The street was one of the great economic scenes of the 1980s in Peru. Popular sectors of society responded with great vitality to the generalized economic crisis, the inequality of opportunities, the lack of employment, and the clear aspiration to be “independent” not only because of their expanding economic strength but also because of the cultural meanings interwoven by new practices. Beyond economic explanations, few studies have attempted to integrate the phenomenon of the informal market into a cultural perspective that would also give an account of the complexity of the symbolic variables it brings together and the range of social relations promoted among its actors.
