Mexico's Public Markets: World of Colors, Aromas, Sounds, Tastes — and Community!

La Jornada: Ángeles González Gamio

Walking through a Mexican market is one of the richest cultural and sensual experiences you can have. Dating back to pre-Hispanic times, they persist even today, despite the onslaught of supermarkets. There is a marked difference in the quality and offering between public markets and the supermarkets.

Mercado San Juan Pugibet
Centro West

Supermarkets offer only one quality of pumpkin, onion, apples, peppers, tomatoes and other products of the earth. If they are ugly, you put up with it, since that's all there is. But the supers make up for it by offering 20 different types of deodorant and, if they are lucky, even some gringo brands, which are the same as the ones here but cost twice as much—and, yes!—the labels are in English.

Supermarkets never offer the rich variety of products found only in the markets. Besides fruits, vegetables and all kinds of food, there are piñatas, crafts, flowers, medicinal herbs, clothing and pretty much anything else that comes to mind. Eating in one of the fonditas [lunch counters] guarantees tasty, economical dishes with the freshest ingredients.

Markets have been an essential part of life in Mexico City, although the growth of markets hasn't kept pace with the capital's steady growth. In recent decades, they stopped building public markets even as a thousand facilities for large supermarket chains were constructed.

The disappearance of public markets has resulted not only in the loss of many job opportunities but of the warm, personal treatment provided by the sellers—not to mention the richness of having several options of the same produce! The markets are places of community, of socialization—where networks are woven of kinship and cronyism that create a strong communal solidarity.

"Fondita" 

Fresh chicken breasts

Now we are seeing emergence of a hope that the market decline might be reversed. A few days ago [August 2016], a declaration was signed naming as an intangible cultural heritage these traditional expressions that take place in Mexico City's public markets.

One important aspect is that the markets are recognized not only as supply centers, but as custodians of traditions. Suffice it to recall Christmas. Where would we buy everything needed for that celebration? Figurines for the Nativity scene, hay, moss, poinsettias, corn husks for tamales, brown sugar and fruit for the punch served at the posadas and, of course, the piñatas, to mention just a few of the many products not found in the supermarkets.

See: Mexican Traditions: Las Posadas

It was announced that in 2017 the budget will be tripled in order to rescue the 329 traditional and specialized public markets found in Mexico City's 16 boroughs. The public markets employ 280,000 people, who annually hold more than 1,300 romerías [open-air festivities celebrating a religious event]. This means that every day there are at least three anniversary festivities in the markets of Mexico's capital city.

The declaration regards these public spaces as living and dynamic entities, with an ancient tradition fostering the development of Mexican culture by being the supply channel for 46 percent of Mexico City households.

Eduardo Vázquez, Mexico City's Secretary of Culture, explained that the declaration basically grants to the public markets an active role in the development of the social fabric by integrating and reflecting the ethnic, social and cultural diversity that has built Mexico City.

They are going to dedicate 200 million pesos [11 million USD] for the preservation of public markets; however, given the [deteriorated] state of many markets, a much larger amount is surely going to be needed in the near future.

Take the Merced Market, which some time ago suffered a fire that affected part of the nave, which measures the impressive length of 400 meters [437 yards] with 3,205 puestos [sellers' stalls]. Then there is the smaller nave, which sells meat and poultry and has an annex for meals. Around the outside is the pavilion for popular toys and such typical items as clothing, flowers and candy ...

A world of colors, aromas, sounds and tastes that awaken all the senses. In his memoirs, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda declared:

"Mexico is in the markets."

Spanish original

Related articles:

• Tlatelolco: Twin City of Aztec Capital—located about a mile from Tenochtitlan, today the Historic Center of Mexico City—was the market center of the Aztec Empire;
• Saturday Market in Coyoacán.

Mexico-United States Christmas Tale: From Nochebuena—"Christmas Eve" Flower—to Poinsettia

Photo: Notimex

Excelsior/Notimex
With added information from Mexico Voices

The Nochebuena [literally, "Good Night"], "Christmas Eve" flower, or poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is native to Mexico.  This shrub, capable of growing up to fifteen feet tall (!), can be found in tropical deciduous forests in moderate elevations along Mexico's Pacific Coast south to Guatemala and in some hot, seasonally dry forests in the country's interior.

With its dark green, serrated leaves and upper leaves of red, yellow or marbled with white, the Nochebuena-Poinsettia has become one of the most ubiquitous symbols of Christmas. In various parts of the world it is known as Christmas Star.

The shrubs can grow to 15'
Photo: Mexico Voices

It has a pre-Hispanic heritage. The Náhuatl name is cuetlaxochitl [kuet-la-sóch-itl], which means "leather flower". The Aztecs used the plant in rituals as a symbol of purity and new life for warriors, and they made offerings of it to the Sun to renew its strength.

In colonial times, because of its appearance at Christmastime, the Spanish named the plant "Nochebuena", the Spanish name for Christmas Eve. Beginning in the seventeenth century, the plant became a symbol of the holidays.

The tradition of decorating homes with Nochebuena comes from the U.S. In 1828, Joel Robert Poinsett, the first U.S. minister to Mexico, who was also a physician and amateur botanist, was impressed by its beauty and sent a few plants home.

Joel Robert Poinsett
Wikipedia 

But it was not until 1909, that the family of Albert Ecke began to cultivate the plant commercially in California, undertaking its controlled breeding and production. The family patented the flower under the name poinsettia. They produced plants of various colors and foliage, each of which they patented, thus controlling a virtual market monopoly into the 1990s.

In Mexico, the Aztecs used parts of the flower to create reddish purple dye for textiles and for medicine. According to the Atlas of Mexican Plants for Traditional Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), it has many medicinal uses related to skin disorders, female ailments and inflammatory processes.

According to information from the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), Mexico ranks fourth worldwide in cultivated area, and at least 300 hectares [741 acres] are dedicated to growing potted poinsettia plants. The main states where it is cultivated are Morelos, Michoacán, Mexico City, Puebla, State of Mexico, Jalisco, Veracruz, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Chiapas and Guerrero... Spanish original

Other Christmas posts:

• Mexico Traditions: Pastorelas;
• Mexican Traditions: Posadas;
• Mexico: Urban, Middle-Class Posadas Take on Features of U.S. Culture;
• Christmas.

