Corotos markets reproduce in Maracaibo and the rest of Venezuela

Maracaibo is a city located in the west of Venezuela, it is the largest, territorially speaking, and the one with the most inhabitants, it has also been an important core of economic income to the nation, not only for oil production but also for being one of the most important ports in the country..

21 years ago, in February 2000, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), whose headquarters are located on El Milagro Avenue in the Cotorrera sector, with the mission to help children and young people, donate wheelchairs and perform operations, inspired by the market "El rastro de Madrid", started with only 17 informal vendors what is popularly known as "El mercado de los corotos" (The market of the corotos).

It represents an opportunity for informal vendors to offer their products, whether new or used.

Street sales have been a method of commerce for centuries, not only in the city but also in the rest of the country, and as formal jobs have become unattractive due to the low wages, it has been growing and is currently more numerous than the formal market, but this was practiced around markets or in the center of the city, until the women of the Wayuu ethnic group began to take land in other sectors to offer their products, which included textiles manufactured by them and products brought from the neighboring country..

Local governments ended up building markets for them, but the extreme situation of many inhabitants led them to invent ways to obtain income and among these is what in other places they call garage sales, only that in our city they are not held in their homes, but in spaces such as sports fields, public land, green areas or any place that has enough space, which when it is exceeded forces vendors to take over streets and sidewalks..

These markets or "cotorreras" generally operate on weekends or on a day between Friday and Saturday and offer a wide variety of items, ranging from sweets or homemade fast food to technological products, both new and used..

Unlike the disorderly hawkers, these are organized and supported by the communities where they take place and the surrounding area.

They have been spreading in the middle and lower areas, economically speaking, but they are already proliferating in the more affluent residential areas as well..

They not only represent a "resolver" as it is popularly called to earn extra money, but also a way to interact, to market objects that were previously thrown away and to get objects that the buyer needs without generating transportation costs because they are close to the buyer.

It is a phenomenon that, like everything informal, defies tax and other legal regulations..

Since the sellers are usually neighbors, they do not have points of sale, but there is always someone who manages to provide one, and in this way the buyers, affected by the lack of money in circulation, can make their purchases with peace of mind..

The corotos markets are another way that Venezuelans have managed to cope with the worst economic crisis in the country's history..

I close by explaining that used or household objects are called corotos here, although in general it is used to refer to all of them, and that in Maracaibo the word cotorreras is used to refer to this type of markets, derived from the fact that this is the place where they were born.