Mercado Agrícola Oriental/Parque Leah Katiuska Uribe Sánchez

The Mercado Agrícola Oriental is the neighborhood center of a giant residential area just east of the Ciudad Deportiva. In fact, it’s pretty much everything east of the Sports City. The market shares its status as “center” with the Leah Katiuska Uribe Sánchez Park.

Agrícola Oriental, and Agrícola Pántitlan to the immediate north, are the only parts of Iztacalco without an ancient history. For most of the ancient period these areas were submerged beneath the giant lake. As the eastern lake grew increasingly brackish, the mudflats here were long used for salt production. And like most of the east of the city, they remained marshy wetlands through most of the 19th century.

The second half of the 20th century saw migrants settle here from all over Mexico. Only then the territory and the new communities gained formal recognition and services provisions started in the 1960s. This is true all over areas to the north in Venustiano Carranza, in neighboring Mexico State, and to the south in Iztapalapa.

Today, as the photo shows, it’s a dynamic area of tradition and culture. It’s not an area to attract much attention from international visitors.

The exception to this is the Mercado Agrícola Oriental. It’s a giant market befitting the enormous neighborhoods it serves. A 2017 UAM study counted some 344 vendors inside. That makes it pretty easily the biggest of the 15 public market in Iztacalco. Among these vendors are plenty who are cooking and preparing fresh food everyday. The results make it the best place, hands down, for eating!

You’re getting fresher, healthier food, and paying a lot less. And that’s while you’re supporting smaller businesses and even farmers who are not that far away.

Hours: Daily 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.