Traveler Alert: Mole Highly Dangerous in Carry-on Luggage

La Jornada: Iván Restrepo*

In the world of Mexican cuisine, mole [MOH-lay] is the preeminent dish. Versions abound about where mole originated. One deeply held belief is that it was casually invented in the mid-seventeenth century at the Convent of Santa Rosa in the city of Puebla. Long before then, however, the Aztecs [Mexico City] mixed together different types of chile with tomatoes, cocoa and local spices. They called the result mulli [MUH-yee].

In Oaxaca, they maintain that the dish has been prepared there since long before the arrival of the Spanish. What is certain is that the mole is the best example of the gastronomic fusion between America and the rest of the world. This is because during Colonial times the original dish was enriched with the arrival of new ingredients brought by the Spanish from both Asia and the Mediterranean.

Mole is prepared in several states, but its best expression is found in Oaxaca. Among other reasons, it's because Oaxaca is the Mexican state with the greatest cultural, environmental and gastronomic diversity. Oaxaca has the largest number of microclimates needed to grow the ingredients that allow preparation of seven different types of mole. By microclimates, we have in mind the Central Valley, the [Pacific] Coastal Region, the Mixteca [inland, northwest], the Isthmus of Tehuántepec [Juchitán], the North and South Sierras and Tuxtepec [inland, north].

According to renowned Juchiteca chef [Isthmus of Tehuantepec], Doña Ofelia Toledo, the most sophisticated is the black mole, which is served with chicken or turkey and can require up to 36 ingredients. No less laborious is: amarillo [yellow] mole; coloradito [a shade of red], el rojo [red], chichilo, and verde [green, gets its color from fresh herbs] served with chicken, pork or beef. And a specialty of señora Ofelia, that starts with shrimp.

Another master of the stove, Doña Carmen Ramírez Degollado, prepares mole at El Bajío, her world-famous restaurant, from 35 ingredients that include several kinds of chiles, tortillas, ajonjolí (sesame), jitomate (tomato), nueces (pecans), almendra (almond), canela (cinnamon), pimienta (pepper), white bread, chocolate, pasas (raisins), cacahuate (peanuts), orégano, lard, clavos de olor (cloves), chicken broth and dried avocado leaves.

But it so happens that this delicious dish is a highly dangerous weapon that can be used to threaten the lives of air travelers. Surely someday we will learn from Wikileaks the reasoning that led the National Security Council of the United States and its Mexican counterpart to prohibit mole from being transported in carry-on luggage on flights departng from Mexico City, whether or not they are going to the United States or Europe.

All the alarms sounded when my carry-on luggage went through the security system at Mexico City Airport. I was the first to be surprised, thinking:

"They planted cocaine in it, or a weapon used exclusively by the Army, or a homemade bomb used by the Islamic State."

Seconds later, a young security agent wearing protective gloves wiped the zipper bag with a foreign substance. Then he asked me to open it. The reason for the alarm appeared: a kilo [2.2 pounds] of beautifully wrapped frozen mole.

Transporting this 'substance' in carry-on luggage is prohibited, the young agent told me. After I explained that it was mole paste and had been cooked for days, his immediate superior arrived to tell me the same thing: it is banned for being dangerous.

I explained that the only danger lies in consuming too much. And that, moreover, it is recommended that the mole be accompanied by a good mezcal for facilitating the process of digestion. I insisted that it was neither a cream nor a liquid, but a paste of some sophisticated processing and that it didn't appear on the lists of products banned for carrying with you on the airplane.

So I asked the "immediate superior" to summon the highest ranking person responsible for guaranteeing airport screening systems against dangerous objects. Nor could he explain to me about the dangers posed by mole. But he told me that it could go in baggage "checked" by the airline.

At the Interjet counters, they explained to me that mole doesn't appear as an object or substance prohibited in carry-on luggage. I then demanded that the agency responsible for airport security explain to readers the reasons for such a stupid measure, when other foods (tamales, tacos, tortas [sandwiches] and even comida chatarra [junk food]) can certainly go onboard. ... Spanish original

Update via Reader Comment: Dear Jane, almost across the street from the restaurant where we ate with you and Reed was a small shop selling handmade Mexican condiments, spices and Mole paste. And the saleswoman was very engaging. We had been enjoying chicken mole from the local restaurant on the corner of the Portola in Eronga [Erongarícuaro, Michoacán, near Pátzcuaro]. Now I don't need to say more. 

It was a tiny jar of paste we bought, of course. And, as your article would have alerted me, who WHO could have imagined, the dangerous "mud" would be confiscated after, yes a totally unbelieving, rational argument, insisting, "It's only Mole!" 

Obviously the drug runners' choice of the moment, inspired by master chef? Cheers. 

*Iván Restrepo is Director of the Center for Ecology and Development (Centro de Ecología y Desarrollo), Mexico City, whose focus is renewable energy and the environment.

Three Kings Day, Rosca and Hot Chocolate

In all parts of Mexico, Tres Reyes—Three Kings Day on the Twelfth Day of Christmas—is celebrated today, January 6. It is a traditional day for giving gifts to children. This article appeared yesterday in the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada. It is so culturally rich, so illustrative of Mexico's many cultural layers, that I decided to translate it and post it.

Part of the translation process is tracking down references, which are included here as notes. I've also added photos to bring the story to life. For starters, regional differences in the appearance of the Rosca are so dramatic that I didn't recognize some of them as Rosca. But I found a photo of the Rosca we're familiar with from Michoacán.

Rosca de Reyes with Three Wise Men

La Jornada: Ángeles González Gamio

Indisputably, the quintessential Twelfth Night pairing is dunking a piece of Rosca de Reyes in a frothy hot chocolate. It's a cross-cultural tradition that unites the exquisite prehispanic concoction with the bread that arrived from Europe along with wheat. In itself, the custom of the ring-shaped bread commemorating the arrival of the Magi Kings to honor the newborn Son of God, is said to have its origin in the Roman Saturnalia, celebrations dedicated to the god Saturn. At that time, round cakes with figs, dates and honey were prepared and distributed to the people.

