Food is immediately local, but money is valued relative to global economics. The North American Free Trade Agreement created a definite set of characteristics which were imposed into the regional politics of Mexico: specifically, Mexico had to agriculturilize its regions without allowing socialism to take hold, NeoLIberalism is the official TriNational ideology of NAFTA: exchange of “capital” is good and desirable in and of itself, “what is being exchange between whom” is designed to be an unanswered question left to “Public Choice” (public choice theory, Mafeo Panteleoni and proto-Fascist-economics). Public choice is an illusion, a legal term used to obscure responsibility. It isnt “public choice” which eliminates diversity in corn species.
Mezcal is booze, drinking booze changes time. Some Mayans drink booze, Ancient Mayans consumed Honey wine. The Mayans are also the greatest astronomers of ancient history. There is a relationship between drinking and watching the stars, Mayanism has nothing to apologize for. Mayanism, the human engagement with Mayan traditions and Mayan artifacts, is a holistic new-age superposition which cannot be pinned down (western origins in Burroughs etc etc) The obsession with eschatological thinking, there is so much to unpack at Chichen-Itza, I dont think I will ever get tired of it.
The concept of respecting mezcal and which Enrique Olvera presents is economic. I agree with it nonetheless, mezcal is something I have never tasted so it remains mystified to my self. A place can be representing in the yoke it produces, and alcohol is the ideological manifestation of a cultures yoke. The ideology of “good booze”, this concept that an alcohol can spiritually embody the taste of a landscape, is palatable to me. Celebrating food and booze is something that everyone actually does need to do ritualistically, and I understand that what Enrique accomplishes with a sauce is to remind anyone of this essential necessity.
Mezcal and NAFTA and Enrique Olvera, I know theres a worthwhile blog post on these subjects, but this aint it.
These are great thoughts, and you get at lots of important things. How respect for food and neoliberalism can coexist (as evidenced by Pujol); how trade agreements enact global or supranational economic policies that affect local culture, politics, life; how alcohol often has a deep spiritual meaning. One of my colleagues wrote this long-form blog post on Olvera and neoliberalism. Maybe you’ll find it interesting: http://post45.org/2020/08/enrique-olvera-and-the-sociopolitical-aesthetics-of-neoliberal-culinary-art/