88 • The deaTh of azTec TenochTiTLan, The Life of mexico ciTy
the space of the tianguis, oriented to the west, as in fig-
ure 4.8, which would mean that the causeway to Chapulte-
pec ran along its left edge, and a main north–south axis
along its upper edge. Despite the arteries that fed into it,
the tianguis is represented as a highly contained space,
bordered on all sides by walls; the southern wall, on the
left-hand side of the map, had only one narrow entrance,
blocking easy access from the adjacent causeway. Another
wall defined the west perimeter of the tianguis, with two
small entrances leading out to this causeway. Stores may
have defined the northern side of the tianguis, and at the
northeast corner are the “Portales de Tejada,” the arcade
marked by small circles showing the footprint of its round
columns. This building, constructed by an oidor ( judge) of
the Real Audiencia, Lorenzo de Tejada, was perhaps the
earliest permanent market structure, whose front was a
covered arcade within which marketers could display their
wares and which gave them protection from the elements;
it was attached to two-story dwellings for shopkeepers. 50
The eastern side, along the lower edge of the map, had
three blocks of buildings on it, and two streets cut between
them, one thirty feet wide, the other thirty-six; if one fol-
lowed them out of the tianguis, one would quickly arrive at
the convent of Nuestra Señora de Regina Coeli, founded
in 1553, which stood beyond the east end of the tianguis and
whose building was considered “new” in 1588. 51
Today, the location of the great Tianguis of Mexico is
often mistakenly assigned to that of another, much later
market, the Mercado de San Juan, which occupies a site a
few blocks away, 52 perhaps because much of the old tianguis
site is filled with the eighteenth-century building of Las
Vizcaínas. Figure 4.10 is a detail from an 1867 map of Mex-
ico City, oriented to the west so it better corresponds to the
1588 map drawn by Cristóbal de Carvallo. The space once
occupied by the great Tianguis of Mexico is highlighted,
and dominating its upper right corner is the complex of Las
Vizcaínas, with many interior courtyards, marked as “75.”
The northeast corner, at the lower right, is designated as
“Portal de Tejada,” suggesting that the covered arcade stood
there into the nineteenth century. It no longer stands today,
but the abrupt narrowing of what is now Mesones Street
follows the street line established by the outer limit of the
sixteenth-century arcade. The three streets leading into the
highlighted space, seen at the bottom of the map, corre-
spond directly to the three streets at the bottom of the 1588
map, as does their somewhat irregular spacing. The 1588
map gives measurements of some of the internal divisions
of this enormous market. Cross-checking these with mod-
ern maps reveals that the tianguis measured approximately
270 varas, or 250 yards, across its north–south axis, and
was somewhat longer on the east–west axis, perhaps 330
yards. This great space was therefore larger, by about 15 per-
cent, than the Plaza Mayor in the center of the city (which
measures about 260 yards square), itself the second-largest
plaza in the world today. Thus, when founded, the Tianguis
of Mexico was one of the largest open urban spaces in any
European or American city.
Enormous, packed with vendors and buyers, the
Tianguis of Mexico was the commercial hub of the city,
and the small transactions that took place here—in an era
without refrigeration, fresh food would need to be bought
frequently—were the mainstay of the economic life of the
city’s indigenous people, particularly women: orders issued
by the viceroy in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries often identify the sellers as female “indias.” 53
Another map, which exists only as a later copy now at the
Bibliothèque nationale de France, reveals what was sold at
the late sixteenth-century tianguis and thus offers an index
to consumption in the city as well as to the kind of hybrid
products that were being sold (figures 4.11 and 4.12 and
table 4.1). 54 In this map, we see a highly ordered urbanfiguRe 4.10. Luis Espinosa and J. M. Alvarez, Plano de la Ciudad
de México, detail showing the tecpan of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (A), with
the area of the former Tianguis of Mexico highlighted and “Portal[es] de
Tejada” visible at lower right; map oriented to the west, 1867. Mapoteca
Manuel Orozco y Berra, 1230-cGe-725-a, Servicio de Información
Agroalimentaria y Pesquera, Sa GarPa.