Eugenia is the madre of Eléctrico Mezcal — the smiling force of nature that drives Maestro Cirino and their children.
Eugenia is the madre of Eléctrico Mezcal. She is the smiling force of nature that drives Maestro Cirino and their children to create some of the finest mezcal in the world. She is a well-loved part of the community of San Baltazar Guelavila, but she is not from there, and her story exemplifies the strength and vitality of the women of mezcal.
Eugenia’s sister had come to the little town in the hills beyond Tlacolula some years earlier and married a man in the town. Eugenia would visit her sister every week, travelling 90 kilometers each way from their hometown, El Camarón Yautepec.
One weekend in the late 1990s, her sister invited her to the San Baltazar annual fiesta. The band Los Sicarios would be playing, there would be food and mezcal, and there would be baile, traditional dancing.
When she saw Cirino, all dressed up with his fancy talk of the USA and his slick footwork, it was, she says, ‘love at first sight.’ The following morning, her sister had to call her parents and tell them that Eugenia had been stolen by a man and wasn’t coming back.
They weren’t happy. The huehuete, the marriage counsellor, had to visit her parents twice to convince them to accept a wedding. Cirino did everything to convince them of his good intentions, including paying for an eight-day wedding party.
The expense cleaned out Cirino’s savings, and he was forced to return to the USA to earn enough to pay off the debt. This left Eugenia living with his parents. For eight years they lived together with Cirino visiting when he could. ‘It was difficult, especially with two daughters. But I survived.’
When Cirino returned for good, he wanted to make something better — mezcal made by traditional methods without chemicals or machines. He invited his brothers to invest in new tinas, wooden fermenting vats. They laughed, saying they would never see their money back, and walked away.
It caused a rift for a while, but Cirino and Eugenia were determined to plow their own furrow. Then fate stepped in. They met Kathleen Blackwell, musician and entrepreneur, with a taste for mezcal and a love of Oaxaca. Over a few months, Kathleen and Cirino established a business agreement to make the finest quality mezcals for the US market, and Kathleen invested.
So, Cirino and Eugenia bought some land on the edge of town and built their own home and palenque, the same one where Eléctrico’s exquisite mezcal is produced today.
‘Now we can do our own thing here,’ says Eugenia. ‘It makes me feel really happy that my children are involved because we are all working together.’ Cirino is as passionate about her. ‘Eugenia has no comparison,’ he beams. ‘Everything we’ve achieved we’ve done together. We are very lucky.’