Mercado Hidalgo de Chiautempan (Mercado del Sarape)

Mercado Hidalgo, known locally as the Mercado del Sarape, sits at the center of Santa Ana Chiautempan, a town regarded as the textile capital of Tlaxcala state. The market's ground floor is dominated by rows of stalls selling hand-woven sarapes, rebozos, wool blankets, and raw yarn sold directly by weaving families who often operate looms in back rooms of their own stalls, giving visitors an unusually high ratio of true handmade goods over imported or machine-loomed pieces compared with general craft markets elsewhere. Quality varies by stall, with the most respected weaving families occupying the aisles nearest the main entrance and the Sarape monument outside. Bargaining is customary, particularly for blankets bought in pairs or bulk yarn, and cash in pesos is the norm since card readers are rare among individual weavers; there is no tax-refund scheme at this local market. The market is busiest on Saturdays and Sundays when regional buyers and day-trippers from Puebla arrive, and small comedores inside sell barbacoa and mixiotes for lunch. The upstairs gallery-style stalls carry the finer, more expensive tapestries and rugs.