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

A look back at the people and places of Mexico City in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.

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Mexico City in 1952.

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

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Towering billboards advertise the latest films in 1945.

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Traffic in downtown Mexico City in 1952.

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

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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.

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

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Decorated boats take tourists down the Xochimilco canals, 1952.

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

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Locals watch a rodeo in 1950.

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A vaquero ropes a horse during a rodeo in 1950.

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

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Illuminated billboards advertise restaurants and bars at night in 1952.

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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.

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Patrons at the Sano Sanci nightclub in 1944.

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

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

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