From the costumes, it looks like this old postcard photo was taken in the state of Michoacan Mexico


Inditas. Old undated postcard from Mexico titled Inditas shows a small indigenous girl carrying a smaller sibling


СЕМЬЯ

Photo of a Huastec-Tenek family with their houses. Probably from San Luis Potosi or Veracruz. The costumes worn today are very similar to those in the photo


This 101 year old postcard shows a Mexican peasant family with some of their animals, including the husband's fighting rooster


Typical Mexican Home and Family
that's the title given to this old hand tinted postcard photo. There's no indication of where this family is in Mexico, but many of the photos similar to this one were shot in northern Mexico in Tamualipas and Veracruz, as this on a major early driving route into Mexico from Texas. This card was mailed in 1922.


Very large Family. somewhere in coastal Veracruz state - someplace hot


КУХНЯ. ТОРТИЛЬИ

This old Mexican postcard (which has no vertical line on the reverse) shows a woman making tortillas using a metate and a comal for cooking. 


This postcard mailed in 1908 reads -This is a little town on the border of Mexico. Population about 1-3 Americans balance Mexicans. Tortillas is Mexican bread.


Haciendo las Tortillas. This postcard photo from around 1934 shows a Mexican woman making tortillas.


Isthmian Kitchen 1908 
This postcard is more than 100 years old. The postmark seems to read 1906 or 1908. It shows women and children in a kitchen somewhere in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca Mexico. None of the women is wearing what has come to be known as the traditional Tehuana costume. The woman at right wears a blouse that could be Zoque. There are several indigenous ethnic groups who make the Istmo their home - Zapotecs, Mixes, Zoques, Huaves, Chontals, and some Mixtecs. There is no indifcation of where this photo was taken


'Las Tortilleras'. Women making tortillas, early 19th century Mexico. Hand-colored lithograph. 1836  

Nahua women in the Rio Balsas town of Ameyaltepec Guerrero make pan de muertos for the Dias de los muertos. Hand print on amate paper by Nahua artist Nicolas de Jesus  


КАКТУСЫ :)

an elderly woman gathers a few sticks of wood for her cooking fire in this old, undated postcard - part of a series of postcards called Tipos Mexicanos


in this old postcard photo a pair of lovers meet near a nopal cactus 


Oaxaca Gathering Cochineal
In this detail from one of the murals located in the Museo del Palacio in Oaxaca Mexico, two women gather cochineal insects from a nopal cactus. The woman in the front is wearing a half gourd on her head. In her basket is a large black pottery olla. This places the scene near San Bartolo Coyotepec, where the barro negro is made. Cochineal insects were one of the five animals that were domesticated by ancient peoples of Mexico. The tiny insects are dried, then crushed, and their powdered remains are mixed with lime juice and water and used to dye textiles in Oaxaca.


Indian Family with magueyes  
The text on the back of this old postcard says, "Pulque is the national drink of Mexico. This plant requires from six to ten years to mature in its native soil. In flowering times this plant is full of sap, which gathers quickly and is removed two or three times a day. This drink is best immediately after fermentation and tastes a good deal like stale buttermilk diluted with stagnant water - a thin, starchy, evil smelling liquor. Few of the better grade of Mexicans drink pulque. It is the beverage of the poor."


Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. The baskets are the kind sold around the Toluca area west of Mexico City


Old Postcard from New Mexico
Sometimes the titles of old postcards don't seem to accurately describe what's in the photo. This card was sent from Lordsburg, New Mexico in 1932 not from Mexico. The saguaros would place this in southern Arizona or Sonora Mexico. The person seems to be wearing a pair of trousers not a skirt. So, maybe this isn't a woman. Maybe this person is a Pima or Yaqui from northern Mexico, or maybe not a person from Mexico at all, but a Native American from the US southwest


Pulque Maker
This man is a tlachiquero - he drains the juice from the maguey cactus with that big gourd and takes it to the pulque factory to make the alcoholic beverage still enjoyed in Mexico today