Note: A god in the ancient Roman religion, Saturn's multiple associations and long history make him a complex figure. Known since ancient times as Saturnius Mons, Saturn was the first god of Rome and was seen as a god of generation, dissolution, plenty, wealth, agriculture, periodic renewal and liberation. Later he came also to be a god of time. His reign was depicted as a Golden Age of plenty and peace. The Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum housed the state treasury. In December, he was celebrated at the Saturnalia, a time of feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry. Saturn the planet and Saturday are both named after the god.

A fourteenth century testimony from the Kingdom of Navarre in Spain describes a ringed pastry containing a dried bean. When served, the child whose piece contained the bean was declared King of Fava [fava bean, native to North Africa, home of the Moorish invaders who occupied Spain for 800 years]. The tradition arrived in our country in the sixteenth century and the fava bean became the niñito, infant boy, who is usually of porcelain or ceramic.

Porcelain Figure of the Niñito, Little Boy

For its part, the chocolate has been used as food, money and medicine in much of Mesoamerica since ancient times. Among the Mexica [Meh-SHE-ka, Aztecs], it had enormous value. The chroniclers relate that 40,000 loads were stored in the warehouses of Emperor Moctezuma alone. According to Friar Juan de Torquemada, Hernán Cortés ordered Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés's ruthless and ambitious captain, to sack the warehouse, which wasn't easy to do since the cacao was stored in wicker baskets "as big as casks, such that six men could not surround them."

Note: A reader wrote wondering if cocaine comes from cacao leaves. The short answer is, no, they are two different plants:

• Chocolate comes from the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao); 

• Cocaine comes from the leaves of the coca plant (Erethroxylacaea coca), which is a shrub.

Just as today paper money is counterfeited, at that time the same was done with the cacao. In his epic summary, "A History of the Things of New Spain," the remarkable Friar Bernardino de Sahagún mentions:

"The good trader in this commodity ... the almonds (sic) that he sells are all plump, still in clumps and picked over. He sells everything by itself, setting to one side the plump ones in clumps and separating out those that are thin, hollow or broken. The bad trader sells the fake ones, roasting them and even browning them to make them look good. Sometimes he soaks them in water so they appear plump ...", and he goes on to list in detail all the tricks of dishonest traders. 

Cacao Beans: Given that Sahugún is describing how good almonds can be 'faked', the reporter's use of the passage is somewhat confusing. Presumably, we are to understand that the same dishonest practices applied to the cacao bean.

We might also mention that cacao was the highlight of Moctezuma's gourmet meals, which were concluded with a gourd of foamy chocolate and puffs of tobacco scented with sweet gum. During the colonial period cacao was mixed with milk, sweetened with sugar and flavored with vanilla or cinnamon, and it became the indispensable concoction, since it could be drunk every hour of the day and many considered it a real necessity.

In Mexico seven major species of the blessed bean are grown. The famous Swedish botanist Carl von Linée classified them as Theobroma, which in Latin means "food of the gods." The origin of the word xocóatl [sho-KO-aht] has too many versions [to describe here]. Hispanized, it became chocolate. It was introduced to Europe by Hernán Cortés, who sent it as tribute to Spain. ... [Spanish original]

Although the Cacao Tree is an evergreen, it's not a form familiar farther North. Ceramic vessels with residues from preparation of cacao beverages have been found at archaeological sites dating back to the Early Formative Period (1900-900 BCE). One vessel appeared at an Olmec site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz that dated to least 1,750 BCE. On the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokaya site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating even earlier, to 1,900 BCE.

In closing, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that the winter festivities that begin in early December with Advent don't really conclude until February 2 on Candleária, or Candlemas. Commemorating the ritual purification of Mary, 40 days after the birth of her son Jesus, Candlearia also marks the ritual presentation of the baby Jesus to God in the Temple at Jerusalem.

According to custom, whoever gets the niñito in his or her slice of Rosca is responsible for preparing the tamales that are the traditional food for Candlearia. Every year Coyoacán sponsors a Tamal Fair, which we thoroughly enjoy.

When people ask us why we enjoy Mexico, one response has to be this tireless communal pleasure in the seasonal fiestas. Last year, the "largest Rosca in the World" was laid out all around the Zócalo, Mexico City's Main Plaza. Measuring 720 meters [787 yards; almost 8 football fields] in length and about 90 centimeters [37 inches] wide, the Rosca weighed approximately 1,375 kilograms [3,000 pounds], which was enough for more than 300,000 citizens to enjoy a slice.

How was it prepared? More than 2,000 volunteers each donated 7 hours; total cost was estimated by the National Chamber of the Bakery Industry to be 1,142,800 pesos [USD $87,296].

2012 Giant Rosca. Here's a delightful photo gallery of the 2013 Rosca in the Zócalo.

Reed and I were chatting about how I might close this post. We recalled again that this season extends from the first of December to the first of February. As Reed (refugee from sixty-five Upstate New York and Connecticut winters) dryly noted, "What else do you do with winter?"

Given that this is Day 1 of the Gigantic Deep Freeze in what appears to us to be the entire Eastern two-thirds of the United States, it's a good time to be down here. May you all Stay Warm and Stay Safe! Now that I think of it, it's a great day for a steaming, frothy cup of Hot Chocolate! ¡Saludos de México!

The Colonial Roots of Mexico City's Shopkeepers and Street Vendors

A funny thing happened on our way to the José Luis Cuevas Museum in Mexico City's Historic District. After almost five years in Mexico, Reed and I are pretty much accustomed to encountering adventures on even the most ordinary of trips. So when we set out to visit the Museum, we weren't looking for adventure but we weren't surprised when it appeared.

