By Greg Evans
Years ago my mother took us on a trip to the western coast of Mexico to a little pueblo about a forty minute drive northeast of Mazatlan Mexico. Mazatlan is a glamorous, exotic port city filled with mouth watering eateries (the most well known the Vieux Port), old cantinas, Las Olas Altas beach, the Malecon, El Faro shining out over the blue warm water of the Pacific Ocean, beautiful women and all the adventure any petal to the metal traveler could ever wish to find. The small pueblo was called La Noria and just outside this dusty, sun drenched village located at the base of the San Madre Occidental is a luxury resort called the Hacienda Las Moras. But the day I stepped out of the old cowboys beat up blue jalopy at the end of a long red dirt road, there was no luxury hotel. It was an abandoned former tequila factory and vinata owned by a one-time high roller in the world of tequila named Roberto Conde. The life of this man, Roberto Conde is a fairly mysterious one and despite his friendship with Pancho Villa, his great wealth forged from the liquid gold of Mexico, his popularity during his lifetime in the local politics, little is known about him in the modern day tequila world, though he was a pioneer in his day.
He would often be seen riding a bicycle from his ranch estate to town where he had another large home and flying alongside him from tree branch to tree branch was his beloved pet green parrot. In the year 1917 Roberto Conde contracted the world wide flu that killed 28 million people. Roberto Conde also perished and the tequila business was inherited by his son Zacarias who at the time happened to be married to the daughter of another prominent tequila manufacturer in the area. But those were volatile times back then and an ambitious mayor with the last name Tirado an ametuer tequila producer with a vision of monopolizing the tequila business for himself in the Mazatlan area decided that he was going to take land owned by about six or seven of the prominent tequila manufacturers. The vinata owners refused to submit to his strong arming and declared that he would never take their land. Rumors were spreading through the area that Tirado was building a small military like force and he would use it to take the land he wanted by force. Zacarias Conde in secret had been arming the vinata owners and one warm sunny morning, while Zacarias was walking up the court house steps in Mazatlan most likely to argue the case for the vinata owners against Tirado he was assassinated in cold blood. His killer was never caught though a well known assassin during those times was suspected of his killing and the rumor was that he was hired by Tirado. The vinata owners were now frightened about what the future held for them knowing that Tirado would actually use violence to satisfy his ambitions they hired a mercenary outfit known loosely as the "woodsmen" or something to that effect to guard the vinatas at a moments notice. And that moment soon came.
With Zacarias out of the picture and the Hacienda Las Moras now being run by Zacarias's widowed wife, Tirado set his force of over 250 armed soldiers to take the land for him. The soldiers and the mercenary force hired by the vinata owners met on the grounds of the Hacienda Las Moras and waged a bloody battle for six long hours. When it was all over 216 of Tirado's men lay dead and wounded and the rest had fled. The vinata owners were victorious in their defeat of Tirado and he never again attempted to take any of their land by force. Unfortunately the damage to the Hacienda Las Moras was extensive and Zacarias's wife understandably didn't feel comfortable continuing to try and run the business or live on the land for fear they would again be attacked in the middle of the night and have no way to fight off the attackers and she moved back onto her family's land nearby. Part of the tequila factory was taken over by the other family and continued to produce the liquid gold for many years afterward. The estate itself fell into disrepair and that is when I visited it with my mother and sisters back in the late 1980's when it was still an abandoned estate. Sometime later it was sold to the current owners who renovated the place and turned it into a beautiful hotel that receives many visitors throughout the year.
As far as I can tell no more of Roberto Conde's mezcal or pulque are in existence today. The thing about the name of the liquor is that it can only be called tequila if it comes from the State of Jalisco and maybe one or two other states in Mexico under certain regulations and is mostly made from the blue agave. Roberto Conde produced mezcal which is made from the cooked heart of the agave. Tequila is a variation of mescal. Pulque is a milky colored sour tasting drink made from the fermented sap of the agave plant and was considered in Roberto Conde's day as the "poor man's tequila," though it was a prominent drink among elite classes in Mesoamerica up to the time of the Spanish Conquistadors before the creation of beer competed with pulque for customers.
It is enchanting to visit a location and hear the stories told of the people who once lived and worked the land, fought for their rights and their means to make a living and then the lives and stories of those people become shrouded in mystery, lost to the swirling dust of time and incidently become legend. Late at night in and around the old cantinas of the pueblo of La Noria if you sit with the old timers you can still hear the oral history passed down over a shot of tequila or a cold cerveza. "Buy the ticket, take the ride."
* The quote used above, "Buy the ticket, take the ride,"is credited to the late Hunter S. Thompson.
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