The Maguey is also known as the century plant. Its prickly fronds provided residents of highland Mexico with building material, clothing and rope and spirits.
The maguey dramatically blooms only once – at the end of its lifespan of up to 35 years. Its trunk-like stalk (quiote) rapidly grows up to one foot a day, soaring up to 40 feet high before its large yellow flowers bloom, and then the plant dies. If the flower stem is cut before it blooms, a sweet liquid (agua miel) accumulates at the center of the plant. Over 2000 years ago this liquid was fermented into an alcoholic beverage named “pulque” by the Aztec warriors and kings who swore by its healthful and aphrodisiac properties. Today this drink is known as maguey mezcal, known for its smoky flavor.*
Image attribution: The University of Texas Arlington
In the tequila-producing regions of Mexico, agaves are called mezcales. The high-alcohol product of fermented agave distillation is called mezcal; A. americana is one of several agaves used for distillation. A mezcal called tequila is produced from Agave tequilana, commonly called "blue agave". The many different types of mezcal include some which may be flavored with the very pungent mezcal worm. Mezcal and tequila, although also produced from agave plants, are different from pulque in their technique for extracting the sugars from the heart of the plant, and in that they are distilled spirits. In mezcal and tequila production, the sugars are extracted from the piñas (or hearts) by heating them in ovens.**
*http://www.aquiestexcoco.com/the-amazing-maguey-plant/
**Wikipedia
Grinding cooked maguey hearts.
Wikipedia Commons: InformationCategory:Mezcal |Description=Molino de maguey-roast agave grinding mill.
In counterpoint to the better known Marian apparition legend of our Lady of Guadalupe, this is the tale of the Virgin Mary supporting the Spanish colonialists:
*The image was brought from Spain by one of the soldiers of Cortez. During the famous retreat of the Noche Triste, this man carried with him as far as Totopec, where the shrine now stands; there, being too weary to carry it farther, he hid the figure under a maguey. Many years after, an Indian Christian chief, Don Juan de Aguila Tobar, while shooting birds on the hillside, saw a vision of the Virgin, who directed him to look for her image under a maguey. Upon finding it, he took it to his home, but it returned by itself to the hill.
Our Lady of Remedies was the special patroness of the City of Mexico, and was invoked in time of drought and other calamities. La Virgen de los Remedios was especially the patroness of the Spanish forces, as our Lady of Guadalupe was of the insurgents*
*Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Some Quaint Old Mexican Churches by L. Mercerin Terry
The apparition of the image of the Virgin de los Remedios to Don Juan Tovar by Miguel Cabrera
