This story was originally published by Patricia Zavala Gutiérrez at Global Press Journal.
On the slope of La Malinche volcano, Gaudencio “Shaggy” Díaz burrows between the flared inner leaves of a maguey plant taller than him. He scrapes its center for sap. Here, in the rural outskirts of one of Mexico’s smallest states, east of Mexico City, it is a dazzling morning: bright sun, blue sky. Díaz climbs down from the plant, fashions a little container out of a maguey stalk—known as a xoma, from the Náhuatl word “xomatli,” or “clay spoon”—and passes it to Jessica Vázquez Reyna, so she can taste what he has just extracted.
Díaz, nicknamed Shaggy because of a striking resemblance to the Scooby-Doo character—especially when he breaks into a crooked grin—is a tlachiquero and pulque master. He specializes in extracting aguamiel to produce pulque, a traditional alcoholic beverage about as strong as beer, milky white and slightly viscous, which has been produced in central Mexico for thousands of years. Díaz gleaned his mastery of pulque, and his intimate understanding of the maguey plants used to make it, from his father. This generational knowledge has been passed down over centuries. Vázquez, on the other hand, is a newcomer to the trade. A year ago, she took a leap of faith and bought a pulquería, a pulque tavern, in Tlaxcala city that she had long frequented.
