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	In Mexico City, where many ''tianguis'' have ceased to be periodic to become permanent features of streets, tianguis have merged with the ''barrio'' (neighbourhood) to construct a ''rumbo'' (a popular term similar to latin locution ‘''locus''’) (Barbosa 2006: 02). This is the case of Tepito, a popular ''barrio-tianguis''. ''Rumbos'' have emerged as a popular way of dividing the city that does not correspond to the administrative division. “New neighbourhoods” are created from the territorial delimitation created by street vendors and their stalls, working as a liminal space between public/private dichotomy. The emergence of these ''barrio-tianguis'' blurs the distinction between work and housing (Barbosa 2006: 08). At Tepito, ''tianguis'' has become a neighbourhood and the neighbourhood has become a ''tianguis''.		In Mexico City, where many ''tianguis'' have ceased to be periodic to become permanent features of streets, tianguis have merged with the ''barrio'' (neighbourhood) to construct a ''rumbo'' (a popular term similar to latin locution ‘''locus''’) (Barbosa 2006: 02). This is the case of Tepito, a popular ''barrio-tianguis''. ''Rumbos'' have emerged as a popular way of dividing the city that does not correspond to the administrative division. “New neighbourhoods” are created from the territorial delimitation created by street vendors and their stalls, working as a liminal space between public/private dichotomy. The emergence of these ''barrio-tianguis'' blurs the distinction between work and housing (Barbosa 2006: 08). At Tepito, ''tianguis'' has become a neighbourhood and the neighbourhood has become a ''tianguis''.

	There is no doubt about the political strength of the ''tianguero'' leaders in Mexico City, especially in Tepito. ''Tianguero'' leaders do not subordinate to the authorities, but resist, negotiate their legitimate presence in the public space. Performing a complicated balancing act between resistance and co-optation, they use ''~~palancas~~'' to keep the ''tianguis'' afloat. Yet, in becoming local informal leaders, they never set a mafia style criminal organisation resting on corruption, as they are often accused of (Cross 1998: 41-61). While often tolerated by authorities, at times there are special operations targeting tianguis. For instance, during years 2015 and 2016, in Guadalajara, instructed by local authories, the police eradicated the ''tianguis'' from a large part of the city centre, through a social cleansing operation of extreme violence (Espinosa 2016, 2017).		There is no doubt about the political strength of the ''tianguero'' leaders in Mexico City, especially in Tepito. ''Tianguero'' leaders do not subordinate to the authorities, but resist, negotiate their legitimate presence in the public space. Performing a complicated balancing act between resistance and co-optation, they use ''[[palanca]]'' to keep the ''tianguis'' afloat. Yet, in becoming local informal leaders, they never set a mafia style criminal organisation resting on corruption, as they are often accused of (Cross 1998: 41-61). While often tolerated by authorities, at times there are special operations targeting tianguis. For instance, during years 2015 and 2016, in Guadalajara, instructed by local authories, the police eradicated the ''tianguis'' from a large part of the city centre, through a social cleansing operation of extreme violence (Espinosa 2016, 2017).

	==References==		==References==

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{{infobox
| nameofpractice = Tianguis
| flagemoji = 🇲🇽
| definition = Informal street markets in Mexico
| location = Mexico
| imagemap = Mexico map.png
| clusters = [[:Category: Informal entrepreneurship|Informal entrepreneurship]]
| categories = [[:Category: Mexico|Mexico]] – [[:Category: Informal economy| Informal economy]] – [[:Category: Informal employment| Informal employment]] – [[:Category: Trade| Trade]] – [[:Category: Second hand| Second hand]] – [[:Category: Flea market| Flea market]] – [[:Category: Entrepreneurship| Entrepreneurship]] – [[:Category: Fee avoidance| Fee avoidance]]
| authorofpiece = Horacio Espinosa
| authorinstitution = Observatorio de Antropología del Conflicto Urbano (OACU), Universidad de Barcelona
| authorwebsite =
}}
<big>'''By Horacio Espinosa, Observatorio de Antropología del Conflicto Urbano (OACU), Universidad de Barcelona'''</big>
[[Category: Informal entrepreneurship]]
[[Category: Mexico]]
[[Category: Informal economy]]
[[Category: Informal employment]]
[[Category: Trade]]
[[Category: Second hand]]
[[Category: Flea market]]
[[Category: Entrepreneurship]]
[[Category: Fee avoidance]]
[[Category: Entry]]
[[Category: 2022 entry]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|style="font-size:1.1em;"| ''Tianguis'' are informal street markets present in most Mexican towns and cities. It can be as small as a few number of stalls or extend for kilometers as ''Tepito'' in Mexico City or ''El Baratillo'' in Guadalajara. While street markets exists around the globe ''tianguis'' has a specific historical value in Mexico. The word is a hispanisation of the Nahuatl 'tianquiztli' and in its original Aztec form is described in early chronicles of the Spaniards in Tenochtitlan, such as that of López de Gómara (originally from 1552). The practices that occurred in the Aztec ''tianquiztli'' could hardly be described as "consumption" practices. The verb ''tianquiztlayualoa'' (exchange of goods in the ''tianquiztli'') for example, has some ontological, religious and celebratory implications that does not correspond to what we understand as trade practices (Robles 2004: 68).
|}

