerhouse, from inheriting the family distillery, La Rojeña, to his disappearance during the Mexican Revolution. Between the lines of this story, however, lies another: José Cuervo as a political influence and strategist in the face of corruption. Poet and James Beard Award--winning author Genoways (This Blessed Earth, 2017) utilizes his poetry background in his prose, particularly when setting the stage for archival writings from several key figures during Cuervo's time. Maps, photos of advertisements, and family portraits also help bring the rich history of tequila to life. An excellent choice for those interested in the history of spirits as well as readers of Mexican history.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this comprehensive biography, James Beard Award winner Genoways (The Blessed Earth) examines the life of José Cuervo, "an active and aggressive molder of his moment and milieu." The Cuervo family's involvement in growing blue agave and distilling it into tequila--named for the Tequila valley--was firmly established by the late 1700s, when José's great-great-grandfather was named Spain's political chief in the region. However, in 1887, José watched his father lose the family business to (literally) cutthroat competitors. His inheritance gone, José began managing the agave estate of a wealthy great-uncle, whose death a few years later left a much younger widow. José married her in 1900 and expanded the business, building a state-of-the-art distillery, acquiring thousands of acres, and lobbying for railway connections. In 1904, Cuervo exhibited tequila at the St. Louis World's Fair, where he made powerful American contacts. By the 1910 start of the Mexican Revolution, the region's productivity made Tequila and José himself a target for the rebels. His intrepid escapes, entrepreneurial flair, and political ties carried him through the revolution and prepared the nascent country for establishing trade ties with the U.S. Though studded with murders and battles, the narrative is somewhat dry--the most lively moments come from the diaries of José's niece, who kept sensitive and marvelously detailed records. Still, Genoways offers a rigorous and unique lens on Mexico's revolutionary period. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The little-known man behind the famous drink. This rich, edifying book remedies a striking gap in the historical record. José Cuervo's namesake tequila is one of his nation's iconic exports, a liquor made from local agaves that became a billion-dollar industry (and begot a commensurate number of hangovers). But until now, Genoways writes, there's never been a book about him: "Even in Mexico, there is only one brief academic study that examines Cuervo's rise." His low profile in death has much to do with the way he lived. As many of those near him met violent ends, he maintained a "calm, reserved exterior" and stayed "strategically invisible," a finishing-school product who parlayed a dodgy pedigree--his uncles were land thieves--into commercial immortality. Beset by drought, crop disease, bandits, and the outbreaks of violence and political chaos that accompanied the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, Cuervo developed various tactics to stay afloat. He won public favor with civic-minded donations, showcased his product at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, paid bribes, lobbied reporters, built political alliances, and helped bring electricity and rail lines to his region. He lived amid ambient menace and unthinkable violence, fleeing his home on horseback in the cinematic scene that opens the book and, in a subsequent chapter, spotting the hanged corpses of at least 50 revolutionary soldiers. Genoways makes frequent and effective use of diaries kept by Cuervo's niece, a strong writer whose words help us see and hear the action. The frenetic rate of change in Mexico in this era--leadership of one state government changed five times in about a year--occasionally makes it challenging to track the narrative threads and players. But smart pacing and memorable detail are this book's primary features. The comprehensive story of a liquor empire built during a pivotal period in Mexican history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
