Conceptual referents

Latacunga’s Decentralized Autonomous Municipal Government (^{GAD, 2013}) has defined the marketplace or central market as a “Center for alimentary commercialization with a steady and closed infrastructure, where the merchants buy and sell their products to the consumers from aligned stands” (Figure 2).

According to this definition, it is important to set a radical difference between these places and the commonly visited supermarkets, managed and controlled by centralized structures that control the purchase and sell of foods, clothes, medicines, utilitarian artifacts and more. Opposed to conventional grocery stores and supermarkets, popular markets, central markets or marketplaces are structured as a participatory and collective model, where merchants have access to individual commercial spots within a closed and steady architectural structure, in rural and urban contexts, offering a wide range of goods and services to their customers.

Figure 2 Individual commercial space. Mercado Central (Central Market), Latacunga, Ecuador. Photography: Own creation. 

Regarding the Ecuadorian markets, Medina (as cited in ^{Flores, 2014}) considers the alimentary experience on these spaces as a search for identity treasures, as a “simple and rewarding ceremony”. ^{Landeta (2014)} explains:

A marketplace is a context where people are able to acquire victuals, prepared food or any kind of home supplies. The Quito markets really go beyond any definition. Herbs that help neutralize the evil eye, to find love or cure ant kind of illness, can be easily found on these places.

Through America, mostly in the continent’s central and southern regions, the marketplace has become a preservation space for traditional practices and a cultural reserve that embraces different forms of folklore and oral delivered knowledge, including handcrafted decorative or functional objects, religious beliefs, esoteric practices and imagery, Santería and superstition, naturopathic medicine, dressing, musical instruments, toys and millenary alimentary tradition.

As exposed by ^{Martín-Barbero (1981)}, these contexts have not been homogenized, “…not yet devoured by the mercantile machinery” (p.4), surviving within urban environments, facing uniforming and hybridizing effects, associated with modernity and globalization. Essentially, the marketplace is a specially structured space for economic exchange and acquisition of goods and services, where all these cultural expressions and legacies are preserved, materialized through a wide range of single objects, that evidence the continent’s multicultural hybrid background and heritage.

^{Castiblanco-Roldán (2011)} describes the marketplace as a social environment where trading relations are motivated, with a constant interaction between merchants and consumers, facilitating a direct negotiation of goods and services. ^{Coronado (2010)} describes these spaces as:

…The meeting point for neighbors, preserving an alimentary cultural memory, rich in traditions, locally and regionally, supporting and strengthening identity and belonging in a diverse and inclusive city… …popular places for a traditional wisdom exchange, encouraging cultural practices, increasing a sense of belonging…

Escallón (as cited in ^{Ángel-Bravo, 2018}) describes these markets as “…a space that beyond technologies, preserves its simple and millenary essence…” (p.77), poetically reminiscing some personal memories and experiences:

My childhood developed in the center of the concrete jungle, a hundred meters away from the rural oasis, the chaotic choir of marching announcers, attracting the visitors to the vegetables, the meats, the cheeses and the attentive smile of the grain store owner. It goes without mentioning that special aroma that tastefully stands out among the smells of the market, captivating the hungry eyes of the consumers, coming from the exhibitionist restaurants, displaying and delivering soups, eggs, sancocho, grains and tubers. (p.77)

^{Restrepo (2012)}, identifies four important differentiating factors and strengths, regarding these commercial spaces:

“Knowing where the products that we eat come from, reducing the number of intermediaries, having the opportunity to shake the hand of the person who grows our fruits and vegetables…”, are considered by ^{Fourdinier (2017)}, as the most important advantages or benefits of buying in this type of space. In the age of globalization, marketplaces are more than just commercial spaces for the marketing of goods and services, becoming a community meeting point in small towns and cities, across the American continent, especially in Central and South America, as migratory communities in the USA. Strongly reacting to globalization and hybridization processes, these contexts constitute cultural reserves that struggle to survive as a collective and participatory effort, possibly unintentional, but still effective and relevant in our societies’ evolution and our continent’s folklores’ defense.

