Tequila, Jalisco is a mixture of ancient history, traditions, and modernized industry. It sits forty-five miles from the second largest city in the country, engine to one of the biggest national industries and according to many, the soul of Mexico. Its original inhabitants were the Chichimecas and the Otomi tribes. A fermented beverage made from the blue agave plant was consumed in pre-Columbian Mexico known as pulque. When the Spanish conquistadors took over the area and eventually ran out of Brandy, they began to distill blue agave to produce the first indigenous North American distilled spirit. In 1530 the whole region was annexed into the kingdom of Spain and seventy years later, in the year 1600 the first tequila distillery was founded.
In 2006, the Tequila region was declared a world heritage site by Unesco citing the beautiful agave landscapes that include the Tequila volcano and the canyon through which the rio grande de Santiago runs. Along the landscapes, Unesco also cites the old industrial tequila installations from the 19th and 20th century.
Today the town of Tequila is still a small enclave of history, industry, costumes, traditions, food and culture. A good microcosmos of Mexico as a whole.