Tourists in Mexico City
By: usermattw
Tags: vintage photography, photography, antiques, Mexico City, Xochimilco
Category: Groups
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I was fascinated by this image of what I assume are tourists, though I wouldn’t have known the location had “taken in Mexico City” not been written on the back, along with their names (Benton & Grace Garvin and Lelia & Henry Hartman). I asked a friend in Mexico City if he had any idea where the picture was taken, and he said it was clearly Xochimilco. So I looked that up. It’s a district of Mexico City that is famous for its canals and its colorful flat-bottomed boats called trajineras, like cousins of the gondolas of Venice, which famously attract tourists. A quick internet search revealed plenty of pictures of these boats in use today. The photo was printed as a real photo post card on Gevaert paper. I feel like I could almost do a whole study on pictures of dour-looking tourists.
Coat and tie! Times have certainly changed, at least sartorially.
Yes, indeed! It’s like the picture from a few posts ago of people going to Disneyland. I could almost do a study of how tourist fashions have changed, too.
Absolutely. I just noticed that the men are holding hats as well. My maternal grandfather never left the house without a hat. He was born in 1913. My guess would be that these folks were born a couple of decades before that, maybe 1885-1895.
Part of me thinks something has been lost, and another part of me is relieved that I don’t have to dress up all the time. LOL