Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): En el mercado ecológico compramos brócoli y calabaza directamente a los campesinos de la región. - At the organic market we buy broccoli and squash directly from the farmers of the region.

En el mercado ecológico compramos brócoli y calabaza…
→ could be “At the organic market we buy broccoli and squash…” (habit) → or “At the organic market we bought broccoli and squash…” (one specific time)

Why is it en el mercado and not al mercado?

En el mercado = in/at the market (location where something happens)
Al mercado = to the market (movement towards the place)

In the sentence, the buying happens at the market, not on the way to it, so Spanish uses en.

Why is there no article before brócoli y calabaza? Why not unos brócolis y unas calabazas?

In Spanish, when you talk about food in a non‑specific quantity, you often omit the article:

Compramos manzanas. = We (bought/buy) apples.
Comemos arroz. = We eat rice.
Compramos brócoli y calabaza. = We (bought/buy) broccoli and squash.

Using unos/unas would sound like:

“some broccoli and some squashes/pumpkins” with a bit more emphasis on “some (a certain number)”, or even “a few broccoli heads / a few pumpkins”.

The version without articles is the most natural in this context.

Why are brócoli and calabaza in the singular if we bought more than one?

Many food words in Spanish can act as mass nouns:

Compramos pan. = We bought bread.
Compramos queso. = We bought cheese.
Compramos brócoli y calabaza. = We bought broccoli and squash/pumpkin.

Here, brócoli and calabaza behave like “some broccoli, some pumpkin/squash”.

You could use the plural if you want to think in individual units:

Compramos dos brócolis y tres calabazas.

Both options are grammatical; the singular in the original sentence just focuses on the food as a general product/ingredient.

Why is it a los campesinos and not de los campesinos?

Spanish has a very common pattern:

comprar algo a alguien = to buy something from someone

So:

compramos brócoli y calabaza directamente a los campesinos
literally: “we buy broccoli and squash directly to the farmers”
but in English meaning: “directly from the farmers”.

You can sometimes see comprar algo de alguien, but:

comprar algo a alguien is more common and idiomatic for “buy from someone”, especially when focusing on the seller.
comprar algo de alguien might be used, but often sounds a bit more like “to get something that comes from someone”, or is regionally less preferred.

So a is the normal choice here.

Is a los campesinos an example of the personal “a” for direct objects?

In this sentence, no. The structure is:

Direct object: brócoli y calabaza (what we buy)
Indirect object: a los campesinos (from whom we buy it)

Spanish uses a for indirect objects (to/from someone):

Le compramos brócoli a los campesinos.
= We buy broccoli from the farmers.

The classic personal “a” marks an animate direct object, like:

Veo a los campesinos. = I see the farmers.

Here the farmers are not the direct object of comprar, so it’s not the personal a; it’s the indirect object a.

What exactly does campesinos mean? Is it the same as “farmers”? Is it negative?

Campesino(s) literally means someone who lives and works in the countryside, typically a small-scale farmer or rural laborer.

Nuances:

It often corresponds to “peasant farmers” / “small farmers”, not big agribusiness owners.
In many Latin American countries, campesino is a common, neutral, or even identity‑proud term, especially in social or political contexts.
Depending on tone and context, it can sound slightly old‑fashioned or paternalistic in some mouths, but in everyday usage across Latin America it’s very frequent and not automatically insulting.

More “neutral/technical” words for “farmer” include:

agricultor(es)
productor(es) agrícolas
In some places: granjeros (more common in some regions; can sound a bit more like “farm owners”).

Why is it mercado ecológico and not mercado orgánico? Which is more common in Latin America?

Both adjectives exist, but usage varies:

ecológico literally = ecological, environmentally friendly.
orgánico = organic (usually in the certification/food sense).

In Spain, producto ecológico is extremely common for what English calls “organic products”.
In Latin America, you will see:

producto orgánico, mercado orgánico = very common, especially when talking about certified organic food.
mercado ecológico is also understood and used, but depending on the country it may sound slightly more formal, NGO-ish, or Spain-influenced.

So the sentence is perfectly correct, but in many Latin American contexts mercado orgánico would probably be the default everyday phrase for an “organic market”.

Why is the adjective ecológico placed after mercado and not before, like in English?

General rule in Spanish:

Adjectives usually go after the noun:
- casa grande = big house
- mercado ecológico = ecological/organic market

They sometimes go before to add emphasis, subjectivity, or special shades of meaning:

un gran mercado ≠ un mercado grande
(more like “a great market” vs “a large market”)

Here mercado ecológico is a straightforward descriptive phrase, so the normal order is noun + adjective.

What is the role of directamente, and where else could it go in the sentence?

Directamente means directly, and here it modifies compramos: it tells how we buy.

Possible positions (all grammatical, slightly different rhythm/emphasis):

En el mercado ecológico compramos brócoli y calabaza directamente a los campesinos de la región.
En el mercado ecológico compramos directamente brócoli y calabaza a los campesinos de la región.
En el mercado ecológico compramos brócoli y calabaza a los campesinos de la región directamente.

All keep the same basic meaning: we buy directly from the local farmers, with no middlemen.

Why is it campesinos de la región and not campesinos de región?

In Spanish, when you say “of the region”, the noun usually needs an article:

de la región = of the region
de la ciudad = of the city
del país (de + el) = of the country

Saying de región (without an article) is generally wrong or at least very odd here.
So los campesinos de la región = “the farmers of the region / the local farmers”.

What does de la región add? Could you just say a los campesinos?

Yes, you could say:

…compramos brócoli y calabaza directamente a los campesinos.

That already means “directly from the farmers”.

Adding de la región gives extra information: these farmers are local, from that region (not from some distant area). It’s like saying “local farmers” in English:

campesinos de la región ≈ “local farmers / farmers from the region”.

Why does brócoli have an accent mark? How is it pronounced?

The accent mark on brócoli shows where the stress falls:

Pronunciation: BRÓ-co-li (stress on the first syllable).

Without the accent, by default it would be stressed on the second-to-last syllable (bro-CO-li), which would be wrong.

You may also see spelling variants like brócoli and brócoli with or without accent in some places, but the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) recommends brócoli with an accent on the ó.