We found ourselves walking in a section of the Historic District new to us. Unlike many streets where street-level facades have been 'modernized', the area around the Museum has not suffered this fate. In order to see the original colonial features of buildings on the commercialized streets, one has to look up to the second and third stories. But in this neighborhood the colonial features of the buildings are satisfyingly at eye level.

As we walked, Reed's attention was increasingly focused on finding the best way to capture the street's magic in the camera's lens. Probably now is a good time to mention that when Reed turns on his camera and is looking for the 'best frame', he tends to wander off like a toddler. His wandering opened a space for some quiet reflections of my own.

The colonial structures caught my eye, but the sidewalk shops interested me even more.

I felt drawn to the people and to how the buildings are being used today. These streets are just a block or so east of the monumental grandeur of Mexico City's Zócalo (main plaza) and of the National Palace, the country's seat of government.

These buildings were first a symbol of the power of the Spanish Crown, then later of Mexico's landed elite. Now they are a working class neighborhood with small shops tucked into the original colonial structures. On Sundays, the streets are closed to traffic, which enhances the always-vibrant street life.

As I continued to stroll along the street of this gritty, yet dignified and friendly neighborhood, something tugged at a corner of my mind...asking that I pay attention.

The sign on the shop advertises "School Uniforms Rosita" - Rosita is the shop's owner

Then we turned the corner, and the José Luis Cuevas Museum came into view.

The Museum's trim facade makes a dramatic contrast to the gentle aura of benign neglect that characterizes the neighborhood.

Then and Now

The Museum occupies space in what was once a Convent for Franciscan brothers brought to evangelize the original people. My thoughts float back to the earliest years of Nueva España, the colony that Cortés established in the lands that today are Mexico. Few Spanish women made the arduous voyage to this colony on the other side of the ocean.

As a result, Cortes's former soldiers took indigenous women as their wives. But their offspring, the first mestizos (mixed-race people) were forbidden by the Crown to own land, hold office, or serve in the military. Consequently, mestizos were essentially outcasts surviving as best they could.

Excluded from gainful employment and labeled léperos ("oafs"), they were often reduced to becoming street people who lived by begging and petty thievery. Colonial accounts tell of motines, periodic riots by léperos who ransacked buildings, leaving them in shambles.

I remember being intrigued by an historian's observation that "sons beloved by their Spanish fathers were often set up as small shopkeepers." The sociologist in me wondered about the underlying logic...why shopkeepers?

Most likely, of course, the answer lies in the rich market tradition that predates the Spanish by hundreds of years. My hypothesis is that in setting up their sons as shopkeepers, these Spanish fathers were capitalizing on their sons' natural aptitudes and skills.

Reed has a saying that, "Wherever three Mexicans are gathered together, at least two of them are  selling something." Twenty years ago, my longtime Mexican friend commented, "Mercado (market) is an essential piece of Mexican culture." It has taken some time for me to absorb this aspect of the culture, and its richness seems to grow apace with my understanding.

Some of you are aware that Reed and I select and translate articles from the Mexican press--opinion pieces, expert analyses, government reports. We publish the translations in the Mexico Voices blog, thus making them available to English-speakers in the U.S. who want to understand our southern neighbor better.

One of the key themes over the last six months is that sixty percent of Mexicans work in what is termed the informal—i.e., cash—economy, which means that these workers lack such benefits as vacation and sick time, health insurance and pension. Sixty percent!

As I strolled through this unrestored colonial neighborhood, I couldn't help wondering whether the historic roots of these small shops may be found in those first marriages between Spanish soldiers who settled here seeking lives of luxury and leisure and the indigenous women who entered into those unions seeking a better future for their children. Are these the shops of the "cherished mestizo sons" of Spanish fathers who did their best to provide them with a means of making a living?

In the U.S., temporary or contract employment falls into this category. Jobs in Mexico's informal economy make up: 94% of work in agriculture; 73% in construction and manufacturing; 63% in transport; 48% in the service sector; and 22% in financial services, insurance and government posts.

Workers sitting at the side of the Mexico City Cathedral offering their services as albañiles (tradesmen):
Plumber and Natural Gas, Installer of Wall and Floor Tiles, etc. (Photo: René Soto in Milenio)

I also wonder about Mexico City's ambulantes, the street peddlers found on almost every street hawking their wares. Most certainly they are part of the informal economy. Ambulantes offer to drivers of cars stopped at traffic lights a variety of products: the day's newspaper, bottled water, sleeves to protect the bare left arm from the strong sun during the dry season, umbrellas during the rainy season, fruit, chips, candy...you get the idea!

Today on my way to the laundry, an ambulante selling leather belts called to me from across the street. We buy our drinking water from Sergio, an ambulante who brings the bottles from a platform on the front of a tricycle, which he supplies from his pick-up truck parked about a block away. Another ambulante pedals a tricycle with steam kettles from which he sells Oaxaca-style tamales wrapped in banana leaves.

One of Many Street Vendors Selling Food (Photo: Reed)

Is it possible that today's street peddlers are descended from those first mestizo outcasts?

Street Vendors in the Tabacalera neighborhood
(Photo: Reed)

Still Curious?

From Jenny's blog:

• Saturday Market in Coyoacán;
• Mexico: A Short History.

From Mexico Voices blog:

• Using New Metric, INEGI Finds 60 Percent of Mexican Workers in Informal Economy;
• Mexico Workers: "We Just Want to Work, So Our Families May Eat".

Ball Court Game in Mesoamerican Culture

What better introduction to the Mesoamerican Ball Court Game played on Mexican soil for nearly 4,000 years and to the land that introduced the rubber ball to the world than the Mexico Team's first-ever Olympic Gold in soccer—¡fútbol!

Mexico's Gold Medal Soccer Team at 2012 Olympic Games

Cambridge University classicist Nigel Spivey (The Ancient Olympics) argues that the Olympics were invented as preparation for war. For the young men of Ancient Greece, the quadrennial sporting tribute to the god Zeus was also rehearsal for armed conflict. The games equipped young men with a spirit of self-sacrifice and the stamina that underpinned Greek supremacy in battle.

