The Esperanza Center’s annual Mercado de Paz/Peace Market is the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend of each year. The day after Thanksgiving is known as the busiest shopping day of the year, when throngs of holiday shoppers overrun a retail landscape dotted with corporate clones. As an alternative to crowded malls filled with crazed consumers and mass-produced goods, the Esperanza’s Peace Market features unique, handmade gifts and artesania centered around themes of peace, social justice, cultural diversity, and ecological concerns. Shoppers can wield their economic power by spending their time and money supporting individuals and groups that are fighting for a better world.