UC Santa Barbara

Mezcal, an artisanal agave spirit produced primarily in Oaxaca, Mexico, has undergone rapid commercialization over the past two decades, expanding from a locally consumed cultural product to a globally exported commodity. This boom has generated significant economic activity, yet the rural Oaxacan communities whose traditions and labor sustain mezcal production frequently do not share in the value the industry generates. This thesis examines that disjuncture, asking how global demand is reshaping mezcal production and cultural heritage in Oaxaca, whether mezcal can function as a tool for economic development for rural producers, and what differing organizational responses to inequality in the industry reveal about the possibilities and limits of development intervention.The research is based on five months of fieldwork in Oaxaca, conducted through semi-formal and informal interviews with mezcal producers across three comparative field sites - Santiago Matatlán, Santa Catarina Minas, and Sola de Vega. These sites were chosen to reflect different positions within the mezcal economy: large-scale commercialized production, ancestral production with established tourism, and ancestral production with geographic isolation and limited market access. The thesis also draws on formal interviews with three organizations working within the mezcal industry (SACRED, Aventureros del Mezcal, and Agamarga), observation at cultural events, and analysis of regulatory frameworks including the denomination of origin. The analysis is grounded in commodity studies and develops its argument through Scott Cook's triangulation of value, which examines commodities through use, exchange, and symbolic value. The thesis argues that the mezcal boom has created significant economic opportunity, but unevenly. Opportunity is structured not by the quality or tradition of producers' mezcal but by their visibility, certification status, and market access. Organizational interventions in the industry, while meaningful at the level of individual producers, cannot reorganize a commodity chain structurally designed to concentrate value at the branding and export end. The thesis concludes that globalization has not created these dynamics but amplified them, institutionalizing mezcal's symbolic value as a new form of extraction. This pattern extends beyond mezcal to other cultural commodities, where the heritage and tradition that generate value in global markets are increasingly captured by actors far from the communities that produce them.