But the shadow of organized crime still hangs over the emblematic industry in signs that smaller distillers are being pulled into networks laundering criminal profits for groups such as the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, or CJNG.
It may never be as emblematic as the Hollywood sign, and by virtue of its comparative isolation in a mountain pass, accessible only by a three-car tram or a brisk uphill walk of 15 minutes, it can never be a truly serendipitous destination in a city full of such.
To curators at the Smithsonian, the neon "Goldberg's Pizzeria" sign was so emblematic of the history of New York City, and of America as a whole, that they brought it to Washington, D.C., and used it in an exhibit called "A Nation of Nations," which also featured Thomas Jefferson's desk and George Washington's mess kit.
But many researchers believe that such early, tenative signs of progress are emblematic of what a new federal anti-poverty initiative can ultimately achieve with enough time and money -- and maybe some more judicious management from Washington.
To its creators, the hall was to be as emblematic of Los Angeles as the Hollywood sign.
The state has also experienced subsidence, with an emblematic picture of a stranded road sign exhibiting the drop.
If any one piece in the show could be taken as emblematic, it would be a neon sign spelling "America" in large letters by Glenn Ligon.
That day, downtown Buffalo, gutted in recent decades by greener suburban grass and the closing of the nearby steel mills, was itself a kind of sign of the times, perhaps emblematic of some of the desperation and anger upstate that Mr. Paladino seems to have tapped.
During the bill signing, Museveni said homosexuality was emblematic of the West's "social imperialism" in Africa.
Jillson and other Texas political observers see Abbott's legal challenges to the Obama Administration as both emblematic of the Texas spirit and a sure sign of his ambitions for higher office.