Nor can commercial aspects of the modern Olympic Games be ignored. Updates of construction costs (jobs!) and revenues attributable to the Games appear regularly in the press.

None of this would have seemed strange to Mesoamerica’s early ruling elites. Ball games were spectacles enjoyed by all social classes. The economics of ball games included long-distance trade of the rubber balls prized for play. Not infrequently ball games involved high-stakes gambling—perhaps one way that power was negotiated between rival factions, since it was believed that the winner was chosen by the gods.

Ball games demanded skill and endurance from players and, yes, they also involved sacrifice. Natural forces were spiritualized in Mesoamerica. Civic life was deeply religious: official ceremonies conveyed symbolic, religious meanings.

Ball Game Played with Rubber Ball

Games of 'foot on ball' were played in England and Northern France in the eighth and ninth centuries. In England, players kicked around an inflated pig's bladder.

The rubber ball comes from Mexico and Central America. Rubber balls didn't arrive in Europe until the late sixteenth century—most likely introduced to Europe by the Spanish sometime after Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztecs in 1521.

The Olmec culture on the Gulf of Mexico in modern-day Veracruz State is the foundation culture of the cultures of Mesoamerica. In the Nahua language spoken by the Aztecs, Olmec means "people of the rubber". The Maya used rubber to develop weapons with handles, such as hammers or hatchets; the Aztecs developed medicinal uses for rubber; and both the Aztecs and the Maya used rubber to waterproof clothing.

The best rubber comes from tropical gum (rubber) trees that grow at elevations lower than 600-700 meters (2,000-2,300'), which makes it obvious that the oldest ball court found to date is located in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, southern Mexico, on the Pacific Coast.

Its symbolic and practical values made rubber a valuable Isthmian product for trade into the highlands (Central Mexico). The Aztec rulers in Tenochtitlán demanded an annual tribute of 16,000 rubber balls.

Ball Courts

The earliest ball court found so far is located on the Isthmus of Tehuántepec at Paso de la Amada, which flourished from 1800 to 1000 BCE. Its ball court was 80 meters long and 7 meters wide (260' x 23'), bounded by long parallel platforms about 2 meters (about 7') high.

The first ball court we saw is located at Tingambatu, Michoacán, in the hills between Lake Pátzcuaro and the  mid-sized city of Uruapán. Tingambatu is of Chichimeca origin and means "Hill of Mild Climate".

Ball court at Tingambato, Michoacán
Photo: Reed

Chichimeca is the Nahua name for semi-nomadic tribes from the north and carries the same connotation as 'barbarian' in Europe. Over two hundred Mesoamerican ball courts have been found in the Southwest United States! This excellent description of ball courts has a photograph of the circular Wupatki ball court north of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Formal ball courts were long rectangles, averaging about 40 meters (130') long, though many were less than 20 meters (66') long. The Grand Court at Chichén Itzá was 150 meters (about 490').

Ball courts were oriented to the heavens, often in ways that marked the equinoxes or solstices. 

Grand Court at Chichén Itzá on the Yucatán Peninsula
Photo: Reed

"I"-shaped Ball Court at Uxmal, Yucatán
Photo: Reed

Formal ball courts were enclosed by sloping walls, but pick-up games could be played on any level surface.

Ball Court at Monte Albán, Oaxaca, with sloping walls and "I" end zones.
Photo: Reed

Ball Court at El Tajín, Veracruz—one of seventeen ball courts at the site!
Photo: Reed

How the Ball Game was Played

Two teams of one to seven players moved a rubber ball around a court. The action was somewhat like soccer. Players wore body protectors made of leather and wood. We know about these body protectors mostly from representations carved in stone found in the Gulf lowlands (Veracruz). Today's archaeologists call these items yugos ("yokes"), which weighed about 30 pounds (13 kilos) and fit snugly around the hips.

Other paraphernalia, also represented in stone, were hachas ("axes") and palmas ("palm stones"), so-called because of their shapes. Palmas were hand-held and may have been used to put the ball in play. 

The ball game was played in many ways. In the most common variant, players kept the ball aloft by hitting it with their hips and scored if the ball touched the ground of the opposing team's end of the court. Some courts featured rings embedded in the walls at the center line.

Goal Ring at Chichén Itzá's Grand Court
Photo: Wikipedia Free Library

Ball Game Ring in the Garden at the Frida Kahlo Museum, Coyoacán.
Photo: Reed

Passing the ball through these rings would have been extremely difficult but players who scored were accorded not only gifts but extremely high honor.

El Tajín: Ball Player (left) receiving Staff of Honor for superior play
Photo: Reed

Why the Ballgame?

Trying to understand the Mesoamerican ballgame highlights an interesting cultural phenomenon: the appearance of something seemingly familiar in a totally new cultural context introduces meanings so different that the familiar becomes distinctly unfamiliar. The Mesoamerican ballgame is a good example: it carried meanings far more finely nuanced than any modern game of soccer.

Formal ballgames were religious and political occasions, recreating sacred events related to the fertility of the earth, while at the same time providing an opportunity for lavish feasts intended to  demonstrate a ruler's wealth and power in ways that made it possible to cement political alliances.

Mythic Meanings

Early Mesoamerican peoples believed that spiritual forces inhabited both physical geography and biota (flora and fauna). They revered things that exhibited the constant movement that signified the Life-force—reflecting mirrors (obsidian), feather-work banners that ruffled in the breeze, shining metal that cast glints of brilliance.

In this context, latex (rubber) was valued not merely for its practical qualities (medicinal applications, waterproofing clothing), but for its sacred essence as well. The flow of latex from gum trees was associated with the flow of blood, which was held to be the single most important offering that humans could make to the gods. In both Aztec and Maya creation myths, the gods sacrifice themselves by shedding their own blood to create humanity.

El Tajín: Ball Player performs an act of bloodletting; his stream of blood feeds the Fish God (bottom left).
Click to enlarge. Photo: Reed

In Nahua, the word olli means rubber, and the Nahua word ollín means motion or movement—the movement that represents the Life-force itself. When put into play or motion, the rubber ball would have represented the vital Life-force inherent in all things that move.

