In the US, Cinco de Mayo shares the fate of St. Patrick’s Day, a regional holiday that evolved into a day for heavy drinking of cheap alcohol - in this case margaritas and coronas - combined with superficial, sometimes offensive cultural distortions.
If you’re celebrating this particular Cinco de Mayo, try to gain a deeper appreciation for Mexican culture and avoid all caricatures. Quick history lesson: Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s victory over French forces in 1862 at the Battle of Puebla (remember that Mexico, like most of the world, contends with a toxic legacy of colonialism). For a full primer on the myths and facts surrounding the holiday check out: 8 myths about Cinco de Mayo.
One small step in the direction of broader appreciation is to swap tequila for mezcal for the day. Tequila is a type of mezcal, but, after decades of industrialized production, many versions are essentially bland and artificial.
Tequila is to mezcal what wonder bread is to sourdough. Or what Franzia is to a nice wine.
Tequila is made from blue agave plants, while mezcal is generally made from wild varieties that resist domestication. Blue agave can be quickly grown on a large scale, while some wild agave strains take decades to reach maturity and can only grow in specific environments.
Many tequilas are heavily processed with artificial additives, while mezcal is generally made in small, painstaking batches.
These differences mean that tequilas are generally limited in flavor, while mezcals are complex and unpredictable, suffused with a range of environmental exposures.
In Mexico, mezcal has been a cultural staple for centuries, playing an important role in weddings, graduations and other celebrations.
Outside of Mexico, tequila has been the dominant Mexican liquor. But in the past few years, interest in mezcal has boomed, following the broader demand for simple ingredients and culturally authentic products.
This shift has caused a raft of tensions to surface.
On the one hand, the popularity has been great for the business of certain producers and has stoked some forms of tourism while introducing people to heritage and history.
On the other hand, as popularity rises, the ingredients and production integrity are being threatened by commercialization.
Dana Goodyear for the New Yorker perfectly captures the ambivalence in a piece on mezcal, “The desire to consume a botanical time capsule is fraught; every precious sip both supports a traditional craft and hastens its extinction.”
In some ways mezcal is the commercial parallel to Cinco de Mayo (or any of it’s cultural peers like St. Patrick’s Day). Both have a long, unique and complicated history. Both are being exported around the world as symbols of Mexico. And both face the risk of being overly commercialized and appropriated rather than celebrated through globalization.
The rise of mezcal shows that global consumers are interested in more than just the bland “export version” (in this case that means tequila). It shows that unique production processes established over centuries can be shown to the world without ruining authenticity.
Perhaps, switching to mezcal for a day can help revelers enjoy Cinco de Mayo as the rich holiday that it really is, rather than as a drunk fest in “big hats.”
Either way, in big hats (which are not historically accurate) or not, try mezcal this Cinco de Mayo and promote an industry steeped in Mexico’s history.
Oh and if you’re celebrating--celebrate responsibly. There are many more international holidays to enjoy.