T his rebelliousness, that has also kept the spirit of the Velas alive, has not diminished. Outsiders are not welcomed here and can provoke rare outbursts of aggression in these normally quiet and henpecked men. I n the Juchitan marketplace it is the women who run the show, buying and selling as only they are allowed to. While men work in the fields, hunt iguana, fish or weave hammocks, it is wives and daughters who sell the produce, watchful of every half-peso that changes hands. B arter and repartee are the hallmarks of a good marketeer.
Girls inherit a stall from their aunt or mother when they have learnt to trade.
Men can't buy or sell - they don't have the mentality. They are soft and need the guardianship of women. I give my husband Luis pocket money every week to buy beer, get a shave or a shoeshine. Only women know how to look after money. Men have a different kind of brain.