Tlacolula Market

On Sundays the valley converges on Tlacolula. The town's tianguis descends from pre-Hispanic trade fairs, and it remains the region's great weekly exchange: streets for blocks around the church submerged under tarps, where Zapotec vendors - many women in the braided hairstyles and aprons of their villages, striking deals in Zapotec before Spanish - sell turkeys and cacao, chiles by the basket, wedding bread crusted with sesame, hand-tooled leather, gourds, rebozos and the green-glazed pottery of Atzompa. The eating is the pilgrimage's second half: the smoke alley beside the market roasts barbecue-lamb barbacoa and grilled meats over coals, orders assembled with tortillas from the comal ladies and salsas from molcajetes; pan de yema comes warm with chocolate de agua, and mezcal from Santiago Matatlan - the "world capital" just up the road - pours in cautious samples. The chapel of the Señor de Tlacolula, a gilded folk-baroque marvel, waits behind the noise. It is the valley's living original of which city markets are the echo.

History

The Zapotecs probably reached the central valleys of Oaxaca in the 2nd century AD, when much of the Tlacolula area was still a lake, which they later drained; tradition places the first town at Yagul, now an archaeological site. The Spanish settlement was formally founded in 1560 as Santa María de la Asunción Tlacolula - either as a stop on the road to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec or as a mission of the friars Gonzalo Lucero and Bernardino de Minaya - and its church of the Assumption, whose chapel of the Señor de Tlacolula is known for its ornate Baroque decoration, was begun in 1561. Many of the town's religious festivals date from those years, and its Sunday market is counted among the oldest in Oaxaca (Wikipedia, Tlacolula de Matamoros).

The main sights

• The tianguis streets - blocks of Zapotec Sunday commerce.
• The smoke alley - barbacoa and grills at full roar.
• The chapel - gilded folk baroque behind the stalls.
• The valley produce - chiles, cacao, bread and mezcal at source.

When to go

Sunday, roughly 9 am to 3 pm - other days offer a fraction. Pair with Mitla or Teotitlan on the same eastern-valley road.

Before you go

It is dense, loud and unairconditioned reality - bags close, cash small, elbows patient. Photograph people only with permission; a purchase opens more doors than a lens. The barbacoa queue moves; join it.

Nearby

Mitla's mosaics, the Teotitlan weaving village and Matatlan's palenques line the same highway east.