The Flower Market of Tenancingo Mercado de la Flor Tenancingo

     I spent the last few days helping at a parking lot near the flower market in Tenancingo. Every day there is movement at the flower market but on certain holidays like Mother's Day, Los Muertos, The Virgin of Guadalupe, and Valentine's Day commercial movement reaches critical mass. It is impressive,, the amount of vehicles,,,, tractor trailers, trucks, buses, and cars that enter Tenancingo to sell and to buy. There is a permanently covered flower market that covers about one and a half acres which has been obsolete since it was built. Ten times the size might be adequate to manage the amount of flower business that takes place in Tenancingo. On peak days,the market, pregnant with trade, seizes the entire southern part of the city. The streets in this area are literally converted into one giant open air marketplace. It is difficult to ride a bicycle around the flower market during peak days. The quantity of commerce is the biggest infusion of money into the city. The amount of flower growers around Tenancingo is always increasing. People come from all over the Republic, from Coahuila to Oaxaca, to buy flowers and sell them back home. Business is not just restricted to flowers. There is an influx of people who must eat, who buy materials, and who sleep in hotels. 
     In the parking lot in the cool morning, the ambulant sellers arrive with jackets and atole. In the afternoon when the air heats up those that sell fruit water, food, blankets to keep your flowers cool, umbrellas, and rope appear. In the night there are vendors selling flashlights and headlamps. This market affects the economics of not just Tenancingo but the entire country. Hundreds of thousands of people are touched by what happens here. The market is in desperate need of renovation. The government has promised for years to build a new larger more modern market but appropriated funds always disappear and infighting impedes progress. One would think that the flower market in Tenancingo given all the money spent, and all the lives influenced should supercede a sleek yellow brick road highway between Toluca and Mexico City that few but the rich will be able to afford.