before the aztecs. this is her restaurant, where abigail has been grinding corn by hand, making masa, and moles like this, the ridiculously faithful time-consuming, difficult traditional way she was taught to make these things. and the way she s been making them since she was 6 years old. look at her hands, by the way. small, surprisingly delicate given all the hard work, all the pushing, kneading, grinding, stone against stone over the years. then look at her forearms. the power there. it s impressive, and beautiful. alejandro: every time you enter a house in oaxaca, especially in small villages, they always offer you a shot of mescal. anthony: mm, so good.
anthony: has had any effect in diminishing the flow of drugs into our country. one very brave journalist has uncovered exactly how deep the rot of corruption and dirty money has penetrated into every level of mexican institutions. anabel: my grandmother is from oaxaca, so how we used to drink the mescal is never with lemon. it s with orange. anthony: it was not what a lot of people wanted to hear, much less see published. today, anabel hernandez, author of the groundbreaking expose los señores del narco, lives under guard in a secret location. the threat very, very real, and very explicit. do you think there was ever a minute when the calderón war on drugs anabel: yeah. anthony: was it ever genuine? anabel: no, who really start the war against the drug cartels was vicente fox. felipe calderón just followed that instruction, but he didn t really do anything new.
mescal. i like mescal. more and more these days. and this guy, ron cooper, finds and sells some of the best mescal in the world. we re at the zapotec ruins of monte albán. cooper: in pre-conquest mexico, there were gods and goddesses of intoxication and ecstasy. the touch of a lover, the smell of a flower, the a-ha of an idea, all had gods and goddesses that took responsibility for those things. anthony: all of your mescals come from different villages, and only that village. cooper: and only one maker in that village.
we call our stuff single village mescal, because most mescals are made with a blend of different villages all put together. no one goes home and has a cocktail in these indian villages. they wait until there s a special occasion. every birth, death, confirmation, baptism, there s a fiesta. a wedding is eight days. you invite 200 people. you feed em breakfast, lunch, and dinner. you have a band every day. and then they really consume. don t drink yet. for mother earth and our ancestors. then you say, stee chi beu. anthony: stee chi beu. that s extraordinary. back in the day, it was cheap
stuff with a worm in it, and there were rumors that if you ate the worm you d start tripping, that there was a hallucinogenic component to mescal. now, is there a particular kind of a high? is this an enlightening high? is this a good high? cooper: the high is humorous. you have these funny thoughts dancing around the back of your head. anthony: happy, witty drunk. cooper: yes. anthony: in oaxaca, ancient indigenous traditions and ingredients define not only the mescal, but also the food. alejandro: one of the main reasons people visit our city is to eat. anthony: this is alejandro ruiz olmedo, one of mexico s best chefs. he started cooking young. when he was 12, his mother died, and it fell on him to raise and feed his five siblings. alejandro: this is what we call pasajo. anthony: today, he draws much of his inspiration from oaxaca s