According to ^{García-Canclini (2001)}, hybridization must be understood as a series of “…sociocultural processes where unobtrusive structures or practices, formerly separated, are combined to generate new structures, objects and practices”. As proposed by the author, these miscegenation and hybridization tendencies may divide and segregate communities or generate a melting pot that motivates integration, cultural interchange, as the birth of new art forms and aesthetics, as long as it is managed and assumed responsibly, respectfully and ethically.

Etymology and semantics

As explained by ^{Abadía-Morales (1983)} the concept of folklore was proposed by the anthropologist William John Toms, and first used in 1846, to describe every traditional, anonymous and empirical expression, the common people’s knowledge, what people believe, say, think and do. This concept is founded on the German roots Volk (People) and Lore (Knowledge), embracing a wide range of traditional practices and beliefs, orally and generationally delivered. Likewise, the concept of “trading” is cemented on the Greek word Trados (Deliver); therefore, a popular expression or custom must be handed orally and learnt empirically to be categorized as folkloric. These definitions are applicable for miscellaneous practices including handcraft, superstitions, food, dressing, empirical medicine and other forms of material and immaterial heritage, embraced by marketplaces across the continent.

Taxonomically speaking, as described by ^{Abadía-Morales (1983)}, folkloric manifestations can be classified on four different branches, as follows:

Even though these four categories may have occasional presence in marketplaces, demosofic folklore has a starring role within these contexts, including architecture, handcrafts, empiric and naturopathic medicine, omens, superstitions and spiritual beliefs, alimentary tradition, customs and other material heritage. Utilitarian handcrafted artifacts become a vital and starring component within demosofic folklore and marketplaces in the American continent, as described by Yanasi (as cited in ^{Villegas, 1988}):

One of the differences between arts and handcrafts is that people hang their pictures right there, up in the walls. Meanwhile, they put their everyday objects up-close and grab them with their hands. Their beauty resides on its warmness and familiarity. (p.7)

Coinciding with ^{Villegas’ (1988)} concept of beauty, as explained by ^{Pulos (1983)}, Benjamin Franklin had anticipated the idea of functionalism, as “…the relation of beauty to utility”. According to Franklin “…the invention of a machine or the improvement of an implement is of more importance than a masterpiece of Raphael…. Nothing is good or beautiful but in the measure that is useful” implying that utilitarian artifacts can be considered more valuable than artwork, hence only what works and fulfills its function, can be really considered beautiful (Franklin, as cited in Pulos, 1983, p.7). When asked to choose between beauty and functionality, ^{Eames (2015)} distinctively questioned “…I should make a choice between keeping my head or my heart?” (p.95), pointing out the importance of beauty and utility as closely correlated conditions about an object. Eames’ views about common utilitarian objects and their functionalism approach, coincide with Villegas’ (1988) concept of the “beauty of the useful” (p.15), opposed to the idea of a “beauty of the pretty” (p.16), merely based on subjective and aesthetic culturally influenced codes.

This conception of beauty serving functionality was previously exposed and defended by ^{Pulos (1983)}, proposing that “No principle of design in America is so strong as that an object achieves beauty to the same degree to which it serves its function” (p.7). According to the author, there was a tight relation between the notion of beauty and function from the very beginning of colonization, relegating beauty as “…the natural by-product of functional refinement” (p.7), as an inherent and inseparable value, derived from the product’s efficiency.

As defined by ^{Abadía-Morales (1983)}, “Folklore is an alive, typical, popular and empirical tradition” (p.14), so it is strictly necessary for an object, expression or tradition to comply with five inexcusable conditions or features to be considered as folkloric:

As explained by the ^{Abadía-Morales (1983)}, this last condition is fundamental, since if a practice or tradition disappears, it would now be considered as a part of historical or archeological studies. From this approach, the definition of “popular” denotes the common people’s knowledge, which could be understood as “folk knowledge” or “pop culture” too. Therefore, the idea of folklore maybe conceived as a region’s own expression which is properly established, commonly practiced and delivered by oral and generational processes.

