A Portal Into Deep-Mexican Cowboy Culture

For the first installment of “One Great Thing,” we present to you El Baratillo, the largest open-air livestock and cattle market in the southern region of Mexico. We launched The Fix at the beginning of this year with a simple mission: reach out to our network of “fixers” scattered across the globe, from chefs and photojournalists to film scouts, food writers, and other deeply connected friends and sybarites who can tell us everything about their city that a discerning visitor wants to know: where to eat, drink, sleep, what to pack, what to see, and what conversations are at the forefront right now. But sometimes, a place is so special that a small writeup within a city guide is not enough. So we’re we’ve decided to shake up The Fix a bit to make space for a single, full-throated recommendation of a place (or possibly a product) that is so gloriously, magically singular, it simply must stand alone. Introducing: One Great Thing. For installment one, I present to you El Baratillo de San Antonino Castillo Velasco, the largest open-air livestock and cattle market in the southern region of Mexico, which I was lucky enough to visit last week while hosting our annual autumn Oaxaca journey with our great friend, Ana Paulina Garcia. El Baratillo unfurls every Friday across a dusty valley plane dotted with mesquite trees and patches of cacti about a half hour outside Oaxaca City, drawing more than 3,000 buyers, ranchers, and traders (not to mention so very many cows). Continue reading Access this and all our other premium articles by joining our membership program. Plans start at $6.50 per month and include twice-weekly digital features, access to in-person events, and more.