The Tianguis And The Seven Deadly Sins
By Sandy Olson
I don’t know why the Seven Deadly Sins came to mind when I was walking down that dusty street in La Manzanilla on my way to the Friday tianguis, but there they were: Pride, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Lust and Sloth.
There’s an acronym that helps me to remember all of them: P-A-G-G-E-L-S. “Why try?” the reader might ask. “How clever,” another says. “Who cares?” dismisses a third.
While pondering the Sins I spotted my friends clustered around one of the first tables at the tianguis. I walked faster. What were they looking at? If they wanted what was on the table I wanted it too.
It turns out they were looking at silver jewelry. My new friend Judy had picked up a silver ring with a large moonstone. “I wanted that,” I said to myself. I left the group and walked on so I didn’t have to watch her paying for my ring.
Still thinking about the Seven Sins, I remarked to myself that Lust wasn’t in it today. It was too hot to think about sweaty sex, not to mention I could sense the rampant lack of interest on the part of any of the young men lolling around behind the display tables.
And Sloth. Would moving faster prove anything? I jumped as lively as I could over a muddy stream crossing the road, redolent of a Tijuana gutter in the 1960s.
I moved on in though. As the tianguis goes, this one was modest. I gave up the idea of scoring any treasures. There was a little shop called Ada’s Boutique. I went in and browsed around, moving close to a dumpy woman from Orcas Island, she said. I watched her rummage through a stack of colorful skirts and tops, imported, the clerk said from a respectful distance, from Guadalajara.
She rooted through the clothes like a starving wart hog, throwing size small items over her shoulder. I saw that I wasn’t going to get in there too. “What does she see when she looks in the mirror?” I wondered. “She’s FAT and those clothes won’t fit her. I’m not fat,” I said, having just bought a pair of size large nylon shorts, formerly from JC Penney. “Well, not that fat.”
I was starting to feel a little uneasy for some reason. It was time to join my friends and go have that big lunch I was looking forward to, and the afternoon nap. I didn’t want to think about this anymore. I have my pride, after all.
