The aim of this essay is to show the co-participation of vendors and merchandise in the reproduction of particular ways of making and being in the widest context of urban reality. The essay consists of a reflection and photographs taken in the place in which vendors sell their goods. Characterizing this form of trade as a bazaar economy, the focus is on the goods, their type, characteristics and layout, as well as those of the vendors. The geographic centrality of the location of this commercial activity contrasts with its marginality in relation with the economy and the hegemonic discourses in the city. In the same way in which goods find a second or third life here, vendors seem to achieve the same thing by remaining here despite having been discarded by the labor market and other circumstances of life. The essay is composed of photographs taken as part of fieldwork aimed at knowing the dynamic of informal trade in Monterrey. In this framework, these vendors are the simplest and clearest example of the bazaar economy that is then reproduced, in certain aspects, in the hundreds of markets throughout the city.

This article explores the meanings and values given to clothing by women who enjoy a trend we call thrift. In order to capture such meanings and appraisals, we present explanations, narrations and images from exploratory work carried out with thrift clothing retailers and buyers in Monterrey. With the support of images and narrations, we analyze the interaction and the emotional links that retailers and buyers have with clothing. We explain the intimate relation with the garments and the verbal and visual expression of such links, as part of the effort that the thrift community makes to obtain authenticity in the framework of the creation and consumption of clothing.