The Best Place to Buy Piñatas in Saltillo

A birthday party in Mexico just isn´t a birthday party, unless a piñata is beaten to a pulp.

In fact, the word piñata is often an abbreviated term for birthday party.  “Ceci is going to a piñata tomorrow” is a legitimate way to say that Ceci is going to a birthday party.  Because, after all, what is the point of a birthday party without the piñata?

Among other places, piñatas are sold at the market downtown and any materias primas store.  (For those who haven´t been to a materia prima store, that´s a whole cultural experience in itself!  The Cuellar stores on the Periferico, or El Doblón on Eulalio Gutierrez are great examples.  The first time I wandered through one, I thought I had died and gone to candy heaven.)  However, in my experience, the best place to get a piñata in Saltillo is on the corner of Luis Corona and Matamoros, downtown.

Four or five family-owned stores dot the corner of Corona and Matamoros.  Piñatas are made right there, and they cost anywhere from $75 to $160, depending on the size.  Yes, even those freakishly huge, larger-than-the-birthday-boy piñatas can cost $150.  

Now, my birthday girl had to scan the stores, as she hates to hit anything that has a face.  Almost all piñatas have a face.  Fortunately, her birthday is close to Christmas, and one store still had two traditional star piñatas left over from Christmas.

Traditionally, the piñata is a seven-pointed star.  The seven points represent the seven deadly sins.  When the piñata is broken, the children are showered with the rewards of resisting evil.  What the symbolism becomes when a princess or superhero is beaten to death, I´m not sure.  But kids (over the age of 4) sure love it!

The pre-Christmas posadas usually involve piñatas, so if one is looking for a piñata during the Guadalupe Reyes season (December 12-January 6th), they recommended buying one ahead of time.  These stores on Corona and Matamoros are also willing to make custom-made piñatas with a week´s notice.  (It would be a good idea to give them a bit more notice during December.)  

The birthday parties at our house are usually a bit different from typical Mexican birthday parties, given cultural norms that I either don´t want to participate in or don´t realize exist.  But we do always have a piñata.

Everyone goes home happy.

 

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This is the first of a series “The Best of Saltillo”.  Know of a great place for . . . well, basically anything?  Share with us!   Send in your recommendation with at least 2 photos, an address or good directions and as many specific details as would be helpful for others to saltilloexpats@gmail.com.