Point South Mexico - Real Estate and Lifestyle Magazine

The colourful images and the experiences of shopping in los tianguis of Ajijic Mx,  (open air markets) will be some of the most vivid memories of your Mexican adventure. The weekly Ajijic Mx tianguis flit in and out of our daily life and conversations and the items we purchase at the markets fill in the spaces of our lives—and our vases, refrigerators and pantries.

Tianguis have been the favoured form of shopping since 1500 B.C. when Olmec farmers started trading excess corn for baskets woven by neighbouring tribes. For the next 1,000 years the Olmec culture and chiefdoms into Guatemala and El Salvador were trading jade, obsidian, magnetite, pottery and shells. Mexican trade made giant strides when the Maya joined the markets around 450 B.C. Open-air merchants bartered for jaguar skins, beautiful bird feathers, dyes, incense, medicinal herbs and a wealth of foods: avocado, papaya, cactus fruit, pineapple, guava, chile, cassava, sweet potatoes, and yucca, along with the nutritious “three sisters of life,” corn, beans and squash.

When Hernán Cortés first strode through marketplaces in the Aztec capital city, he estimated that 30,000 people met every day to exchange goods in open air spaces that were larger than the markets in Rome and Constantinople. The suburban Tlatelolco market was organized by inspectors who monitored transactions and regulated prices which were paid with cacao beans, woven cloaks and quills filled with gold dust. Cortés and his men spotted beautifully crafted gold and silver jewelry, fine vases, and hatchets with copper-tin alloy blades among the stalls selling beans, fruits, vegetables, herbs, honey, candy, pottery, wood, and chickens, turkeys, rabbits, deer, ducks and dogs.

Guadalajara’s modern Mercado Libertad, with three stories and thousands of square metres of enclosed space, is the largest indoor market in the Western Hemisphere. Like most of Mexico’s permanent markets, it was built on the site of an ancient (1000 A.D.) indigenous open air market.

Tianguis once referred only to centers of trade of hand made and hand raised goods. Today Mexican open air markets of all descriptions are called tianguis. All types of goods and services are offered in outdoor locations at Lake Chapala and in Guadalajara, including:

Between 3,500 and 4,000 merchants display crafts--handmade pottery, glass and wood in the Tonalá Thursday and Sunday Tianguis Artesanal.

El Baratillo could almost be called a swap meet . Open on Sundays, the huge market with stalls filled with…everything…is on Calle Juan R. Zavala in Guadalajara.

Each Sunday Guadalajara residents gather in open fields to buy and sell cars, parts, and accessories in Tianguis del Automovil.

• Skeletons, sugar skulls and morbid-looking toys fill the Day of the Dead tianguis in Parque Morelos in the central area of Guadalajara.
• Beads, macramé, tie-dyed clothing, incense and other hippie paraphernalia are sold on weekends in the Tianguis de Plaza Juárez in downtown Guadalajara.
• Both Guadalajara and Tonalá host large Tianguis Navideños (Christmas markets) where decorations, nativity scenes, gifts and wrapping supplies are sold in the weeks preceding the holiday.
• Another favourite Sunday market in Guadalajara is the Tianguis El Trocadero, which displays cultural, religious and antique items on Avenida México.

There is no limit to the goods and services you’ll find in the tianguis, even in Ajijic Mx. You can have a key made and purchase padlocks next to a table filled with colourful hair bows and earrings. Want a piece of freshly made pizza, a bouquet of flowers, a replacement blender lid, watch battery or stove part? The tianguis is your place to find it all. .

Need to stock your pantry? Walking through the stall-lined street, you’ll add beans, rice, sugar, toilet paper, unprocessed honey, sugar and cinnamon cookies, hot dogs, tortillas, pork chops, farm fresh yoghurt and cheeses to your shopping bag. Another few steps and you’ll answer the merchants’ chant of “Qué va a llevar?” “What will you take?” when you purchase chicken, fish, candied sweet potatoes, herbal teas, potted plants dozens of fruits and vegetables.

Each weekly Ajijic Mx market features slightly different selections of merchandise. The Wednesday tianguis in Ajijic reflects the number of foreign residents and visitors with a larger number of merchants selling handcrafted arts and crafts, embroidered shirts and high quality sterling silver jewellry, crafted in Mexico’s silver centres and marked with “.925” the symbol that ensures each piece is genuine sterling silver.

Representatives of the Huichol groups who live in isolated mountain areas bring their signature hand-beaded and crafted items for sale in the Wednesday Ajijic Mx, market. You’ll recognize them by their indigenous-style clothing. The men wear white cotton shirts and pants covered with colourful embroidery; the women wear brilliantly coloured long skirts, blouses, and head coverings.

Other vendors sell a variety of hand-made items including copper skillets and cazuelas for stews and pottery bean pots and casseroles.

The Ajijic Chapala Mx,  Monday market has dozens of clothing stalls packed to the tarp-covered rafters with clothing. Some stalls sell only white tube socks, while others display anklets, work and sports socks, and dress stockings, tights and panty hose for every member of the family.

On a recent Monday, four large tables were piled high with a rainbow display of boxer shorts, and another table was lined with a pastel array of baby blankets, sleepers, caps, booties and bibs. There are tables heaped with undies--bras, panties and slips in every shade and shape imaginable. A huge Ajijic Mx stand displays dozens of men’s shirts, ranging from Polo knock offs to sturdy brown cotton for work and shiny print satins and western styles embroidered with roosters, horses or cactus for nights in the plaza.

The used clothing business is big in the Jocotepec and Ajijic Mx tianguis. I spotted my friend Shirley searching through a mound of clothing. When I greeted her, she merrily waved her find of the day (a never-worn Liz Claiborne skirt with the labels still attached. She pointed at our friend Nancy who was flipping through a rack of blouses. “She’s already found two brand new, name brand tops, and she’s not ready to give up yet.”

When I started strolling up the street browsing through more of the stalls, I spotted an elderly man pouring cups of agua fresca (fruit-flavoured cold drinks) from the pottery urns he carried on a neck yoke. When his three customers finished their drinks, they resumed their work of the day, playing lively typical Mexican marimba music for tips collected in a carved gourd.

Don’t miss the weekly Ajijic Mx tianguis. The experience is part shopping, part socializing with your friends and neighbors, and entirely entertaining. Knowing you’re part of a 3,000 year old custom makes the experience one you’ll never forget.