The people’s culture is his own expression. The human being, in his relationships with other entities, manifests his thoughts and beliefs through words and actions. The different systems to do it can be either through superior and structured methods like arts and science or people’s simple straight expressions. Therefore, folkloric manifestations become a live document of people’s realities, allowing us to see their real faces. (^{Abadía-Morales, 1983}, p.10)

Stage one: the marketplace in Colombia

First stage of this project was intended to capture a wide sample of visual material and evidences in marketplaces and fruit stands in small towns and cities in Colombia:

Photographic explorations and records, supported a descriptive and comparative exercise, written in a chronicle style which allowed a detailed recollection of experiences, similarities and particularities, captured and identified through the photographic practice and registers. Simultaneously, there was an artistic and creative component that allowed an exaltation and recontextualization of these expressions and practices, through visual exhibitions, art displays and specialized events. Furthermore, this first stage included a search for international referents, which helped understand these phenomena from a wider perspective and a compilation of audiovisual approaches, like movies, TV shows and video clips, on which the markets where used as locations, backgrounds or inspiration sources, in Colombia, Chile, México and the USA, comprehending these places’ cultural impact and transcendence through mass media and pop culture. This search was accompanied by a simultaneous bibliographic and theoretical collecting, helping to understand the markets’ cultural value facing industrialization’s globalizing and homogenizing effects (^{Ángel-Bravo, 2016}).

From a taxonomical perspective, it was possible to propose an objectual classification, from the photographic registers and descriptions, suggesting six categories regarding the objects and elements available across these places:

Figure 3 Handcrafted bread. Grand Central Market, New York, USA. Photography: Own creation. 

^{Castillo (2014)} describes the marketplace as a “…preservation spot for agrarian and alimentary cultural memory”. As explained by ^{Agamez & Pinto (2020)}, traditional alimentary practices constitute an evidence of the multicultural exchange between Spanish conquerors and native American societies, offering a physical testimony of the continent’s indigenous and pre-Hispanic customs, beliefs and folklore, mainly evident through the use of natural leaves as a packaging, cooking and preserving material for traditional gastronomic practices (Figure 4).

Considering categories A and B, as explained by ^{Agencia Andes (2017)}, “Marketplaces hide the cities’ tradition, history and culture, because there is where the ancestors’ recipes stay intact, as the ancestral ingredients that intensify millenary flavors”. One of the markets’ most important contributions to folklore and tradition’s preservation is based on their alimentary diversity and food offer, which allows the oral delivery of popular knowledge through their flavors, aromas and seasoning. According to Armendáriz (as cited in ^{Agencia Andes, 2017}), if the markets disappear, a lot of culture will be lost too, hence it is necessary to protect these places, as a space for culture and learning (Figure 3, and Figure 4).

Figure 4 Traditional foods are wrapped in natural leaves. Silvia, Cauca, Colombia. Photography: Own creation. 

As exposed by ^{Estrada-Ochoa (2020)}, with the implementation of fire in food preparation “…cooking arises as the universal craft…”, mixing “…creativity, invention, ingenuity and resourcefulness…” as fundamental qualities of this emerging and evolving craft (p.33). As the author explains, all around the world, there are primitive forms of gastronomy struggling to survive and resist against modernity and globalization, finding in popular markets a safeguard for its conservation.

Figure 5 Traditional handcrafted espadrilles. Mercado El Potrerillo, Pasto, Colombia. Photography: Own creation. 