The Maguey Plant
This postcard was mailed in 1949. It reads - The sap of the Maguey plant is made into alcoholic drinks. Sotol, Tequila, and Pulque. The fiber is made into mats, baskets, etc. Around Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo


Pareja con nopales


КЕРАМИКА. ГОНЧАРНЫЕ ИЗДЕЛИЯ

Roadside Potter. А woman sits along the side of a road selling pottery. The vehicle in the rear may give a clue as to the year. The burro is timeless


potters painting ceramics in the town of Tlaquepaque outside Guadalajara Mexico. From the Fischgrund Popular Arts of Mexico series


Potter of Tonala. These kilns are still used today by Mexican ceramic artists.
There is no date to indicate when this old postcard photo was taken


This photo on an old postcard shows how pottery has been transported in Mexico for a long time.


an old Mexican postcard that appears to be a composite of typical images including the Indian servant girl with the huge water jug


Christmas Eve Postcard
T'was the night before Christmas back in 1901 and a woman named Anna sat down at her desk to write a message to her friends back in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. The term Moki was used in those days to refer to Hopi people of Arizona


Mujer Indigena
This old postcard was never mailed and has no date. It was printed in Leipzig Germany. Also, no indication of where this Indian woman is from. The dark, full skirt is an was more typical of Mexico than Guatemala. There is a B/W photo in Sayer's Costumes of Mexico that shows a Mexican woman in a very similar outfit, but doesn't say where she's from. A print by artist Carlos Merida shos a costume like this and says it's from the Texcoco area


КОРЗИНЫ

Basket Vendor Toluca Mexico. This old postcard was mailed in 1952 according to its postmark


Three men sit in a market plaza selling reed mats. To me it looks like they may be in Patzcuaro Michoacan, but this could be anyplace in central Mexicо


Toluca Baskets Postcard. This old postcard from the Fischgrund Popular Arts of Mexico set shows baskets being woven by Otomi people from the Toluca region of Mexico  


Mexican basketry 


This old postcard showing a man wrapped in a blanket selling Toluca style baskets was mailed from Mexico to the US back in 1949  


ТЕКСТИЛЬ

Zapotec Weaver Old Postcard
The postmark isn't clear, but it looks like this card was mailed sometime during the 1930's. Visitors to Oaxaca Mexico can see an almost identical scene today by visiting Teotitlan del Valle or Santa Ana del Valle, two Zapotec wool weaving communities near the city of Oaxaca


postcard from the Popular Arts of Mexico set by Fischgrund. This one shows Zapotec rug weavers from the state of Oaxaca Mexico


Yucatec Maya women embroidering fabrics


ПРОМЫСЛЫ. РЕМЕСЛА

postcard published in Mexico by Fischgrund. This card shows silversmiths at work in the town of Taxco Guerrero, a town that's famous for its silver.


man fishing with a cast net on the rocks at Acapulco Mexico. The fishermen of this region still fish in this manner today


ФЕРМЕРСКОЕ ХОЗЯЙСТВО

Cholula with Sheep
Today it's hard to imagine Cholula ever being this rural. A young boy poses with his family's sheep in front of the great pyramid at Cholula near Puebla Mexico. No date on this old postcard


Guy on a Burro


old undated postcard from Oaxaca Mexico showing oxen and their cart. Still being used today


a farmer from the area of Ciudad Valles in San Luis Potosi state plows a field with a team of oxen in this old undated postcard photo


A woman seems to be washing clothing in one of the canals of Xochimilco in this old undated postcard. The great volcano Ixtaccihuatl can be seen in thе distance 


This boy riding a burro in this old psotcard may be carrying milk or water


They look to be from central Mexico - maybe Michoacan. Maybe not


Women grinding corn
This old hand colored postcard photo shows Mexican women grinding maize on their metates in front of a thatched house. No date or iindication of location. My guess is the Gulf Coast - Tamaulipas or Veracruz


