The NAFTA and its consequences
On January 1, 1994 The United States, Canada and Mexico entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement eliminates many of the barriers to trade and investment between the three nations and was approved under the “fast track” procedure which restricts Congress’ involvement in trade policy with the justification that it would raise living standards in all countries, increase democracy in Mexico and create more jobs.
Ten years after its passage, a look at the effects of NAFTA across all three countries illustrates an overwhelmingly negative picture.
Local economies in Mexico have suffered under the free trade model and thousands of Mexicans have been forced off the land or out of business into taking low-wage jobs in the cities, or crossing the border to find work.
Mexican artisans, farmers, campesino cooperatives, non-profit organizations, and small locally owned operations are now responding to the challenges of trade liberalization by coming together to establish support networks that give them access to start-up capital, product development, marketing assistance, and foreign distribution outlets.
Participants in the fair trade, rather than free trade market,
are also promoting a working alternative to current commercial
practices, grounded in the principles of social equity and sustainable
development, making
fair trade work in Mexico
As a responsible traveler you should be aware of the importance
of purchasing products and services that support living wages,
healthy working conditions, and environmental protection. If you
agree with these principles, or if you are simply not thrilled
at the idea of going back home from your Mexican journey with
a sombrero that was made in Taiwan, you will probably appreciate
the following suggestions and tips.
There's a rainbow of different kinds of Mexican markets or mercados.
However, a few characteristics unite them. For instance, most
Mexican mercados announce themselves by degree.
You're walking down a regular street peopled with regular folks,
seeing regular stores with typical window displays and typical
merchandise. But then you notice that more and more people around
you are carrying bags filled with fruits and vegetables.
Stores along the street may also change in character. Instead
of being fronted with standard doors and large display windows,
now their entire fronts may be open, with all kinds of merchandise
avalanching onto the sidewalk. This makes the street feel less
formal and more colorful. The mercado's congenial unpretentiousness,
is contagious, and diffuses the entire surrounding neighborhood.
Now you smell the most wide-ranging and penetrating of mercado
odors - the green aroma of celery, and the unctuous odor of
the meat stall's unrefrigerated, dismembered flesh.
Typically, sidewalks immediately around mercados are crowded
with small displays of merchandise. The most humble and usually
the most numerous displays, especially where Indians constitute
part of the population, are those arranged atop straw mats,
tablecloths, towels, shawls, or maybe nothing, on the sidewalk.
Tianguises are what guidebooks sometime refer to as "authentic weekly Indian markets." The word tianguis is mostly used in the central Mexican highlands. One feature of the tianguis is that many or most, if not all, items are exhibited in "unofficial" spots.
In central Mexico, tianguises are typical of regions with large
Indian populations. They are the one day a week when Indians
come to town to buy and sell. Mexico's first mercados were tianguises.
In fact, there is a good chance that many of the mercados encountered
today began as tianguises - at least those in Indian regions
- and have been operating more or less continually in the same
neighborhood since long before the first Europeans came onto
the scene.
Especially in Mexico's most underdeveloped regions, people still
may be seen arriving at the weekly tianguis after walking long
distances along footpaths, or coming by horse. The mercado zone
may be nothing more than a grassy or muddy open space where
vendors simply choose spots on the ground, arrange goods there,
and sit patiently awaiting customers.
Apart from their daily or weekly regular markets, most fair-size Mexican towns celebrate one or more yearly markets. A "feria artesanal" usually consists of lined-up booths in which artisans from many places display and sell their products. These festivals may also have roots in antiquity and hold very important places in the lives of local people, but they are religious in nature, not commercial, so they are not traditional Mexican markets.
(Courtesy of Mexican Mercados)
