With just 15 businesses, this supply center refuses to die and survives over the decades; it is located on Jonacatepec and Oaxtepec streets in said neighborhood
If you are from Cuautla or from some of the towns surrounding the Heroica, you have surely visited the small market in the Morelos neighborhood at some point.
This supply place is still standing like an oak despite being around 80 years old, which makes it an emblematic and traditional place.
It is located between the streets Jonacatepec, Oaxtepec and Jojutla, but unlike the municipal markets, this space was formed with several stores that were built between the aforementioned streets, where people can buy almost everything.
It is visited mainly by the neighbors of the neighborhood, but also from other nearby places, such as Francisco I. Madero, Héroe de Nacozari and the center of Cuautla, but being close to the base of the collective routes of Ayala, there are also buyers from that municipality.
“El Chino”, the Cuautla taco maker who works tirelessly
In this little market, which includes approximately 15 shops, you can find a variety of products such as fruits, vegetables, dried chili peppers, butcher shops, chicken shops, Mexican snack stands and groceries.
And in this place Don Luis worked with his little shop on the corner, who from very early in the morning already had the sweet bread ready to sell. The neighbors also remember the butcher shop of Mrs. Socorro Rivera or the butcher shop of Mrs. Cástula.
Also how can we forget Don Carlitos Pérez, who sold seeds and dried chili peppers, a short, thin man and always very kind to his customers, who at the end of the day were also his own neighbors.
Approximately 40 years ago, the children of that time, now all parents, remember when their parents sent them to the little market for errands without there being any security problem.
The streets at that time were not paved and the blocks were relatively short, so going to the Morelos market was like going to the corner store, Viviana and José comment, longing for those years of great tranquility in their city and in their neighborhood.
The Francisco I. Madero and Morelos neighborhoods are neighbors, only a street separates them, so it was and still is classic that if the mother ran out of some vegetables or needed some meat product, she would send the oldest son to the Morelos market because of the proximity and so as not to have to go all the way to the center.
40 years ago, Rocío Martínez arrived in Morelos and when she remembered during the interview she relived those times when the market was in full swing: “I remember Don Fabián with the vegetables, Don Tacho in his store that sold bolillos with aged cheese and pickled chiles, he was in front of Don Luis’s store.”
“Doña Pachita’s tortilla shop was located on Oaxtepec Street, and was one of the first businesses to open near the market. Before, she rented the large metal containers to whip the rice,” said Santiago Gómez Jiménez, a resident of the Morelos neighborhood.
Mercadito de la Morelos: Current Events
Over the years, like everything in life, everything changes and the Mercado de la Morelos is no exception, having many new faces. Commerce continues on the same streets, but several of the lines of business have changed along with its people.
Some of the places where businesses that were part of the folklore of the “Mercadito de la Morelos” once existed continue to exist, although they have changed their line of business, such as Don Luis’s store, which is now a butcher shop, and the place where there is currently a niche of the Virgin of Guadalupe, was previously where Don Carlitos would set up his dried chiles.
Doña Cástula’s butcher shop stopped being a business and is now only a home, surely for her family, the same as Doña Socorro Rivera’s butcher shop, a place that is no longer used for commerce.
However, the little market on Morelos, with fewer businesses, refuses to die and remains firm as a great oak, despite the adversities of modern life and above the commercial chains that continue to open.
Even today, customers, neighbors of the Morelos neighborhood and surrounding areas, remain faithful to the traditional and emblematic little market that refuses to die.
Source: elsoldecuatla
