Feria Avenida Argentina:
A Marketplace of Stories
By: Alaina Boukedes
Photos: Elayne Smith
(Audio Enhanced Page)
Every Sunday the mile-long stretch of Avenida Argentina is covered in a sea of tarps. Tarps on the ground, tarps as walls, tarps as ceilings. It is as if a mini-circus paraded into the streets of Valparaiso, Chile, covering the road in shade so that patrons can observe what’s beneath. These patrons are not buying entrance into the circus, however, but buying what’s inside.
These tents are houses of goods, and the circus is the Feria Sunday market. Comparing a Sunday market and a circus may seem far-fetched, but the comparison does not do the spectacle justice. The Feria Sunday Market is a cave of wonders, a never-ending buffet of treasures that can fill hearts and empty wallets. Unique to Valparaiso, tourists can visit this market and find goods specific to Chile in one afternoon. Food markets are common in Chile, but markets filled with handmade goods and antiques are very rare.
As visitors enter this feast, they are met with mass quantities of pedestrian objects. Four-hundred sticks of roll-on deodorant and 520 pink razors burst from a pop-up card table. Soccer balls hang in nets like laundry on the line in front of canisters of tennis balls. It is as if the normal entrance of the market is a ruse to weed out the non-believers; put the average items first to make people think this place is simply average. If the visitors make it past this ploy, they are worthy of the real treasures that lie ahead.
Digging further into the maze, guests come upon a man in a cable knit sweater and baseball cap surrounded by potted plants of varying shapes and sizes. He has worn skin like leather, but a brimming smile is the largest wrinkle on his face. Eliseo Carvajar Affaro sells plants and herbs from his garden. For five years he has been coming to the market every Sunday, selling his wares from 7 A.M. to 3 P.M. On a good day he makes $18,000- $20,000 CLP, which translates to about $25-$30 USD.
“Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad” says Affaro.
The heat can affect his plants. By the time a customer reaches him, it might be the end of the day, his bounty dwindling and in need of some shade.
He has about 100 types of plants growing in his garden at home, and with the help of his wife, she drives them to the market every Sunday. Affaro was a man of the sea and traveled around the world before he became a vendor at the market. He lifts his shirt to show a belt that he bought in New York City on one of his many journeys, and with that he returns to tending to his flowers and his customers.
While visitors wander the pathways carved by carts and people bustling through the market, Guillermo Gonzalez sits behind his table and reads. He is half-man, half-large bucket hat, that covers a portion of his white ponytail but reveals his long white beard. On the table in front of him are pan flutes made of bright orange PVC pipe, wrapped in string and colorful ribbon.
“I don’t know how to play them”, says Gonzalez.
While he may not know how to play them, he knows how to work with the plastic. When he is not making flutes, he is making his own plastic artwork and paintings. He sells the flutes to pay for his artwork, but making flutes can be just as intricate as his artwork. In the crook of his arm, there’s a small green notebook that reveals page after page of mathematical equations. Each measurement coincides with a musical note, and one incorrect cut can ruin his product.
Visitors feel the anticipatory buzz of treasures not yet found as they reach the end of the street. Sprawling tables covered in rusted metal and foggy glass lead shoppers to the antiques portion of the marketplace. Musty smells envelope patrons as they bend over tables to sift through coins and earrings, creating a group of candy-cane like bodies.
“It’s part of life, part of the world, everything comes here.”
One man sits in a chair next to a long fabric floor covered in antique spurs and chandeliers. His name is Guillermo, and his tan skin and all denim outfit is reminiscent of the time periods of his wares. He has been selling antiques for 40 years, twenty of them in Valparaiso. He made furniture before selling relics, but with his expertise, the antique market in Valparaiso became the first of its kind in Chile. Guillermo says that even people from Santiago come to Feria to buy antiques to sell in Santiago.
“It’s part of life, part of the world, everything comes here” says Guillermo.
His favorite time period is the 1820’s, and his favorite piece that he owns is a water spigot from that time. His collection focuses on military equipment, smaller trinkets and paintings, which are a common sight in the antique market. Others vendors have boxes of old American records or tables full of women’s hats.
Each seller offers something different to the market, creating a special experience. An afternoon spent at the Feria market can reveal the best souvenirs and memorable stories of the people of the market. What people keep can be telling of who they are, but what they choose to sell can be even more telling.