TWO WEEKS IN MEXICO: My “atmosphere” shots.

When I was planning to go down to the huge (huge!) mercado near El Centro in Cuernavaca, I was warned of a few things: always keep you purse in your hand; wear tennies (not sandals) because there is garbage on the ground; and, if you want to take a picture of the people and their stalls, ask first. The first two warnings were no problem; but when I tried the third, the hoped-for subject of my photo asked me a question, presumably to get clarification regarding why I wanted to take her picture, and having no idea what she said, I answered “Si.” Apparently that was the wrong answer, because she said, in Spanish, “Then no.” Woops. Thereafter, I got my shots of the mercado, the multitude of tiendas (shops) and taco stands surreptitiously. Unfortunately, most are terrible! So here are the few passable shots:

One of the few shots in the mercado that came out in focus. This is a meat stand. Most of this is raw meat hanging and sitting and being chopped and beheaded for customers. There are buckets of chicken feet and chicken necks and livers and everything imaginable. But that’s not even the most incredible thing about this market. The incredible thing is how HUGE it is: it is a maze of vegetable stands, meat markets, fruit stands, makeshift taquerías cooking up food on the spot. There are giant sacks of spices and huge mounds of dried chiles. But all of these things are sold from tiny little shops run by one or two people. And in between the little shops are little old ladies or little old men, sitting on the pavement, selling their mountain of strawberries or their basket of seasoned peanuts.

Troughs of beans, spices, nuts…. And often on the shelves in the background would be candles with images of the Virgin — in case after seasoning your food you also want to say “Gracias a Dios.”

What looks like mounds of mud are actually mounds of mole. And notice the giant sacks below full of spices and beans.

Behind every roll-down metal doorway is a tienda (shop). Every inch of every block of every street has a little tienda. And in front of an actual building with a doorway might be another little sidewalk stall selling more. It is like capitalism run wild. And forget about zoning laws.

Fruit stand in front of the shoe store.

Fruit stand in front of the sofa, furniture, clothing, shoe store.

Taquería in front of the magazine stand.

Have giant frying pan, will sell tacos.

Here…

or here….

or here…

or here.