María a lady of the Hippy Market
41 years being part of the Hippy Market family is said quickly but not something that everyone can claim. This friend came on July 75 to Ibiza (two years after the beginning of the Hippy Market) and we are honoured to have her still at the market.

How was her arrival at the Hippy Market?
María is from Catalonia although she lived many years in France. In those years she met an australian hippie who came every summer to Ibiza and who told her about the island. She decided to give up her comfortable life, her job as a stewardess for taking a new direction in search of a freer way of life. The people of her environment asked her if she was crazy, giving up all she had and with the education she was blessed with.
She gave up everything and only came with a book which was wonderfully called: "Start a new life" (in which they descibe how to build a house, raising children, plant a garden etc.).

How were those early days in the market?
She tells us that the people were trying to sell everything what they could, as it was the livelihood of many. They made crafts, cakes ... She started selling clothes and making cakes.
She has seen every stage of the Hippy Market since its inception and says that it changed slowly in the beginning. The essence of those years you can still live nowadays in the street of the craftsmen next to her stall, she says, this is what her reminds most of those years.
From the 80s the market began to grow more and more and made him the largest one of the island until today.

What currently sells María at the Hippy Market?
Her stall transformed step be step, now she sells inddian products, related to indian rituals and philosophy, which have a very direct relationship with Ibiza for her: freedom, respect for nature and love. 

What does the hippie spirit means for her?
With her sweet voice she tells us that the hippies were people with a lot of culture, they were against the established society, rigid and outdated social structures; they wanted freedom. She talks about the transformation that existed and the current term "neohippie", which mixes the past with the future.The hippie philosophy for her means respect and love for the earth and the nature, community ... a connection with the earth.

What does the Hippy Market mean for Mary?
It was a way to change her life, before she lived so properly, she had all, but she wanted to be happier and live freely.
Everyone had the chance to make a living being creative and living without fixed work schedules or closed social structures. This lifestyle allowed them to raise their children well and educate them with the philosophy they liked.
She has adapted to the hippie way of life with respect to the nature, although always mantaining her her own ideas and criteria.

An anecdote
When María was picking figs or carob trees on the island to make her cakes she met
people who did not have a lot of money and lived with what they could, they lived super happy without having money, nowadays this exist not anymore, times changed she says.
At the market she always remembers a guy who was waiting until she sold all her cakes she made for asking her for the eatable rests of the cakes who stayed in the cake pan, to get something to eat.
These hippies were not at the market for the money, they were there because of the atmosphere, to show what they did and created. In these times it was very nice she tells us, there was a lot of music, the people were very quiet, the money if it came well but sometimes they went home without nothing but it didn´t matter.