The Tianguis... provides an excellent commercial system for the provision of everyday staples such as food, as well as low-level merchandise, because it is set up in a different neighborhood on each day of the week, providing variety and stability at the same time. A housewife buys some dried chills from this traditional "mole" vendor in a tianguis. The stalls are made of metal tubing that can be quickly assembled and disassembled for transport.

Would you buy fish from this man? The author gingerly prepares a fresh fish for a client. Working with this tianguista family for over a month, the author was luckily not required to pay them economic damages.

"Ambulantes" in the Historical Center... were accused of blocking traffic and creating an "eyesore" in an area that abounds with historically significant building, churches and museums. The commercial plaza construction program was supposed to eliminate street vending in these areas, but vendors soon returned, limited only by the number of riot police and market patrols used against them. In some cases, entire streets would be blocked off by the markets. While the term "ambulatory" is applied to these vendors, in fact most of them work from the same type of metal-pole stalls used by tianguis vendors.

In Tenochtitlan... The biggest objection made by officials was the extension of street markets into key tourist areas. Here, vendors have set up stalls outside the "Templo Mayor" archaeological site, which is right next to the National Palace.

Indian women... selling traditional crafts in the Zocalo was not allowed even though it blended well with tourism. In case of a raid by the market patrol, these vendors could run into the grounds of the National Cathedral, which is directly to the left of the picture. (The National Palace is in the background).

Corregidora... one of the main market streets in the Historical Center, this street runs between the National Palace and the Congressional Building. Before the plaza construction program, everything up to TVs and VCRs could be found for sale here. In close-by Tepito, an even wider variety of goods can still be purchased.

Guillermina Rico... led the largest association of street vendors in Mexico City, and controlled some of the best commercial territory with 6,000 members in the Historical Center alone. Her administrative apparatus included dozens of "delegates" and assistants, led by members of her own family. With each member paying daily quotas of 50 cents to several dollars, she did not need the income from her small stall of sandals that she kept stocked mainly for show. Although Mrs. Rico died in 1996, her daughters continue to head her association, which now controls several of the new commercial plazas as well as many of their old streets.

Street vending around "La Merced" This public market, opened by Ernesto P. Uruchurtu in 1957, houses over 3,500 busy stalls--but thousands more stalls crowded the streets around it. The construction of new markets in the area in 1993-4 was only partially successful, despite the use of riot police against vendors.

Conjunto La Merced... the largest commercial plaza built by the city in the 1993-4 period, houses 1,500 stalls for vendors who worked around the "La Merced" public market. In the summer of 1995, however, only 150 of the stalls were being used. Vendors complained that the stalls were too close together and that passageways were narrow, dark and confusing, and could more easily be used by criminal gangs than merchants. The city still made