The ball court in Mesoamerican cosmology assumed symbolic functions. The alley represented the sun’s path; specifically, its nightly travel through the Underworld. Round markers in alleys of Maya courts frequently bear a quatrefoil cartuche, representing an opening to the Underworld.

In the Maya Popol Vuh, the mythic Hero Twins descend to the Underworld to play ball against gods of the Underworld. The game becomes the metaphor of Life, Death, and Regeneration, as the Twins resurrect their father, now reborn as the Maize God, from the court of death.

Yaxchtitlán, Chiapas: On the entry stairs to the Great Temple is this depiction of the mythical Ball Game; dwarfs from the Underworld play with Lord Bird Jaguar IV (at left). Stairs have liminal value as places between This World and the Other World.
Click to enlarge. Photo: Reed

Detail: Behind (left) Lord Bird Jaguar IV, the ball rolls down the stairs, which symbolize passage through the liminal zone—the zone that exists between chaos (world of nature, which ends in death) and cosmos (world of gods, which is endless movement, ollín, Life-force).
Photo: Reed

The two teams respectively personified the forces of light and darkness that conflict at dawn and at dusk. It was believed that time elapsed only with human activity, so it was through the ritual of the ball game that individual ties were established with the cosmic order.

Ritual ballgames were carried out to ensure the continuity of the natural cycles—first and foremost, the sun’s daily cycle: sunset, death and rebirth at dawn. But the ballgame ritual was also carried out to ensure continuity and success of the annual agricultural cycle, which was based not only on the daily regeneration of the sun but the seasonal regeneration of the corn, maize, as well.

• Spring Equinox: Ballgames were part of the ceremonies related to the burning of fields and other activities connected with the approaching end of the annual dry season and preparation for planting.
• Summer Solstice: Ball games announced the arrival of the rainy season.
• Autumn Equinox: Ball games celebrated the harvest.
• Winter Solstice: Ball games held at the beginning of the dry season signaled the start of trade to distant territories and preparations for war.

Sacrifice

In Mesoamerica's difficult geography (Mexico and Central America), prosperity was attributed to the spiritual efficacy of rulers (god-kings) charged with mediating on behalf of their people with the powerful ‘otherworld’. Ball game imagery is filled with themes of fertility, including sacrifice in the service of fertility.

Ball Court at El Tajín: The bare spot in the grass is in front of the wall where visitors have stopped to study images of the ball game ritual carved into the stone (see below). Click to enlarge. Photo: Reed

El Tajín: At left, Ball Player receives charge from Priest, with symbol of ollín (Life-force; intertwined ribbons) at their feet. At right are a Jaguar God and God of Death. Click to enlarge. Photo: Reed

Representations of the sacrifice of individuals in association with the ball game have given rise to the notion that losers were ritually dispatched at the end of each game. This would certainly have been the case in official ball games, which had symbolic value. At the end of the game, the losers—and apparently sometimes, the winners—were killed with the obsidian knife highly sharpened to assure a clean cut.

El Tajín: The Ball Game ritual reenacted the sacred battle between the cosmic forces of creation and destruction. The God of Death presides (left margin) over sacrifice of Ball Player (loser and possibly the winner).
Click to enlarge. Photo: Reed

Negotiation of Power / Conflict Resolution

The ball game also provided political rivals an arena for resolving conflicts. Players representing rival factions contested on the ball court at auspicious dates on the ancient calendar. It was assumed that the gods chose the winner and the loser, who was sacrificed at the conclusion of the contest.

Archaeologists analyzing the number of ball courts in the Central Highlands of Mexico and in the Valley of Oaxaca have concluded that many early communities had ball courts during periods of political fragmentation, when the need to resolve conflicts was presumably high. Conversely, during periods of political centralization, ball courts were found only in the larger capitals.

The appearance of the massive ball court at Chichén may have been one of the means by which the Itzá rulers indicated their larger goals of making their capital the premier political center on the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Conversely, the absence (to date) of a ball court at Teotihuácan may be an indicator of their ability to control by other means, such as by means of their extensive trade routes.

Ball Games as Spectacles and as Demonstrations of Economic Power

The ball game was a spectacle enjoyed by commoners and aristocrats. Aztec kings ranked the ball game high as a leisure activity. It is known that some kings sometimes played. Certainly they watched the action of the game and gambled on the outcome. Kings wagered valuables like jewelry, slaves, land and houses, and quantities of cacao beans.

Aztec rulers also understood the entertainment value of the ball game and staged such events when:

'the common folk and vassals were very fretful ... [in order] to animate the people and divert them. He commanded the majordomos to take out the rubber ball, and the girdles, and the leather hip guards, and the leather gloves with which the ruler's ball players were dressed' (Sahagún 1979 [1569]: 58).

Note: Bernardo de Sahagún (1499-1590) was the first anthropologist in the Western Hemisphere. A Franciscan friar, he spent fifty years interviewing the priestly and educated Aztec elite in order to record their culture. The evangelical intent was to replace ancient rites and rituals with Christian devotional activities, but Sahagún's work is widely respected today as a primary ethnography of Aztec culture.

Like today's Olympics, ball games not only provided entertainment but they also served to reinforce the economic power of rulers. Bumper crops, dependent on adequate rainfall, impressed both potential followers and rival factions. The annual arrival of the rains was arguably the ruler's most basic demonstration of spiritual efficacy, followed closely by command of resources (closely related to surpluses arising from bumper crops) for the construction and maintenance of ball courts and for hosting ballgames accompanied by lavish feasts.

Hence the ball court can provide a clue to chiefly power. Abandonment of the ball court at Paso de la Amada, for example, is taken to be an important indicator of the decline of the ruler's power.

Summary

Throughout Mesoamerican culture history, the ball game played not only a key role in community life,
but was also a crucial social tool for mediating relations between communities.

Still Curious?

This post is indebted to two classic archaeological works:

• Susan Toby Evans encyclopedic work Ancient Mexico & Central America: Archaeology and Culture History, which was written originally to be a college textbook.
• Mary Miller and Karl Taube's An Illustrated Dictionary of The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya--what Reed and I call "the god book"!

