Tequila Oil, By Hugh Thomson
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.In 1979, the future writer and explorer Hugh Thomson – then a cocky and clueless 18-year-old punk – set out to drive a hulking 1972 Oldsmobile out of the US, down through Mexico, and into Belize.
This utterly beguiling book recaptures his meandering bid to make dough, grow up and act cool, on a journey without maps inspired by "long-dead writers of the 1930s" (Waugh, Greene, Lowry, Huxley).
Sour-sweet adventures take him from a sawmill in Durango to a golf-club in Cuernavaca and a brothel in Belize City. Beyond the high jinks and low dives, Thomson tells us a lot about the Mexican past of colonial conquest and revolution, with Pancho Villa and Cortes never far from the passenger seat.
A coda, 30 years later, sends him back to Belize, deep into Mayan history, and towards a mid-life acceptance that "the urge to keep travelling" still burns as bright as ever.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments