The legend behind one of the best mezcal brands in the world

Who was Lorenzo Ángeles Mendoza ? If you want to tell the life of someone who isn't here anymore, you'll have to talk to their family, friends, colleagues, and even with a ghost, angel, or demon.

It's known that he founded Real Minero , he was the mezcal master of this family company until 2016, he loved the countryside, he was born on August 10, 1949, in Santa Catarina Minas , Oaxaca , and he was very friendly.

Nicolás Arellanes Ángeles, his cousin, best man, and compadre, was a key figure for the Ángeles Carreño family. Thanks to him, Lorenzo and his wife were able to make a living, as he sold them a mill, where the whole town milled their corn. They started working at 4 p.m. and finished at 10 a.m.

Later, this same cousin bought the land where the modest ring Tierra Blanca is, which now holds years of Real Minero 's effort. Lorenzo knew about it because of his grandparents, but politics arrived into his life. That path would lead with to buy those same lands later.

Lorenzo became Minas' municipal president from 1973 to 1975, and although he stayed a while longer in politics, he bought Nicolás' lands in 1978.

Times were tough when his children grew up and went to school. “I've no shame”, he told his wife when he went out to sell his mezcal. “My husband was very hard working, he sold the agave leaves to those who sold barbacoa. Sometimes I went with him. We did well when he sold many. I peeled off the thorns and cleaned them,” says Cande.

He listened to songs by Vicente Fernández, Javier Solís, and Joan Sebastian. He liked to drink hot chocolate and warm bread every day, as well as cacti, field beans, and beans. He enjoyed traveling, discovering new things, and learning. Although he had health issues, in the spine and knee, he still harvested his agave: the leader should set the example. Even if he left this world on December 15, 2016, his memory and legacy are still alive.

His daughter Graciela says that “from what we had planned a decade ago, we achieved almost everything, mostly being solid as a brand , that our brand is known, exporting , creating local jobs , no outsourcing, and mostly, to show that you can be a rural company with capacities. Breaking away with the idea that quality is only achieved when the process becomes technical. We, the fourth generation, have a complicated challenge, and that is that the fifth generations continue with this, my father's 16 grandchildren, and that they understand what is their historic role.”

She's the head of the family business and works along with some of her siblings and nephews and nieces, as well as with other collaborators. She's looking for more involvement between the farms and multidisciplinary projects to continue making mezcal in a sustainable way, and mostly she hopes that “ humility and origin aren't lost” in the world of mezcal .

“Because only the authentic will last” is Real Minero 's motto, what's more, honest than a family's love for a family member who's not here anymore, who is honored and remembered every day?

Mezcal de pechuga: for the heart and mind

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