Jenny's Travel Journal:

• Guadalajara and Jalisco includes a brief description of Guachimontones;
• El Tajin I: Beauty and Mystery includes photos of some of El Tajín's seventeen (!) ball courts, by far the most found at any other site.

In addition to the Grand Court, the religious center at Chichén Itzá had twelve other, normal-sized Maya ball courts. Slides 9-11 of this walking tour of Chichén Itzá show the temples at each end of the Grand Court with its "I"-design.

Wikipedia:

• Mesoamerican Ballcourt;
• Paso de la Amada is the site of the earliest Ball Court found to date;
• Short history of Medieval Football in Northern Europe.

This Soccer History Timeline gives an interesting global overview of multiple 'games played with the foot' and credits Mexico and Central America as the origin of the rubber (latex) ball, but its dates of "600-1600 AD" are off. Archaeological research puts the dates from 1800-1000 BCE.

Mike Schepker's highly readable paper on Mesoamerican Ball Game has interesting material.

New York Times: The Greater Meaning of the Olympic Games Can Depend on Where You Live.

Mexico Wins Olympic Gold in 2-1 Soccer Victory Over Brazil

Reed and I watched the game on huge TV screens mounted on the walls at our favorite local restaurant, Sinfones. From our apartment shortly after 9:00 AM, we were surprised to hear rise up our stairwell the unmistakable, triumphant shout of "Goooool." The source was TV in the building's lobby, where we knew Victor (our building guard) was watching the game. That first goal occurred just twenty-nine seconds into the game! 

After quick showers, we hustled to Sinfones for a late breakfast. Mexico's win is not to be under-estimated. Our host country is reeling not only from drug war violence but a presidential transition that is challenging Mexico's democratic institutions to their core.

Fútbol, Soccer, is special to Mexico. The ball game is at the very heart of Mexico's prehispanic past. Indelibly imprinted in my imagination is an image of a local soccer player decked out in fireworks who was burned in effigy as part of Pátzcuaro's traditional Quema de Juda (Burning of Judas) held just after nightfall on Easter Sunday. I was persuaded then that Mexicans take their soccer very seriously!

Mexico's win over Brazil, a team that has dominated the sport, is hence doubly sweet! 

MexicoCNN

Hundreds of Soccer Fans Celebrate Mexico's Olympic Gold 2-1 Win Over Brazil
Photo: AP

Mexico City • At the traffic circle surrounding the monument of the Angel of Independence, a green and black tide ran first from one side then to another, then in circles shouting, "México! México!" Other fans jumped and shouted out defiant taunts like:

"Where are they now? Where are those Brazilians who were going to win?"

Amid a din of whistles, rattles and trumpets celebrating Mexico's historic, first-ever Olympic Gold Medal Soccer Win in London, Juan Carlos shouted:

"Thank you, Oribe (Peralta), our hero, thank you for this joy that you give us, for those two goals that you gave us!" 

Another fan, on the verge of tears, shouted while waving the Mexican flag:

"We are here for (goalkeeper) Corona, for those stops he made!" 

On a cold, wet morning in Mexico's capital city, the streets looked deserted at 9:00 AM as citizens stayed home to watch the game.

The authorities have put in place a significant capital security operation to prevent possible riots. Other cities such as Guadalajara and Monterrey are also reporting victory celebrations in the streets. Spanish original

CNNMexico (Excerpt): Mexico's presumptive president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto sent a message to the Mexico team's players via his Twitter account:

“With an attitude of triumph, determination and perseverance, you demonstrate that "¡Sí, se puede!"--"Yes, it is possible!"  

Spanish original (full text)

Saturday Market in Coyoacán

Saturday is market day in our neighborhood in Coyoacán. During the week, the street América is just an ordinary arterial that runs through the area, but each Saturday a couple of blocks are transformed. One lane is closed off, and two rows of stalls are set up...from the corner all the way to the fountain in a tiny plaza.

Probably fifty vendors set out fruits and vegetables, bulk frijoles (beans), mole, quesadillas hot off the grill made with blue-corn tortillas (more about them in a second), wrist watches, CDs, clothing for children and women...and I'm sure I'm missing something.

Vegetable vendor. The idea of a roof cover supported by
poles goes back over a thousand years; the metal poles
and plastic tarps are modern innovations!

We caught sight of blue corn tortillas prepared a mano, by hand. Tortillas prepared a mano are thicker and far tastier than those prepared in a tortilla press! So naturally, we stopped.

Family selling blue-corn tortillas hot off the grill—a method
undoubtedly practiced in this family for more than a millennium.
Reed had a quesadilla stuffed with huitlacoche (corn fungus);
I had mine stuffed with a bean filling and topped with spinach and cheese.
¡Muy rico! Absolutely delicious!

Reed took their son's picture, then at the hijo's request, snapped photos of his papá and mamá as well!

As we sat enjoying our quesadillas, Reed caught sight of two boys playing in the fountain:

Notice the stalls set up on the other side of the fountain
which, not incidentally, the vendors use as a source of water.

Moving on, we bought an almond-chocolate mole. When later heated and thinned with chicken broth, it was delicious over chicken with brown rice and vegetables. I looked longingly at fresh cherries, the first I'd seen, but before I could make my way to the puesto, it started to rain. Actually, it was a downpour typical of this time of year. First it rained hard, then harder, followed by hardest.

Then it rained Hardest+1, Hardest+2, and Hardest+3. Monsoons in India come to mind.

We sat out the storm sitting on a stool at a second taco stand, under the plastic tarps. We watched fascinated as the vendors kept their eyes on the tarps—periodically pushing up a broom to lift the tarp and drain the water. In this drought-stricken country, where the campesinos, country people, say, el agua es vida, water is life, one vendor captured into an ice chest the water draining off the tarp covering his stall. Reed had his third quesadilla.

