About two blocks west of the Zocalo in the Centro Historic neighborhood of Mexico City the sidewalk markets start up. Somehow, these are totally illegal, but they run all day long despite cops being all over the place. Kids with walkie-talkies stand on street corners, some up in the air on ladders, watching for some particular type of cop (I never could figure out the difference), and when a group of them are spotted the whistling begins. The heads of all the street hawkers turn in that direction and they begin to gather in their wares. You can see in the pics below how they lay all of their stuff out on these large bags/tarps, and if you look closely you can see the ropes on the corners that they use to quickly snatch the whole lot up in one movement. Every time we’re here we witness the swift cleanup and disappearance of a hundred hawkers in seconds. It’s quite a sight.
Today as we walked along we spotted a big group of police, maybe twenty of them, with some street sellers in the mix, yelling at each other. As we were walking past we suddenly saw punches thrown, billy clubs come out, and bottles fly through the air. Whoops! We high-tailed it in the opposite direction with the kids, and managed to avoid getting caught up in the brawl. For the next few minutes dozens of cops came running down the roads from every direction.
We’ve had to have some interesting conversations with the kids lately.
Elote—cooked to perfection, with lime, chile, and salt.
More illegal street market sellers. These guys roll through the city very slowly, then jump out, make a bunch of sales of some very fresh and inexpensive fruit, then roll on down to the next block. Scored some sweet deals on cherries, blueberries, and raspberries with this one.
We appreciate how much street art there is in Mexico City, and also how little of it gets defaced by graffiti. The taggers seem to know their place.
7 Comments on “Cops and Hawkers”
Oh my stars…I made it on Bumfuzzle! I am brand new to investing and I am learning so much from Wanderer Financial. Great post and great photos as always.
Philadelphia is another city known for the amazing murals on the sides of buildings.
Malcom Mathers sells baby shoes! I wondered what he was up to.
This was shot over on 8 mile.
Love the mural picture of the rabbit. A very sacred and interesting creature in Mayan mythology. Viva Mexico!
In Berlin many years ago there was a “Polish Market”. Same thing, tons of people selling from blankets. As soon as they heard the whistle, they would gather up and be gone in under 30 seconds. If you hadn’t completed your transaction, oh well.
I saw the same scene of vendors gathering up their spreads of goods in Caracas, Venezuela before Chavez was elected.