Planting Maize Oaxaca
This painting shows a couple in a cornfield planting maize. The man is using a planting tool that is known as a "coa" by many indigenous people. He has the maize seeds in the gourd tied to his waist. Native people still plant maize this way in many parts of Mexico. This scene takes place in the ancient past when men still wore loincloths. The woman is wearing a wraparound skirt (enredo) that is patterned on the pozahuanco skirts still worn today by Mixtec women on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca. 
Her upper garment is a quechquemitl, a closed shoulder cape that is not wore in Oaxaca today, but was worn in the ancient past. Today, quechquemitls are worn by women in parts of central and northern Mexico.
Mural by Arturo Bustos Garcia, Museo del Palacio, Oaxaca Mexico


РЫНКИ. ТОРГОВЛЯ

Cuetzalan woman print. A Nahua woman carries a bunch of lilies at the Cuetzalan market in this print from a Mexico City artist


A very old view of the Mercado de San Juan in downtown Mexico City. There's no date on this old postcard, but it probably was made around 1900.


An old postcard from Mexico (no date) that shows three young women selling flowers from their canoes at the floating gardens of Xochimilco near Mexico City 


The woman in the canoe in this old, undated postcard photo must be selling flowers at the floating gardens of Xochimilco just like her granddaughters do today 


El mercado. one of the amazing prints on amate paper by Nahua artist Nicolas de Jesus of Chicago Illinois and Ameyaltepec Guerrero Mexico


Great view of volcano Ixtaccihuatl in the distance from the market at the town of Amecameca Mexico. Old undated Mexican postcard


Mexico - Market shopping.


УЛИЦЫ. ГОРОДА

a street in the town of Ciudad Valles San Luis Potosi.


This old postcard shows that the city of Uruapan Michoacan looked like when streets were still dirt tracks. Date is not clear - either 1917 or 1934.


an old view of Taxco Guerrero from an undated postcard


Taxco View. old undated photo postcard showing dirt streets of Taxco Guerrero. What a quiet town it was back then.


Old hand tinted postcard showing the Zocalo of Mexico City as it looked around 1910 when this card was mailed


РУИНЫ

There's no date on this old hand colored postcard of a man standing in the ruins of Mitla Oaxaca Mexico

 
the Temple of the Warriors at the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in Yucatan.


Old undated Mexican postcard showing Teotihuacan as it may have looked back in the day


Aztec Calendar Stone
This old undated postcard says that it came from the Iturbide Curio Store in Mexico. Maybe someone knows where that store was located. This Aztec stone sculpture is the best known archaeological find from Mexico and is the mother of thousands of souvenirs


a structure located in a part of the Chichen Itza ruins known as Viejo Chichen. This area has been closed to the public for many years


facade of the Quetzalcoatl pyramid at the ruins of Teotihuacan


НЕ АБОРИГЕНЫ...

Pancho in Tijuana
This old postcard is another example of an instant photo made into a postcard. It was never mailed. It looks like "1960" is in the lower left corner. On the back it's written that this is from his fishing trip "out of Mexico". Note that the zebra is a local burro


What an adventure it must have been to take a trip to Mexico. around 1920 or so 
 
 

ДЕНЬ МЕРТВЫХ

Ofrenda Para Los Muertos
The spirits of the dead return to their loved ones on 2 November. This print on amate paper by Nicolas de Jesus shows how a Nahua family from his home town of Ameyaltepec Guerrero Mexico would celebrate the Dia de los Muertos


Loving skeletons caress in a hammock. Print by Nahua artist Nicolas de Jesus of Ameyaltepec Guerrero on handmade amate paper


The altar is ready for the spirits of the dead to arrive tonight. Print by Nahua artist Nicolas de Jesus on handmade amate bark paper

Print on handmade amate paper by Nahua artist Nicolas de Jesus of Ameyaltepec Guerrero Mexico and Chicago Illinois