Aniceto García

Aniceto García, or Cheto, as he is amicably known, makes some of the most interesting agave spirits that exist anywhere. The work involved is Herculean, but conducted with honor for his family’s traditions and out of delight for the quality of the fruits of his labor. Born in 1959 in a region of Oaxaca proud of its mestizo and cuerudo heritage - in an era of near prohibition - Aniceto descends from a legacy of palenqueros longer than oral history remembers. The ethereal qualities of his spirits are time capsules; a true reflection of the earth, water, production process, elevated by Aniceto’s personal skills and expertise.

A natural spring bubbles in front of the house and below his palenque, providing water for mango, three different types of banana, loquats, guava, citrus, pomegranate, papaya, and other fruit trees. Aniceto cultivates different types of corn, squash, and delgado black beans for his own consumption, and along with an annual criollo garlic crop, he sells his surplus on the local market. He is a subsistence farmer, first and foremost, so the small amount of spirits he distills throughout the year are sold almost exclusively to a network of friends and family, or shared in ceremonial and/or festive moments. On the small parcel of cultivable land shared with the milpa, he grows small quantities of Espadín and continues to grow the domesticated Madrecuixe that is endemic to the San Luis Amatlán region. Recently, he has started to experiment with the cultivation of Tepextate and Tobala, primarily from seed. Principally, however, Aniecto continues in the vein of his forefathers and works primarily with the well-managed agave that grows wild on his steep and rocky limestone sloped lands. As such, he prides himself on his knowledge of the campo and the specific ins and outs of each type of agave that grow in those hills.