Tianguis of Tarps in Mexico City

Tianguis La Paloma (Credit: Jennifer Renteria)

In a recent The Atlantic Cities post, a collection of Google Earth images of Mexico City’s tianguis (or street markets) by Fabian Neuhaus of Urban Tick, were featured. The images are striking, at times looking like revered Klee drawings overlaid on satellite maps. Other times, their immense length, which can at times cover tens of blocks, is enough to bring awe. What makes these tianguis’ identifiable from the sky are their characteristic overhanging tarps, which, according to the images, are mostly composed of different fading shades of red. On the ground, though, these important tianguis buidling components more often than not appear in more playful and colorful clusters, as I witnessed during my research visit in August 2011 and as documented above and below.