Unión de Tula, Jalisco — where volcanic soil meets family legacy.
The Place / El Lugar
The project sits on a mountainous hillside in Unión de Tula, Jalisco, within a tropical dry forest ecosystem — known in Mexico as selva baja caducifolia. This is one of the most threatened biomes in the country; over 73% of tropical dry forests had been altered, degraded, or converted by the early 1990s, and the tequila and mezcal boom is accelerating that loss. During the dry season, most trees shed their leaves and the hillside turns golden and skeletal. When the rains return, the landscape erupts into green. This rhythm — drought and abundance, dormancy and explosion — shapes everything that grows here.
The soil is volcanic, formed by igneous rocks millions of years old. That geological history extends the story of this land far beyond any human generation and grounds the project in deep time. The species that thrive here — tepame, tepehuaje, huizache, tepemezquite, copal, ozote, pitayo, nopal — are all adapted to this cycle of extremes. They are drought-resistant, fire-resilient, and deeply rooted. They are the native architecture of this landscape, and Sereno de Cerro is designed to work with them rather than replace them.
The land is managed across four plots and organized into three distinct zones:
Production zone (~3 hectares) — Agave grown for eventual mezcal production, intercropped with heirloom criollo corn and native species, harvested on a rolling cycle, continuously replanted. Mares graze periodically to manage fuel load and build soil.
Reserva Genética / Genetic Reserve (~0.3 hectares) — A permanent, unharvested block of 700 blue agaves allowed to flower, reproduce sexually via pollinators, and produce seed — the foundation of a multi-species native nursery. This zone doubles as a native seed bank where we are actively collecting seeds from ozote, tepame, huizache, tepemezquite, tepehuaje, and majagua, and propagating pitayo velas from a 100-year-old mother plant. The goal: genetically diverse agave seedlings and locally adapted native species available to other producers.
Wild zone (~1.5 hectares) — Untouched native ecosystem. Fire buffer, pollinator habitat, biodiversity bank. At least 30% of the project area is kept wild by design.
Family Roots / Raíces Familiares
One of the last living memories I have of my grandmother is her telling me how her father used to make pulque — the last thread connecting my family to agave, until now.
Of her sixteen children, fourteen emigrated to the United States in search of a better future. I am now returning to my cultural and ancestral homeland — our family's ranch — to keep our legacy alive by reconnecting with agave and the native ecosystem that once supported it.
This project is about reclaiming agave not just as a crop, but as a living part of our identity, our ecology, and our future. A legacy that will last generations.
The Ecosystem / El Ecosistema
This land was never a blank field. Even before the project began, the hillside supported native shrubs and trees characteristic of the tropical dry forest — tepames, tepehuajes, huizaches, copales, pitayos, nopales, agaves. Since 2020, species have continued to re-emerge naturally, signaling the land’s own capacity for recovery when minimally disturbed. A 100-year-old pitayo stands in the genetic reserve zone, now serving as a mother plant for propagation across the ranch. Nopales are spreading. Native grasses return with each rainy season.
The project works with this tendency rather than against it, integrating agave within a living tropical dry forest ecosystem rather than replacing one.