Understanding the importance of foods and objects as an essential part of material heritage and demosofic folklore, the marketplace assumes a guest roll as a space for cultural identity preservation; therefore, cultural identity goes beyond languages, accents, colors of facial morphologies, as it is collectively built as a participatory expression, materialized through handcrafts, arts, foods, medicine, and artifacts. Through these natural and manufactured products, the marketplace has turned into a cultural preservation context, which embraces an extensive diversity of folkloric manifestations, syncretized beliefs and creolized cultural expressions.

Handcraft, as mentioned in category C, is defined by ^{Abadía-Morales (1983)} as the artistic and utilitarian crafts, restricted to the family environment and primitively built domestic workshops, going from indigenous origins to rural and urban detribalized societies. This category includes utilitarian home artifacts, furniture and tools, decorative implements, artwork, dress, toys, musical instruments, accessories, bags, and related objects (Figure 5, Figure 9, and Figure 14).

Figure 6 Catholic altar. Mercado El Potrerillo, Pasto, Colombia. Photography: Own creation. 

Categories D, E, and F are strongly related to people’s beliefs, faith and spirituality. In these cases, oral delivered tradition has been a fundamental part of their preservation and teaching, being concepts and practices that have transcended generationally through time and space. Additionally, there is a fine and delicate line between these practices, especially among medicine and superstition, as these concepts are usually syncretized from dissimilar spiritual, dogmatic and ethnical backgrounds. As proposed by ^{Ocampo-López (1981)}, popular and traditional beliefs, regarding nature, society, religion, and spirituality, become an essential part of collective mentalities and long lasting permanencies, including popular mythology and superstitious rituals, delivered generationally and preserved through time by oral tradition, leading to a configuration or reconfiguration of cultural identities and heritages (Figure 6, Figure 8, and Figure 13).

Empirical and traditional medicine comes from magic, as shamans, medicine men and sorcerers across the continent tend to syncretize sacred rituals with empirical science. Leaving superstition aside, the plants’ active principles remain, like their pharmacological virtues from derived alkaloids and glycosides, thanks to the continent’s extensive biodiversity. As a crucial part of indigenous rituals, traditional expressions like chants, prayers, baths, dances, corporal paintings, fasting, sacrifices, mutilations, and related paraphernalia may denote an inherent religious character, while some of these practices and beliefs are syncretized, transcending through miscegenation and hybridization processes, as superstitions and omens (^{Abadía-Morales, 1983}). As proposed by the author, there is a strong connection between magical and superstitious practices with naturopathic medicine, as they tightly coexist in these commercial spaces.

Categories D and E are strongly related to the continents’ aboriginal and African background, as they become an evidence of America’s conquest and colonization processes that forced a cultural reconfiguration, syncretizing the native practices, beliefs and customs, with the incoming foreign influences. Colombia’s Andean region tends to evidence a solid and dominant Spanish influence, as Southern side of the country tends to display some stronger aboriginal roots, while the coastal regions’ cultural expressions are primary creolized, as they are determined by African customs and beliefs, brought to the continent with forced migrations caused by slavery (Figure 6, Figure 8, and Figure 13).

Figure 7 Disco ball decoration. Mercado El Potrerillo, Pasto, Colombia. Photography: Own creation. 

Cultural configurations and miscegenation processes may vary from one place to another, depending on geographic circumstances and positions, weather, and migratory movements, mainly motivated by socioeconomic conditions, industrialization, violence, and related phenomena. Across America’s towns and markets, it is possible to appreciate a strong predominance regarding the different cultures involved in these miscegenation processes, creating hybrid cultures, as defined by ^{García-Canclini (2001)}.

Stage two: The marketplace in America

As a part of the international referents collecting, it was possible to visit, explore and register a sample of markets in North, Central and South America, using photography as a primary compiling tool through assorted places in the USA, Panama and Ecuador respectively. This continental approach helped support and collate the previously proposed taxonomical exercise.

Continental referents

United States of America (North America):

• Olvera Street - Los Angeles, California. 2012.

• Markets - China Town, Los Angeles, California. 2012 (Figure 14).

• Grand Central Market - Los Angeles, California. 2012.

