La función de los estereotipos

Aztecas Street was occupied by some street vendors in the 1950s; they used to sell near El Carmen church, the Plaza del Estudiante square and Apartado Street. The activity was more ‘nomadic’, street vendors moved from one place to another randomly searching for clients. The Granaditas market was built in 1957 to relocate the street traders in the area.

Many shoemakers, especially from Tepito, were relocated to this market. The market became an important commercial hub and new street vendors were attracted to the area.

180 Tony, leader of ASVA, was a street vendor in the surroundings of the Granaditas market;

she was not eligible to get a place in the closed market as she was a minor; she continued as a street vendor in the nearby streets.

After the construction of the market in 1957, the street vendors were not allowed to continue selling in the streets. Tony continued selling, despite repression from the police, as she did not have any alternative solution to make a living. She had to hide from the police; neighbours and shop owners, and other vendors wherever they could, helped her by allowing her to hide in their shops and houses.

Groups of vendors started moving together to better resist police repression. This was the origin of the street vendor organisation in the area. Groups of women started to organise themselves to help each other with their daily activities. Together they prepared food in the street, looked after the children, took care of the stalls while the vendors had to move for a while, etc. Solidarity and mutual help were the values that predominated within the groups.

Tony had a strong personality; she defended other women from the police and talked to them firmly making them notice how unfairly they treated people. In fact, the police used to take the vendors’ goods and force them to stay in jail for weeks. Some of the vendors were single women with children who could not take care of them while in jail; other women vendors helped them in this situation. The street vendors explain that the city government was very insensible to their situation. A feeling of anger and frustration arose within the vendors’ community towards the city government.

Tony became the natural leader of the group; members had great loyalty and respect for her, as she defended and supported other vendors beyond her personal interests. Many of the street vendor leaderships in the city centre emerged in this way. The street vendor organisations emerged as a response to the need of resisting police repression. Vendor group members became more coherent by helping each other in difficult situations; they developed values such as empathy, loyalty and solidarity.

During this period, the street vendors started what they call ‘the fight’ to claim their rights, in Spanish La lucha. They argue that they were treated like criminals, and that they were only trying to survive. The street vendor groups’ position was openly against the city government, and against the law; which was neither respected nor legitimate.

181 4.2.2 The formation of the unions (1970s)

In the early 1970s, the Market Construction Programme was cancelled, the authorities recognised the unions that were affiliated to the PRI and tolerated their use of the streets.

In exchange, the street traders were asked to participate in political demonstrations that benefited the PRI candidates to the federal government directly.

Tony and her group joined Guillermina Rico’s union, the most powerful leader in the city centre, see Figure 33. Other groups in the Granaditas market area also joined G. Rico’s union, who extended her ‘territory’ to the North Sector.

Guillermina Rico belonged to La Merced area, in the east sector of the city centre. She was relocated to the closed market in 1957, together with her family. They used to sell fruit in the market, but they started selling in the streets because the business was better. This leader had a great ability to negotiate with the police and the authorities; she became a renowned figure in the area⁸¹. She claimed that street vendors needed to sell in the streets to support their livelihoods; something essential for their survival. Guillermina defended other traders because she was convinced that their actions were legitimate as they were exercising their right to have a job and make a living; as a result, she was highly respected by the street vendors. Guillermina, as well as Tony, belonged to the group called ‘Viejas maleteras’ which includes the women street vendors that for years have resisted in order to continue selling in the city centre streets; the name means

‘women vendors carrying bags’.

Guillermina Rico was an important public figure in Mexico; she was loved and respected by the working classes, as she represented a hard worker fighting against adversity and trying to survive. She used to wear an apron and would spend a considerable amount of time in the streets with people; which contributed to the creation of her image as a person who defended the workers’ interests. Her reputation was such that the president himself attended her funeral in 1996.

81A total of 14 powerful groups controlled street vending in the city centre. The most important group was that of Guillermina Rico. She controlled Circunvalación Avenue, Academia and Soledad streets in the east sector; El Carmen, Colombia and Apartado in the north sector; and approximately 80% of the street traders in the city’s historic centre (Cetepis 1988 archives).

182

Figure 33 Leader Guillermina Rico

To control the area, Guillermina had people she could count on to organise the market streets. These people were mostly women, called ‘comadres’, which means close friends.

In local culture, the use of this word is a sign of a close relationship based on reliability and trust, as if the person referred to like this were a family member. Tony organised Aztecas Street, from Apartado to Costa Rica streets, in alliance with her comadre, Guillermina Rico.

The leaders of the groups claimed to be like any other member. In fact, vendors called themselves ‘compañeros’, which means partner, with a connotation of ‘peers’; vendor relations were supposedly not hierarchical. The leaders’ role was to represent the interests of the group, not their own⁸². However, this situation was evolving rapidly as leaders were becoming more powerful and autonomous, to a certain extent, to make decisions with authorities without considering the members of the group.

Tony was able to negotiate tolerance from the authorities so that ASVA could continue using Aztecas Street. At the same time, in the 1970s, the area was increasing its commercial potential rapidly. In 1972, the fayuca market started to expand; in 1978, the major city avenues were constructed, including the widening of Eje 1 Norte Avenue that

82During this period (1950s to the 1970s) there were many women leaders of the street traders, because they were the ones that resisted and defended fiercely their right to continue selling in the streets to make a living. It was more difficult for women to be integrated into the formal sectors of the economy, and street trading was an important survival strategy for them. This activity allowed them to look after their children and gave them certain flexibility to carry out other family functions. Nowadays, leaderships have evolved and leaders are not exclusively women.

183 connects the Tepito area with other city areas; the closed markets constructed in 1957 already had an established clientele; and a line 4 metro station, a 10 minute walk from Tepito, was already in operation. These factors contributed to the increase of the commercial potential of the market area.

In 1978, during the construction of the Zócalo metro station, the government found ruins of the Aztec temples and decided to create an archaeological site in the city centre core area that blocked the Seminario-Argentina Streets corridor, a street parallel to Aztecas. El Carmen-Aztecas Street became the major connection between the city centre and Tepito, creating a natural corridor, which increased the commercial value of the Aztecas street market. The street vendors, who had established themselves on Aztecas Street, took advantage of the tolerance granted by the authorities and of the commercial opportunity recently created by the changing conditions of the area in order to consolidate the street market.

‘We started selling. We used milk cans, recycled Nido milk cans, to display the goods; afterwards we used other kinds of cans, taller ones; then metallic structures like beds; and then stalls that we had to install and dismantle every day. The market evolved from a more mobile form of vending to a more permanent one’ (LO notes from the field trip, interview with Victoria 2/12/2010).

The market became a more permanent activity during the 1970s. The value that the street was acquiring is important to understand the groups’ interest to territorialise the area and defend the place from other groups that might be interested in the area. After the unions had been formed and the authorities had decided to tolerate the vendors, they were more secure. They still had some difficulties to sell, especially because of the weather. The leaders of ASVA explained that they had to protect the goods while it was raining or that they had to remain long hours under the sun. These hard conditions were still part of the hardships that street vendors had to endure to carry out their activity.

The experience of living a time of hardships while consolidating the market is an argument that vendors use to legitimate their current appropriation of space: ‘we built the market with our own effort, so it is our market, our own creation’ (notes from the field, interview with Victoria 2/12/2010).

The creation of the unions helped the street vendors to increase their political abilities and power; they were able to negotiate more tolerance to be allowed to continue using the streets. After they were granted the ‘right’ to use the streets, even if in a temporary

184 basis and with no legal frame, the vendors had the opportunity to consolidate the street market and take advantage of the area’s commercial opportunities.