During colonial times, while indigenous people continued to shop in the now renowned ''tianguis'', in novo-Hispanic Guadalajara, now Mexico's second most populated city, ''criollos'' (Spaniards born in American lands) shopped in the formal municipal markets or brought goods from Europe (González Casillas 2010: 51-61). In the southeastern regions of the country, it is documented that the Spanish received a large quantity of foodstuffs from the peninsula, such as wines, vinegars, figs, sultanas, olives, and oil (Gage 1980: 109). However, it is almost certain that the ''tianguis'' was reserved for indigenous and mestizos of the [[Colony]] as their only space for consumption, de facto creating "two spaces of social encounter" (Flores 2005: 92).

[[File:Tianguis foto 1.jpg|thumb|x300px|left|“Tiraderos” at the border of “Tianguis de Polanco”, Guadalajara, México. Source: Horacio Espinosa. © Horacio Espinosa.]]

The boom of contemporary tianguis is associated with the precarious Mexican labour market, result of neoliberal policies introduced in the 1980s. The Mexican economy is the 15th in the world, but half of all Mexicans live in poverty (CONEVAL 2021). Mexico's entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was expected to create jobs, but economic openness and state deregulation only increased precarisation, leading to informality. As of 2021, 58 per cent of jobs in the country are in the informal sector (CONEVAL 2021).

Municipal markets ceased to be built, progressively replaced by ''malls'' and supermarket chains. Since the 1990s, increasing poverty led to an explosion of ''tianguis''. Although difficult to quantify, in the city of Guadalajara for example, they grew from a few in the 1970s, to 111 in the 1980s, up to 349 at the end of the 1990s (Contreras 1999). There are different kinds of sellers in tianguis. There are many mobile sellers, like fruit sellers who go, with their trucks, from ''tianguis'' to ''tianguis''. Others have wheeled or human-powered carts, from which they sell sweets, peanuts, homemade ''fruit juices'', ''tejuinos'' (fresh drink made of corn, ice, lemon, salt and ice cream), soft drinks, ''aguas frescas'' (fruit juices mixed with water and sugar), or ice cream. Others offer nail clippers, scourers (sponges for washing dishes or showering), sewing kits, scissors or other goods. All these vendors are mobile: if they do not sell in one place, they move to another (Espinosa 2021).

Some vendors are referred as ''tilichentos'' (“storerooms”) or [[manteros]]. They offer all kinds of merchandise, objects brought from their homes or found in the streets and displayed on a simple blanket. They usually put their blankets in the periphery of ''tianguis'' in zones known as ''los tiraderos'' (“the dumps”). Lastly, there are also vagabonds and beggars. Despite the important differences between them, stall-less vendors have in common that they either do not pay a fee or they pay only a little ''[[mordida]]'' to ''tianguis'' delegates. In a euphemistic way they call this a “pay for the sweep” as ''tiangueros'' have to sweep the streets after ''tianguis'' is “closed”. While putting up a stall implies a certain investment in addition to the bureaucratic issue of getting a permit, informal arrangements such as setting a blanket in exchange for ''mordida'' allows lower classes to enter the market. ''Tilichentos'' are both the stigma and pride of the ''tianguis''. Media and authorities speak with admiration of these vendors that sell “all the pieces to build a helicopter” (PROFECO 2010) but they are also stigmatised.

[[File:Tianguis Foto 2.jpg|thumb|x300px|right|Some “tianguis” stalls at “Tianguis El Baratillo”, Guadalajara, México. Source: Horacio Espinosa. © Horacio Espinosa.]]

At the top of pyramid of the ''tianguis'' ecosystem there are ''tiangueros'' who have a metallic solid stall. They are equipped with a vehicle to transport the tubes, boards, ropes, tarps and accessories necessary to maintain their stall. Before engaging with clients, these ''tiangueros'' have to install their stall and set the tarpaulin to create shade. Finally, they place products such as clothing, footwear, makeup, vegetables, fish, meat, living animals, or toys on the boards of their stalls. As they often inherit the profession, ''tiangueros''’ strategies and tricks are handed down generation after generation.

