The ciTy in The conquesT’s wake • 85off the left edge, reached by the roadway-canal that stems
horizontally across the top edge of the market. In contrast,
the main artery leading to the short-lived Tianguis of Juan
Velázquez was the causeway of Chapultepec, a more cir-
cuitous land route that required the use of oxen (expensive
and scarce in indigenous communities) or equally ineffi-
cient and expensive porters.
By the middle of the sixteenth century, this great mar-
ket was sometimes called the Tianguis de San Juan, taking
the name of San Juan Moyotlan, or was referred to as the
Tianguis of Mexico, the name preferred here. 43 By then, it
was one of three indigenous markets in the city. Its main
competitor was that of Santiago Tlatelolco, which also was
of pre-Hispanic origin and lay adjacent to that altepetl’s
tecpan, or palace of the indigenous government, and the
monastery. The third was the Tianguis of San Hipólito,
which had been established under Viceroy Antonio de
Mendoza in the 1540s and sat at the western edge of the
city, north of today’s Alameda park, close to the site of the
old Tianguis of Juan Velázquez. 44 In the colonial period, a
tianguis was understood as a market that trafficked primar-
ily in foodstuffs, as opposed to pariáns, where one wouldfiguRe 4.8. Unknown creator, the Tianguis of Mexico and
surrounding area, oriented to the west, detail, Map of Santa Cruz,
ca. 1537–1555. Uppsala University Library, Sweden.