Tequila Wars: José Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico

by Ted Genoways Narrated by Andrew Joseph Perez

Overview

At the dawn of the twentieth century, José Cuervo inherited his family's humble distillery, La Rojeña, in the Tequila Valley. Within a decade, it would become Mexico's leading producer of tequila. But when the Mexican Revolution erupted, a charge of treason and a death threat against him by Pancho Villa forced Cuervo to flee. His disappearance turned him into an obscure, shadowy historical figure.



In Tequila Wars, award-winning author Ted Genoways restores Cuervo to his place as a key player in Mexico's formative period. Before the revolution, Cuervo's acclaim spread worldwide, and once war broke out, Cuervo remained an impresario, kingmaker, and cultural force. In the face of his own government's corruption and the nationalism of his northern neighbors, Cuervo reached American drinkers by establishing Mexico's covert form of cross-border commerce with the United States. As the largest and most important distilleries in the Tequila Valley recognized the threat posed by Mexico's unraveling, Cuervo also lobbied for suspending normal competition in favor of "a union of tequila makers"-what would become the first Mexican cartel.



The first biography of Cuervo, Tequila Wars uncovers the history of the man who would forever change not only the business of tequila, but international relations between Mexico and the United States.

Editorial Reviews

Wall Street Journal - Tunku Varadarajan

"A dizzying tale… Mexico should be grateful to Mr. Genoways for bringing [José Cuervo] back from the dead."

New York Times - J. D. Biersdorfer

"A nuanced portrait of an elusive figure… Genoways has dug deep to find [a complex life behind this name]."

Guillermo Erickson Sauza

"Finally, Ted Genoways brings us the real truth . . . the vibrant and violent past of the Cuervo and Sauza families, brought to life as only Genoways knows how, and all of it backed by detailed research in the historical documents. Tequila Wars is the book we've been waiting for."

Luis Alberto Urrea

"Ted Genoways is one of the most intoxicating scribes in the country today. If he can knock you out with his prose, imagine what he can do with an unlimited flow of tequila! This is the best kind of history book—one that reveals astonishments, surprises and even mythology about something we think we know so well. After you read this book, every sip of tequila will put you back on the road with Ted, sharing the mystery, history and delight of this Spirit of Mexico. I will travel anywhere with him."

Luís Cuervo Hernández

"I am amazed by the research that Ted Genoways has done on the Cuervo family. I treasure these stories of more than two hundred years of my ancestors, particularly the stories of the life of my great-uncle Jose Cuervo—and every word of it is true. . . . May Tequila Wars be read widely, now and for generations to come."

Kirkus Reviews

2025-03-04
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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940194202348
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	05/06/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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