While we waited for the storm to stop, I asked the vendors what they do the other days of the week and learned that they set up the market at three other locations on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. So this is a mercado ambulante, traveling market—clearly part of the 'informal economy' that makes up about 40% or, if household help is included, more like almost 55% of Mexico's economy.

This market could be in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, where we lived for three years before moving to Mexico City. It could be anywhere in Mexico. I recently asked a long-time Mexican friend about her memories of the mercado. Here's her description of El Bazar de los sábados, Saturday Market:

El Bazar de los sábados is a wonderful place. I love to go there. There is a difference between a mercado and a tianguis. A tianguis is like a mercado ambulante, traveling market. The tradition comes from the Aztecs and all the other native cultures. The vendors put their merchandise on the floor, on blankets or mats, for sale to their customers.

Tianguis was usually held on a specific day of the week. Nowadays these tianguis are still mercados ambulantes, but they have puestos—stalls, like at a fair. What's wonderful about tianguis is everything is fresh, like at a farmers' market.  

In some tianguis you can still find very, very old traditions, like the man with a stack of mini-cages selling canaries and other kinds of birds (sometimes illegal species). 

Reading my friend's description brought back memories of the mercado in Pátzcuaro, where every Saturday the birdman stood on the corner selling birds in tiny cages, and where three or four Purhépecha woman sat in a line, selling fresh herbs and vegetables from their gardens.

Following age-old tradition, this indigenous woman in the
Coyoacán tianguis has laid out herbs and vegetables, most likely
from her garden, on a mat surrounding her. In a nod to modernity,
she uses plastic bags and is sitting on an upturned plastic
ten-gallon paint bucket. 

As I write these lines, I realize that Pátzcuaro's mercado is a blended tradition. In addition to the birdman and the Purhépecha women, there is also a superb, modern fish market. And I'm reminded of the family of another Mexican friend. The family owns two puestos in the mercado, where they sell men's, women's and children's clothing purchased wholesale once a week during a predawn trips.  

As I think about it, Pátzcuaro actually has both a mercado—a seven-day a week operation in a roofed building—and a tianguis de viernes, Friday tianguis, an open-air market where Purhépecha people still arrive early Friday morning to barter fruits, vegetables, cheeses: all kinds of goods are exchanged with nary a peso changing hands.

At the Saturday tianguis near us, there is also a blend of traditional and the modern. We could hardly believe our eyes when we caught sight of the meat market.

In the same tianguis where the herb lady has spread her wares,
this butcher shop sports a light bulb! México — where
traditional and modern reside side by side. 

But it is my friend's words that capture the true spirit of tianguis:

I remember going there on Sunday morning with my mom or with my grandma. We'd take the carrito, small cart, and walk to the tianguis. I was in charge of neatly putting in the carrito everything we bought...and God help me if I dared put the tomatoes under the watermelon!!!!  

We knew everybody, the viejita, little old woman, who sold the aguacates, avocados (sorry, this has to be in Spanglish, otherwise it wouldn't have the flavor of a mercado), the man who sold jícamas con limón y chile—would you believe that he was so strong, I still remember his arms? 

There was, of course the señora with the canasta, woven basket, of handmade tortillas, quesadillas de papa, potato, and gorditas. That was also wonderful.  

And there was the man who sold pork, and the man who sold tostadas, queso y crema. His puesto was one of my favorite spots in the market. He had a huge bucket of cream, thick as yogurt, and  dipped a tostada in the cream, then it went directly to the queso rallado, grated cheese, and he gave it to you as a snack (1000 calories, of course) while you ordered what you wanted to buy.  

That's where my grandma and my mom taught me how to select fruits and veggies: "Nunca escojas las calabacitas más grandes porque son desabridas y pueden estar amargas, mejor chiquitas porque tienen más sabor y siempre tienen que estar muy firmes, no aguadas" ("Never choose large zucchini because they are tasteless and can be bitter; the little ones are better because they have more flavor, and zucchini always has to be very firm, not soft").  

I also learned there that some vendors were dishonest and would try to distract you to include bad mandarinas, mandarin oranges, among the pretty ones. Others had stupidly high prices for the same product you would find at a better price if you just walked a little farther.  

I also liked the section where they sold flowers. It always smelled wonderful and my mom would let me buy some. In general I'd choose nube con claveles rojos. Nube is a little white flower...it stinks if you don't change the water every day. 

Sometimes my mom would buy roses, red roses, and she taught my sister and me how to make a coronita, little crown, with the thorns. She put the roses in a transparent vase, then we inserted the coronas made of thorns on the sides, and it looked nice. 

Long story short, I think the mercado means company, good food, family, color, smiles, fresh produce, support, happy farmers, tradition, and a happy nose because OMG those places have a million different scents.

It's funny, but I was telling my sister in San Francisco about our trip to the Saturday market, and she started to chuckle.

"I don't believe it," she said, "it's just like the Farmer's Market here in San Francisco. The big one is in the Ferry Building, but on Tuesday it's at the Civic Center, and on Thursday, it's just a couple of blocks from my office.  The produce is so incredibly fresh...and it smells so good."

Traveling markets all over North America, on both sides of the line in the sand that seems to separate us. But markets don't stop here. Friends who visited us in Pátzcuaro are extremely well traveled in China. When they visited the Pátzcuaro mercado, their comment was,

"Oh, it's just like China."

Markets are universal.

Still Curious?

Before we moved, we visited this mercado held outside a pueblo near Pátzcuaro, Alternative & Organic Fair in Arócutin—yet another twist on an ancient tradition.

Anecdote: In our search to replace a crashed laptop, Reed and I visited a Centro de Tecnología in downtown Mexico City. Our expectation was something along the lines of Office Max (where we eventually ended up), but instead we found ourselves in a traditional mercado—tiny puestos with vendors aggressively hawking their wares and cartons of merchandise stacked in the aisles. New technology being sold in a highly traditional manner!

During a trip to visit family in Chicago, I dragged Reed along on a shopping trip. He made best use of his time by photographing the shopping mall, then writing this post, which includes a lovely description of what mercado means in Mexican culture:

Mexico Culture: What Makes It So Different from U.S. Culture?