This Is What Mexico City Looked Like In The Mid-20th Century

Mexico City in 1952.

A couple and their two children sit on a park bench in Mexico City in 1959.

Towering billboards advertise the latest films in 1945.

Traffic in downtown Mexico City in 1952.

A young girl gets ice cream at the Chapultepec Zoo in 1952.

Students walk past “El Pueblo a la Universidad y la Universidad al Pueblo,” a massive mural by painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1954.

Vendors of an outdoor poultry market sell turkeys, hens, and other fowl in 1945.

Decorated boats take tourists down the Xochimilco canals, 1952.

Locals dressed in traditional Aztec attire perform for tourists at the Monument to Cuauhtémoc in 1952.

Locals watch a rodeo in 1950.

A vaquero ropes a horse during a rodeo in 1950.

Young women watch the charreada, or Mexican rodeo, in 1950.

Illuminated billboards advertise restaurants and bars at night in 1952.

Left: A street vendor with a small child sells his jewelry at night in 1952. Right: A movie theater in downtown Mexico City in 1952.

Patrons at the Sano Sanci nightclub in 1944.

The National Palace on the Zócalo is illuminated at night in 1961.

Performers of a burlesque show relax backstage at the Tivoli Theatre, 1952.

The Metropolitan Cathedral is ablaze in electric lights during a festival in 1943.