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World & Nation

Photos: Mexico City’s ‘Barrio Bravo’

Alfonso Hernandez, 70, the chronicler of Tepito, walks through the legendarily tough Mexico City neighborhood's huge, open-air marketplace.

Alfonso Hernandez, 70, the chronicler of Tepito, walks through the legendarily tough Mexico City neighborhood’s huge, open-air marketplace.   (Hector Becerra / Los Angeles Times)

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By day, a vast, bustling marketplace sells items as varied as tripe tacos, freshly squeezed orange juice, Louis Vuitton knockoffs and illegal Chinese cigarettes stacked like Legos. By night, some of Tepito’s streets are a bazaar of a different sort: drugs, guns and vice.

"Barrio Bravo"

Among Tepito’s marketplace vendors selling items as varied as tripe tacos, fresh orange juice, Louis Vuitton knockoffs and illegal Chinese cigarettes, a band plays.  (Hector Becerra / Los Angeles Times)

"Barrio Bravo"

Alfonso Hernandez, left, and Alberto Bremermann, a visiting attorney, buy snacks from a street vendor.   (Hector Becerra / Los Angeles Times)

"Barrio Bravo"

A boy plays on the sidewalk before his parents set up their stall in Tepito.   (Hector Becerra / Los Angeles Times)

"Barrio Bravo"

A man hauls stacks of jeans along the main drag on the border of the Tepito’s marketplace.   (Hector Becerra / Los Angeles Times)

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