Selling tequila was a career move Ernesto Flores never had in mind. The Sun Valley, CA resident had spent the past few years as a graffiti artist, graphic designer, and bartender at Club Nokia. Yet, there he was one Saturday evening sitting at a Mexican restaurant in North Hollywood hustling two dudes sitting at the bar to his left. Five minutes after their initial greeting, Flores secured two sales at $250 a bottle each.
I wanted something that represented what I lived and what I went through. I know there’s a million other people that can co-sign and relate to it, not only here but, in Mexico and probably all over the world.
The Sun Valley hustle kicked in as soon as Flores returned to the States. He designed a logo that harkened back to his days in Sun Valley and Boyle Heights as a graffiti artist while respecting his Mexican heritage, something his mom taught him how to appreciate. “I wanted something that represented what I lived,” he says, “and what I went through. I know there’s a million other people that can co-sign and relate to it, not only here but, in Mexico and probably all over the world.”
Flores hustled his way into California State University Northridge where the rise of the hip-hop and latin music scene on campus gave him an opportunity to flex his creative and academic muscles in graphic design and sociology. He saw money in t-shirts and was soon making a living selling shirts on campus. One of his first designs is still sold today in various incarnations. The next few years saw Flores spending time in Las Vegas, where he worked for Roc-A- Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash, and LA where he launched Ill Skillz Clothing, named after his tagger/b-boy crew from his younger days, until that other fateful day in Mexico in 2010. Flores now devotes his time to Tequila Flores, which he sells in limited production runs (hence the $250 price tag).
He’s not looking to break into the spring-break-white-girl- wasted-at-cinco-de-mayo market. Rather, he wants to sell to people who know how to enjoy tequila and have a respect for the process of distillation. It’s his way of paying tribute to his heritage the way his mother taught him to. “My mom was very Mexicana,” he says, “if it wasn’t Mexican, it was not worth it.” And if there’s one thing Flores wants to do with Tequila Flores is make it worth it as a tribute to his mother who passed away last year. “The moment that she passed away [of pulmonary fibrosis],” he remembers, “the first bottle that I made…I put it in my mom’s grave and I told her, ‘mom, this one’s for you.’”