From the market to the supermarkets: a history of the capital's public markets

There are sounds that are part of the Mexican psyche, phrases and sounds of picturesque musicality, but few come accompanied by aromas, sensations and flavors that reach the language and the heart with the sweetness, burning and intensity that characterize the spirit of the Mexican.

A space where such a mixture of sensations can be found in public markets. These are meeting spaces between customers, vendors, families, friends and people from different social backgrounds, reflecting the beliefs and ideology of the day to day of many. 

Despite being fixed and closed spaces, the markets are full of stories in which the pre-Hispanic roots of the <i>street markets prevail, the open-air markets of Old Mexico that are still seen today in the streets of cities and towns throughout the country.

However, markets as we know them today emerged in the mid-20th century. In the particular case of Mexico City, there are markets that have been around for centuries, such as La Merced or San Juan.

During the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the lack of supplies and places to sell plunged many traders into precarious situations. In some cases, vendors came to set up in kiosks that still thrive in Mexico City even now.

By contrast, many others chose to place their products on the streets of the neighborhoods where they were bought.

Unfortunately, over time this latter case led many vendors to come up against unhealthy spaces, as well as the insecurity of not having a fixed place to store the products.

The German photographer Hans Gutmann, better known as Juan Guzmán, recorded this problem, as well as the day-to-day outdoor markets of the 20th century in his photographs for El Zoco Capitalino in the magazine <i>Today</i> and The Markets: Huge and Compelling Need in Mexico, in the magazine Events for All.

At the core of these two items, Guzmán portrayed the need to give fixed spaces to the street traders who were already starting to become more frequent in residential neighborhoods, where finally the neighbors also needed somewhere to buy supplies and food.

"There is no doubt Mexico City is one of the most picturesque cities in the world! The legumes and tropical fruits displayed on the sidewalk of the streets of Lerma, in the middle of the Cuauhtémoc area, can offer a pleasant spectacle for a day … but for an inhabitant of the capital, frankly it is no longer picturesque." (El Zoco Capitalino, 1943)

The solution to this problem began to see the light of day in the 1940s. Inspired by the growing popularity of U.S. supermarkets, Mexico City's government renewed the structures of pre-existing markets and created new markets that now prevail as major supply centers in the Mexican capital.

The major advantage of these new spaces was that having fixed sites with practical structures to store their products, traders were able to reduce costs and could sell them in more hygienic, safer spaces.

Of course, many saw the arrival of supermarkets as a threat to markets and tianguis street markets.
Fortunately, to date the spirit of public markets and street markets are more alive than ever. 

Marchantes (dealers), customers and all the variety of people who visit Mexican markets to date can continue to find a wide range of foods, clothing, toys, and many other products in the whirlpool of sensations of their labyrinthine corridors.