This article by Gloria López originally appeared in the December 13, 2025 edition of El Sol de México.
In Milpa Alta, buying and selling are done in the old-fashioned way. There are no Oxxos, no Walmart, Soriana, Chedraui, or any department stores. The absence of retail chains is no coincidence; it’s the living imprint of a territory still governed by the land, memory, and community assembly.
According to a map prepared by geographer Mercedes Sánchez Plascencia and residents of the Milpa Alta community, there is a peculiarity that distinguishes it from the rest of the capital: it is the only borough that does not have any chain of department stores.
Its 12 villages, its communal identity and its land use, where 90 percent is communal or ejido land , have managed to keep it out of something that in any other part of the capital seems inevitable.
Milpa Alta retains what the rest of the city has lost: an economy built on community and the idea that prosperity doesn’t mean displacing your neighbour.
Alondra Aristeo Garibay, a member of the board of directors of the Benito Juárez Market in Milpa Alta, also originally from San Pedro Atocpan, explains it with the clarity of someone who grew up within a community tradition.
“We are an agrarian community made up of Indigenous peoples. Decisions are made in communal assemblies, especially when it comes to our land or our way of life. That is why we do not accept transnational chains ,” she said.
She explained that the way in which the inhabitants and locals conduct themselves is through communal assemblies where decisions are made, mainly to ensure that their lands, traditions and way of life are respected.
Photo: Roberto Hernández/El Sol de México
“The form of struggle and resistance is for our community, our town, and our people. So that is the main reason, in addition to the fact that we have the advantage that our land is communal, so that gives us a certain position and right to decide over our land,” she emphasized.
The reason is simple: their local economy isn’t squeezed out by large department store chains. The community protects its local businesses, grows its own food, sells it, and consumes it.
For Alondra, Milpa Alta retains what the rest of the city has lost: an economy built on community and the idea that prosperity doesn’t mean displacing your neighbor. She observes what’s happening outside the district: empty markets, dwindling street markets, and small businesses struggling to survive. Here, on the other hand, the flow never stops.
Photo: Roberto Hernández/El Sol de México
“Look at this market, there are always people. And what is earned here is reinvested right here. We spend here, we consume here, we work here. It is our form of resistance,” she emphasized.
The young woman has been working in local commerce for four years, but her connection to it runs deeper. She studied sociology at UNAM. Her academic background gave her the tools to understand her community.
“My family has always been merchants or workers. I have family members who work the land, growing corn and prickly pear cactus; and others who are involved in business. Thanks to them, we have been able to maintain a good standard of living through our local economy,” she added.
Locals recall recent meetings to prevent the establishment of shops and services that did not respect community rules. A DHL (parcel delivery service) managed to set up shop, but only after lengthy negotiations and under an unusual condition for a global company: participating in traditional festivals and understanding community life.
In Milpa Alta, it’s common to see entire streets lined with shops that meet the needs of the local population without belonging to the large chains or brands seen in other boroughs. / Photo: Roberto Hernández/El Sol de México
“Let them know what it means to be here,” say the neighbours.
The communities know this; they recognize that they don’t need a store. “We don’t need an Oxxo,” “There’s a store on every corner, we don’t affect each other,” say the local residents.
A few aisles away, Judith Cabello Mendoza, 67, smiles when asked about the absence of chain stores.
“We grow red corn and make mole properly, the way it should be done. I buy my meat, my free-range eggs, and my nopales here. Everything I need is here or at the collection point,” she says while holding a bag full of corn on the cob and squash.
For her, the entry of large supermarkets would be an irreparable loss.
“If those stores come in, they’ll take away our sales. And we wouldn’t eat as well anymore. What we grow and make would be displaced. In the city, tortillas taste awful; here we still cook with epazote,” she says, laughing.
Judith acknowledges that some services are necessary: “For example, DHL. I sometimes send mole, and otherwise I’d have to go all the way to Xochimilco. There are things that help, but a supermarket doesn’t. That would be unfair competition.”
For her, what’s being defended isn’t nostalgia, but a way of life that works. “If those shops come in, they’ll push us out. And we’ve lived well, eaten well, and worked well here all our lives.”
Most of the food sold in stores, shops, and markets is made with produce from local farmers / Photo: Roberto Hernández/El Sol de México
Ernesto Escandón, a local vendor who has been selling pancita for fifteen years, acknowledges that the preservation of his land has been inherited from his parents and rooted in the customs and traditions of Milpa Alta.
“Here we are very rooted in traditions. This municipality is self-sustaining. Nopal is a very important source of income, but the market is the main one. And that comes from our families, from how they taught us to work, to trade, to support ourselves and to defend the land,” he said.
In his voice there is a mixture of pride and firmness. He states it clearly: “We are very protective of the land because we love it. When a commercial store comes in, that’s a drain on our economy. We don’t need it.”
But more than an opinion, Ernesto describes a community mechanism that functions as an early warning system.
“There’s a lot of communication here. When we hear a rumor that they want to bring in a store or an Oxxo, we all get worried. We protect ourselves. We ask what’s going on. And automatically, people unite,” he added.
He has worked in this market for fifteen years and has no doubt that they can continue to maintain the trade in the area.
Guadalupe Chavira de la Rosa, a senator from Milpa Alta, recalled her time as head of the delegation in the district during the period 2000-2003, where nothing is transformed without consultation and without going through the communal or ejido authority.
That’s why, when people ask why there aren’t any Oxxo stores, the answer becomes clear: businesses need commercial space, and here, land allocation is decided by the community assembly. This filter prevents what in other places arrives without question.
“To change land use, it must first go through the recognition of its inhabitants ,” she explained.
Merchants and shoppers have organized themselves to offer only essential services such as banks and shipping services, helping them to continue generating local economic activity without affecting competition. / Photo: Roberto Hernández/El Sol de México
In an interview with El Sol de México, she emphasized that the inhabitants of Milpa Alta not only preserve their water forests, but also their way of relating to the world. “We are a community of customs , of strength, of identity, of a worldview that has prevailed for centuries.”
She emphasized that although chains have tried, their economies don’t need franchises, since San Pedro Atocpan produces mole that is sold throughout Mexico City; Villa Milpa Alta processes meat and sausages; and the mountain villages maintain their own value chains. More than three thousand nopal producers supply markets throughout the capital. Neighborhood stores and open-air markets are not only sufficient: they sustain the community.
“It’s a local economy that guarantees economic development without displacing anyone,” Chavira insists. Therefore, the arrival of a franchise wouldn’t just be a change of scenery; it would break a production chain built over generations.
The arrival of a franchise wouldn’t just be a change of scenery; it would break a production chain built over generations.
She emphasized that this struggle of the inhabitants will remain for a long time since it has been shown to be a form of coexistence that does not violate and disrupt their community, so it is an example that could be replicated in all the municipalities, where development is generated without displacing its inhabitants and without breaking the social fabric.
She recalled that even “charitable” donations from large business owners have been rejected. When a proposal was made to build an educational center funded by a private company, the local population refused. “They saw it as a threat. And so did I. We don’t need a donation from any company to justify an interest in our forests.”
The Senator emphasized that in a capital city where gentrification is rampant and convenience stores are popping up faster than the flowers of dawn, Milpa Alta maintains a different order. One where community life matters more than immediacy, where land cannot be bought, where language, music, and writing remain a living heritage, where an Oxxo is not a symbol of progress but of threat.
Some merchants say they rarely go to the Central de Abasto or other distribution centers far from their communities because many of their products are produced or distributed directly in their towns / Photo: Roberto Hernández/El Sol de México
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