Presentation:

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. But the celebratory tone of current mezcal marketing and consumption obscures some of the larger socioeconomic issues associated with the creation of this new market. This talk will explore some of the critical questions we should be asking in order to understand the impacts of mezcal on the peoples and environments of Oaxaca.

Presenter:

Dr. Ronda Brulotte is Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies and Interim Associate Director of the International

Studies Institute at the University of New Mexico. She received her PhD in Anthropology and MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a two-time Fulbright García-Robles fellow to Oaxaca, Mexico, where her research focused on local craft economies. She is the author of Between Art and Artifact: Archaeological Replicas and Cultural Production in Oaxaca, Mexico (University of Texas Press 2012) and coeditor

of Edible Identities: Food as Cultural Heritage (Routledge 2014). She is currently finishing a book manuscript titled Oaxaca and Mezcal in the 21st Century Marketplace.