By: Beatriz Esquivel
It’s 2:30 am and it’s business as usual at “La Nueva Viga.” Inside its corridors, the loading and unloading of fish products begins when most Mexicans’ day ends. The market offers a wholesale of little over 500 sea species, so arriving early is mandatory for everyone, but only a skilled negotiator will get the best discounts, and the best species for the day’s cooking.
This is “La Nueva Viga” market, located in the borough of Iztapalapa in Mexico City. It’s the second largest seafood market in the world, second only to the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan. But the thing that makes “La Nueva Viga” so special is that it’s 180 miles from the nearest sea, making it the only seafood market this far from the coast.
Visiting “La Nueva Viga” is almost a ritual for “chilangos” (the informal demonym for Mexico City inhabitants) who also have to visit the “Central de Abastos” (right next to “La Nueva Viga”) or “La Merced” market at least once. Wearing sneakers here is crucial, but make sure you bring a jacket or a comfy sweater too because there’s tons of refrigerators and ice (that usually come from stores near the market) to keep the products as fresh as possible. And get used to that seafood smell that reigns in all its corridors, too.
The market is spread out over 22 acres. It boasts 202 warehouses and 165 vendors who sell 2 to 3 tons of more than 500 different species of seafood every day. Although the main business here is selling seafood, you can also find stalls selling cookware and groceries, many restaurants, and even banks and government offices.
The interesting thing is that this huge place began somewhere else. Its origin goes back to La Viga, on the avenue that carries the same name. Before this was a street, there was a channel that ran from north to south where chinampas (canoes) would float by, selling all kinds of products that came from all over the country. These canoes had to pass through a sentry box where authorities would impose the corresponding taxes to each product.
However, there was also trade all along the canal, and some of the merchants sold their products before even getting to the gate. This commercial activity gave way to the creation of two of the most important markets in the City: La Viga and Mercado de Jamaica (Jamaica Market), best known for being flower market.
This canal had been the main food supplier in Mexico City for four centuries, until the Viga market was created during the 20th century. Years later, when la Viga surpassed its capacity, more trade centers were created, including the Central de Abastos (the main market) and La Nueva Viga, which simply translates to the “new” Viga.
La Nueva Viga was founded in the last century, but bringing fish so far inland, to the heart of Mexico, dates back to the Aztec empire. Much of today’s commercial activity goes back to even before pre-Columbian times and had survived the Conquest of the Aztec Empire. Aztecs helped establish commercial routes which meant that the arrival of both tributes and products from other parts of Mesoamerica was common.
The arrival of fresh sea products is generally attributed to the appetite of the great Aztec emperor Montezuma. Both Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Hernán Cortés recorded in their chronicles and letters, respectively, how the Azteca ruler used to have a feast that involved up to 300 dishes of up to 30 different stews.
“The way they fed him was that three or four hundred young men came with the delicacy, which was without story, because every time he ate, and they brought him all kinds of delicacies, meat and fish, fruit and herbs that could be on the whole earth. And because the earth is cold, they brought under each plate and bowl to cook a braserico with embers so it would not get cold. They put all the delicacies together in a large room in which he ate, which almost all swelled, which was all very well matured and very clean and he was sitting on a leather pillow, small, very well made ». Hernán Cortes, Second Letter.
What began as a commercial route that sought to satisfy the tastes of its ruler or its advisors and the Aztec nobility itself gave way to an official route that, in centuries to come, turned into marketing and distribution centers in Mexico City that offered the freshest possible products, as well as the best prices.
Although there are no longer banquets as showy and formal as the 300 dishes of emperor Montezuma, other traditions have formed around La Nueva Viga. This has become a place where generation after generation has worked, a place where parents teach their children, who their own children, and so on.
Additionally, buying at this market is itself a tradition. Families come here for Holy Week and Lent, when Catholics cut down on their meat and therefore resort to fish. Want to get a unique experience? Head down to Mexico City and walk along the aisles of La Nueva Viga, bringing the ocean into the largest city of the Western hemisphere.
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