• Grand Central Station and Street markets - Manhattan, New York. 2013, 2015, 2019 (Figure 4).

• Markets and botánicas - Little Haiti, Miami. 2014, 2016 (Figure 13).

• Markets - Little Habana, Miami. 2014, 2016 (Figure 12).

Panama (Central America):

• San Carlos, Panama City, Panamá. 2012 (Figure 9).

• Street markets and stands - Panama City, Panama. 2012, 2014, 2017.

• Mercado de Mariscos, Panama City, Panama. 2014-2015 (Figure 10).

Ecuador (South America):

• Central Market - Quito, Ecuador. 2018 (Figure 8).

• Closed Market - Latacunga, Ecuador. 2018 (Figure 2, and Figure 15).

Regarding the Ecuadorian markets, according to ^{La Hueca (2015)}, “…everyone considers this place special, either because of the unique offered dishes or the significance of being surrounded by history. Generations deliver recipes that eventually are turned into dishes and finally become a part of people’s everyday life”. Considering this context, ^{Ecuador’s Ministry of Tourism (n.d.)} points out the importance and transcendence of the alimentary tradition hosted and preserved by these places:

Ecuadorian gastronomy has been enriched by multiculturalism, the diversity of climates as well as the variety of spices and products that exist in the country. Also, the European and indigenous heritage have cemented a syncretism through seasoning and creativity, constantly improved by new generations of chefs and consumers. Originating what is known as creole kitchen.

Figure 8 Medicine, superstition and omen. Mercado Central (Central Market), Quito, Ecuador. Photography: Own creation. 

The Panamanian context is very important for this evaluation and analysis, as this country shares cultural roots with Colombia’s Caribbean region (^{Abadía-Morales, 1983}) and constitutes an essential sample considering the Central American context. Additionally, as a cultural melting pot, Panama becomes a fundamental example of the miscegenation, creolization and hybridization processes between African, Indigenous and Spanish cultures in the post-Columbian America. Due to this country’s privileged geographic position and multiculturalism, Panama is well known and self-described as a “Center of the World, Heart of the Universe” (^{Harding, 2015}, p.281) (Figure 9, and Figure 10).

Figure 9 Handcrafted hammock and pottery, San Carlos, Panama. Photography: Own creation. 

Figure 10 Mercado de Mariscos (Shrimp Market), Panama City, Panama. Photography: Own creation. 

During this second stage, it was possible to recognize a series of social, cultural, geographic, and human factors that get materialized and evidenced through the artifacts and products available in these markets. As it was possible to identify and abstract distinctive and coincident features from each visited place, these objects and practices evidence a confluence of situations, stories and backgrounds, building a material and immaterial heritage that transcends generationally for centuries (^{Ángel-Bravo, 2018}). This analytic exercise, was finally concreted and depurated to five essential aspects:

A. Geography and biodiversity: The markets’ vegetal and animal variety is mostly determined by its geographical location, biodiversity, climatic, and biologic conditions, with a minimal exception of foreign and transported products. The marketplace becomes a sample and a testimony of a city’s alimentary offer, customs and habits. As stated by ^{Eames (2007)}, breads and soups become a really useful way to learn about a city or a country’s idiosyncrasy, culture, and traditions. According to ^{Ocampo-López (1981)} societies’ historical evolution is determined by human adaptation to geographic environment, as people’s lives are conditioned by weather, relief, vegetation, animals, crops, populations and the reach for a slowly constructed geographic balance. These conditions eventually affect economies, customs, traditions and the regions’ alimentary heritage (Figure 4, Figure 10, and Figure 11).

Figure 11 Pan de fruta (Bread fruit). San Andrés, Colombia. Photography: Own creation. 

B .Industrialization and globalization: America’s industrialization processes led to an evolution from handcraft to mass production, motivating the development of modern urban centers, where the central markets eventually become a contact point between citizens and their rural past.