In Mexico City, where many ''tianguis'' have ceased to be periodic to become permanent features of streets, tianguis have merged with the ''barrio'' (neighbourhood) to construct a ''rumbo'' (a popular term similar to latin locution ‘''locus''’) (Barbosa 2006: 02). This is the case of Tepito, a popular ''barrio-tianguis''. ''Rumbos'' have emerged as a popular way of dividing the city that does not correspond to the administrative division. “New neighbourhoods” are created from the territorial delimitation created by street vendors and their stalls, working as a liminal space between public/private dichotomy. The emergence of these ''barrio-tianguis'' blurs the distinction between work and housing (Barbosa 2006: 08). At Tepito, ''tianguis'' has become a neighbourhood and the neighbourhood has become a ''tianguis''.

There is no doubt about the political strength of the ''tianguero'' leaders in Mexico City, especially in Tepito. ''Tianguero'' leaders do not subordinate to the authorities, but resist, negotiate their legitimate presence in the public space. Performing a complicated balancing act between resistance and co-optation, they use ''palancas'' to keep the ''tianguis'' afloat. Yet, in becoming local informal leaders, they never set a mafia style criminal organisation resting on corruption, as they are often accused of (Cross 1998: 41-61). While often tolerated by authorities, at times there are special operations targeting tianguis. For instance, during years 2015 and 2016, in Guadalajara, instructed by local authories, the police eradicated the ''tianguis'' from a large part of the city centre, through a social cleansing operation of extreme violence (Espinosa 2016, 2017).

==References==

Barbosa, M. 2006. ‘Rumbos de comercio en las calles: fragmentación espacial en la ciudad de México desde comienzos del siglo XX’, ''Scripta Nova''. ''Revista electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales'', Vol. X, núm. 218 (84)

CONEVAL. 2021. México ¿Cómo vamos?, informe sobre pobreza laboral. https://mexicocomovamos.mx/publicaciones/2021/11/la-pobreza-laboral-en-mexico-va-nuevamente-en-ascenso/

Contreras, C. A. 1999. ‘Los tianguis, reguladores de la economía de la ZMG [Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara]’, ''Gaceta Universitaria'', 4 October

Cross, J. 1998. ''Informal politics: Street vendors and the State in Mexico City''. Stanford: Stanford University Press

Espinosa, H. 2016. ‘Neo-higienismo y gentrificación en el discurso de la movilidad urbana: Desalojo de tiangueros en Guadalajara, México’, in Aricó Mansilla & Stanchieri (eds.), ''Barrios corsarios: memoria histórica, luchas urbanas y cambio social en los márgenes de la ciudad neolibral''. Barcelona: Virus: 173 -196

Espinosa, H. 2017. ‘Les vertus de la violence. La légitimation d’un projet de rénovation urbaine par le néo-hygiénisme’, ''Espaces et sociétés'', (3), 173-186

Espinosa, H. 2021. ‘Informal appropriations in the face of the state of exception. Ethnographic snapshots of the right to the city’, ''AIBR - Revista de antropologia iberoamericana'', ''16''(2), 266-297

Flores, M. 2005. ‘Tianguis, Mercados y Tenderetes en Jalisco’, in González, Luis A. (ed.), ''Las culturas populares de Jalisco''. Guadalajara: Secretaria de Cultura/Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco

Gage, T. 1980. ''Viajes en la Nueva España''. La Habana: Casa de las Américas

González, M. 2010. ''Voces de Guadalajara''. Guadalajara: Secretaria de Cultura/ Conexión Gráfica

López de Gómara, F. 2000. ''Historia de la Conquista de México''. Madrid: Dastin

PROFECO. 2010. ‘La historia de los tianguis en México’, Podcast 53, http://www.profeco.gob.mx/Podcast/Programa_podcast/PODCAST53.mp3

Robles, I. 2004. ‘Del tianquiztli a las plazas: Recorrido histórico por los mercados tradicionales de México’, ''FOCUS'', Vol 1 (3). pp. 67 – 74

Tianguis (Mexico) - Revision history

Admin at 19:37, 19 June 2022

Editor2018: Created page with "{{infobox | nameofpractice = Tianguis | flagemoji = 🇲🇽 | definition = Informal street markets in Mexico | location = Mexico | imagemap = Mexico map.png | clusters = :C..."