This essay tries to contribute to commercial history and in particular of Querétaro’s public markets. Caught between two opposite poles, formality versus informality, order versus chaos, local products versus brought from abroad, hygiene versus outbreaks of disease, Queretaro’s public markets remain as places of memory and traditions. Facing this, the privatization and modernization trends fueled by gentrification and the development of urban tourism, constitutes a risk of destruction of these values, in order to transform local markets into equivalents of the markets of Europe and everywhere, destined for a different consumption, selective and articulated with tourism. The conclusion of this work is that there is a strong resilience of the local markets, which causes them to remain as spaces of tradition and memory in a historic center besieged by tourism and gentrification.