As explained by ^{Agrovisión Colombia (2001)}, globalization, technologic advances, and industrialization, have forced this transition from rural to urban societies, threatening agricultural production, as a wide range of expressions of tradition and pop culture on the national and continental contexts, especially considering alimentary heritage. Within this transitional process, marketplaces build a bridge between these modern urban civilizations and their agrarian and rural past, connecting modern societies with their millenary pre-Columbus origins. As expressed by Vitruvius (as cited in ^{Coronado, 2010}), the marketplaces in coastal regions and cities, are usually located near the sea ports (Figure 10). Otherwise, the marketplace tends to have a privileged central or downtown position in modern urban centers, hence the frequently used “central market” denomination.

C. Migratory movements and displacement: Conformation of urban societies and industrial centers, unemployment in rural areas, and other socioeconomic factors, have motivated people to migrate toward the cities. Additionally, sociopolitical problems in Latin America, force emigrational movements between cities, countries and continents, leading to hybridization, creolization, syncretism, and cultural reconfiguration processes, as customs, traditions and beliefs are shared through intercultural human relations. Looking back to the 15^th century, America’s conquest and colonization may be considered as the background for the first migratory movements of our modern post-Columbian age, having miscegenation as its primary result. These migratory movements, not always favorable and voluntary, motivate plurality, thanks to the cultural exchange, inherent in these processes, motivating cultural exchange and a configuration of hybrid cultural identities (^{Gutiérrez-Silva, et al., 2020}).

During the last decades, forced by economic and sociopolitical factors, there has been a strong migratory movement from Latin American countries to the USA, remarkably in cities like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, embracing and adopting the incoming foreign communities, leading to a cultural hybridization, between the migrant and the native expressions, motivating the conformation of structured urban communities or ghettoes (Figure 12, Figure 13, and Figure 14).

Figure 12 Calle 8 or Pequeña Havana (Little Havana), Miami, USA. Photography: Own creation. 

D. Oral transmission of knowledge: Traditional knowledge regarding food, craft, medicine and superstition, is generally delivered by oral transmission methods. As defined by ^{Abadía-Morales (1983)} this is a fundamental condition for a practice to be considered as folkloric, understanding folklore as practice that cannot be learned or delivered by formal educational methods or taught by formally established institutions, but through empirical learning, experience, oral or generational communication.

This kind of knowledge is usually carefully treasured and conserved by families who preserve it and inherit it from masters to apprentices. According to ^{Abadía-Morales (1983)}, domestic communitarian and family-managed workshops are essential conditions concerning artistic and utilitarian handcraft production (Figure 5, and Figure 9). As exposed by ^{Ocampo-López (1981)}, traditional cultures’ beliefs and world’s conception, whose origins are lost in time, transcend to the 20^th century despite industrial and technological revolutions, rising against their homogenizing effects, which tend to uniform identities and generate standardized patterns.

Figure 13 Santa Barbara Botanica, Little Haiti, Miami, USA. Photography: Own creation. 

E. Miscegenation, creolization and hybridization: Based on migratory movements and displacement, miscegenation processes between Spanish conquerors’ culture, aboriginal communities and slavery associated African forced migrations, have generated creolized and hybridized societies, at different levels or proportions, turning America into a multicultural melting pot. Creolization process, as explained by ^{García-Canclini (2001)}, is based on this multicultural fusion, which begins with the European conquest and colonization of the American continent.

Figure 14 Street musician, China Town, Los Angeles, USA. Photography: Own creation. 

Determined by economic and sociopolitical factors, migratory movements lead to a conformation of structured urban communities or ghettoes (Figure 12, Figure 13 and Figure 14), generating syncretized beliefs and practices (Figure 7, and Figure 8), as hybrid identities that preserve their heritages and share their millenary traditions and customs, including handcraft, beliefs, musical genres, alimentary legacy, arts and folklore, sometimes mixing and evolving, originating countless fusions and transformations.