It’s easy to put Eva Longoria in a box. She’s a Mexican American bombshell, who rose to fame as Gabrielle Solís in ABC’s soapy series Desperate Housewives, is married to one of the biggest TV executives in Mexico, and owns a tequila brand, Casa Del Sol. Superficial as those things may sound, there is nothing artificial about Longoria—or her tequila, for that matter. “Everything I do has to have purpose; it has to really fulfill something inside of me,” Longoria says over the phone.

Our talk falls during Hispanic Heritage Month, a collection of weeks between September and October meant to shine a light on Latinx culture.

The multi-hyphenate was raised by Mexican American parents in Corpus Christi, Texas, and grew up feeling not quite accepted by either culture. “You know, when you’re in Mexico, they’re like, ‘You’re American,’ and I’m like, ‘No, I’m Mexican,’ and they’re like, ‘No, you’re the gringa.’ Connecting with my heritage in a deeper way by living in Mexico and learning the language has been such a beautiful journey,” she shares.

For Longoria, Casa Del Sol is more than just a celebrity-backed tequila brand. With the brand, she means to honor the women of Mexico who birthed the spirit and continue to give it life.

“I was looking at the landscape of tequila and it’s all male,” she says. “It’s like a man in a motorcycle, a man in a leather jacket. Tequila is the number one spirit drank by women, and I’m like, ‘Where’s that? Where’s that tequila?’”

Casa Del Sol's home is Arandas, Jalisco, where a great majority of the world’s tequila is produced and where the legend of the goddess of agave, Mayahuel, first arose. “So, first of all, tequila was invented by a woman,” Longoria argues.

Longoria is actually the first Mexican woman celebrity to own a tequila brand, and her company is predominantly made up of other Mexican women—from two of her founding partners to the master distiller, the distillery CEO, the operations manager, and the craftswomen behind the vegan leather bottles in which the tequila is packaged. Because many of these artisans must stay home to take care of kids or the elderly, Longoria’s team employs them remotely, sending the materials needed to craft the vegan leather bottles to their homes and having them drop off the finished products at the local factory.

“This isn’t a tequila for women, but it is definitely uplifting women in a lot of key positions that you don’t normally see held by women,” Longoria says. “You need someone who’s thinking outside the box to go, ‘How can we employ more women with the work that tequila [production] has to offer?’” (Similarly, through her foundation, Longoria is helping prepare Latinas in different fields in order to increase their academic success and, ultimately, earning power.)

“I’ve always loved everything this country has to offer.”

With Casa Del Sol, Longoria is also doing something few tequileros have even considered: making her entire tequila production and factory sustainable. Her agaves are watered only with natural rain, the soil is left to regenerate every season, and the leftover agave fibers are converted into fuel for the distillery (rather than using gas). And, no, her sustainability journey is not an act; for years, Longoria has been eating naturally, locally, and seasonally—and now, she jokes, she drinks seasonally too.

“Blueberries were so in season in the summer, and there were these big, gorgeous blueberries at the store, and I was addicted to blueberry margaritas. Now they’re going a little bit out of season, and I’m looking for my new fruit,” she says. Plus, now that her reposado is out on the market, she’s been experimenting with winter drink recipes as well. “If you put tequila in your Mexican hot chocolate, you will thank me. With that Mexican Abuelita chocolate or the Mayordomo bars that you melt in water, I like to call a Mexican hot toddy. It’s like mulled wine but better,” she says.

But the daily cocktails aren’t the only great part about Longoria’s new role as tequila empress of Jalisco, it is also the roots she has finally been able to plant in her own country, and the opportunities she’s created for local women. Her tequila brand, her foundation (which helps Latinas succeed in education and business through various programs), and her show Searching for Mexico (in which she explores small towns and hidden gems within the country) are all odes to the women in Longoria’s family whom she looks up to, homages to her bicultural upbringing, and steps toward equality in the workplace for Latinas.

“It has lit my Mexican heart on fire with pride,” she says. “I’ve always loved everything this country has to offer. I’ve always been so proud of it. But now through these brands, I get to do it on a bigger stage and with a louder microphone, and that’s exciting.”

Rosa Sanchez is the senior news editor at Harper's Bazaar, working on news as it relates to entertainment, fashion, and culture. Previously, she was a news editor at ABC News and, prior to that, a managing editor of celebrity news at American Media. She has also written features for Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue, Forbes, and The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets.