Just about 18 miles from Oaxaca City, the town of
Tlacolula de Matamoros has long served as a commercial center for the rural region
that surrounds it. On Sundays, eight blocks of the town are closed off for the
more than 1,000 vendors who flock there to display their wares. Hordes of
people—many of them ranchers and farmers—come from all around to buy, sell, and
socialize beneath a maze of blue tarps that covers the market. Ancient customs
hold strong in the area and it’s not uncommon to see women wearing traditional
brightly colored aprons and hair-ribbons while conducting conversations in
Zapotec. As for what you find packed in the stalls, available products include
everything from foodstuffs to household products, animals, clothing, mezcal,
tools, textiles, jewelry and ointments that can cure everything, sold by what’s
called a merolico, essentially
Spanish for “snake oil salesman.”
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