ABSTRACT
Many of San Pedro's female vendors are involved in commercial endeavors which are entirely autonomous from their husbands' work or business. While women may include their husbands in their petty trade relations, it is usually only as a pair of extra hands. This chapter describes the personal and cultural context that envelops women like Edulina who are so tightly connected to commerce, and includes a discussion of the contingencies of the marketplace and the strategies women of different classes use to make a dollar. Their stories explain the life of the market, its nature as a central source of cash, and the demands it makes upon the people it supports. Many women travel to the Guatemala City solely to stock their San Pedro stalls at lower wholesale prices. The chapter also shows that a single trader may combine more than one of these modes of operation to maximize her earnings from trade.
