The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-05
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

EDITORS N0TE-This rowing reporter
for The Times goes where he pleases, /.
when he pleaseS, in search Of odd stories
about this and that
nAxACA, Mexico, May 5.-You
~ can't come to Oaxaca by auto;
there isn't any road. 1t is 800 miles
below Mexico City, and you Gomez
by narrow-gauge railway. And be-
fore forget it, it's pronounced Wa
ha-ca, accent on the second syllable.
All American tourists in Mexico
want TO come to Oaxaca, but only.
few ever do, because IL seems SUCH
task to get here. ;
In Oaxaca you find the following
things:
1. The still-primitive zapoctec :
and Mixtec Indians. :
2. The most colorful market in
Mexico cat least so I am told.
8. The home of some of the I'm
est handicraft still fiourishing IN
Mexico.
4. The finest heavy serapes woven
in the republic.
5. Two famous ruins, built nobody
knows when, but long before Chris
topher Colombo bumped into Amer
lea.
1t is Saturday morning, just after
breakfast, and I sit on a bench
under the trees of the plaza and
wonder how to find the market.
T WALK back to my room TN a
i private Mexican home, the no.
tel being fulD and get out my lit
tie dictionary and look up market,
and it turns out to be ''marcado,"
so I go back to the plaza and say
"marcado," and just as though I
had waved a magic wand, 81 little
boys appear to lead me to the
'marcado"
Now about markets. Every Mex-
can town of any size has market
one day a week. It's usually Sum-
day, but sometimes other days
There is permanent small market,
of course, but once week the
mountaineers come in with their
stuff.
Mexican Indians go to market just
as Midwest farmers go to town on
Saturday night. Some of them
walk scores of miles, over mountain
trails, carrying unbelievable loads
on their backs.
The market in OaXaca covers one
h1nnIy 1rY1In,~ claAd o1a1
flows for another block and half
in all directions. There must be
$4,000 people-sellers, and BUYERS
and plain market gossipers-today'
al Oaxaca market. q
INSIDE the great block-square.
L shed you move through the
throng an inch at a time. as though
you were at Coney Island.
Skittish Americans who don't like,
to touch anything Indian had better
not come to Oaxaea.
The stalls under the shed are oc-,
cupied Il assume) by the better-to-
do sellers. A stall is not so much a;
stall as just so much space on the
f1oor-there are makeshift aisles,
and they're all lined with produce,
spread on the floor or on low ia
bles.
Nowhere have ever seen so many
vegetables. Beautiful, fresh, clean
vegetables, too. There must be-
enough food here to feed all Oaxaca
for month.
The Indians of Mexico are a peo-
pie of meticulous design. Many of.
them live like dogs, but they do it.
in fancy pattern. At the market,
every little stack of peanuts, or
avocados, or leather sandals, is ar
ranged in neat rows, and the rows.
are fashioned into figures-stars,.
triangleS or something.
A FTER the vegetables comes pot
n terry In volume. mean. This
is mostly outside, for the hot sun
doesn't spoil pottery. Scores of In
dian families have brought their.
stuff in from the mountains by
burro, or on their own backs. They
spread it out right on the street,
put up a canvas sua-Shade and sit
down.
And then the leather work. Fancy
belts, and woven leather sandals
(more sandals than anything else),
and saddles and pocketbooks. They
are of light brown leather, and smell
terrible.
And then there are reed baskets,
and bright fiber bags, and serapes,
and wooden spoons, and herbs, and
fancy needlework, and so on.
At noon, my two little boys stag
ger back to my rooming house, each
carrying a big basket of assorted.
stuff which to me seems beautiful,
and which probably required, if add.
ed up, a year to make. And I have
spent less than 81. Which, at that.
is whole years coffee crop to.
many an Indian.