Economy
What It’s Like to Be a Street Food Vendor in Mexico City
“Machos don’t like making tortillas, it’s usually only taught to women,” said Margarita Benitez, who has cooked up quesadillas and tlacoyos in the Juarez neighborhood for 40 years.
As the sun rises in Mexico City and rush hour arrives, thousands of stalls offering breakfast spring up in the streets. Vendors of tamales stand next to lumbering aluminum pots, serving hot, sweet maiz atole; women tend coals burning in small metal stoves heating quesadillas on hotplates; baskets of sweet breads balance on cargo bicycles on street corners.
Throughout the day, some stalls disappear and others emerge in their place. In the afternoon, women make quesadillas before making way for men dispatching sandwiches. Taco stands operate into the night.