Mexico in the 1970s was a country in motion. On July 5, 1970, Luis Echeverría Álvarez won the presidential election and set a new direction for the country. His government turned its attention to the northeastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula, where a quiet stretch of coastline called Cancún was transformed into a major tourist destination. To make room for development, the government expropriated thousands of hectares of ejido land — communally held farmland — displacing the people who had worked it for generations.
The decade also brought significant geological and economic events. In 1973, an earthquake struck central Mexico and killed more than 600 people. Around the same time, Mexico discovered its largest offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, a find that would reshape the national economy. These years were turbulent, but daily life across the country carried on — in the markets, on the streets, and along the tram lines that connected Mexico’s cities and towns. The photographs in this collection capture that everyday world in vivid color.
Veracruz, the busy port city on the Gulf coast, was full of color and commerce. Street vendors laid out fresh fruit for sale, and the city’s waterfront buzzed with activity. One of its most recognizable features was the tram system that ran along the seafront, carrying passengers through the humid coastal air.
Not far up the Gulf coast, Tampico offered a different pace. Its waterfront was lined with ferries and cargo ships, and the port’s flat-top wagons sat loaded at the wharves. The beaches near Tampico, stretching along the Gulf of Mexico, drew locals and visitors alike.
Back in Veracruz, the city’s Catholic heritage was impossible to miss. A large colonial-era church anchored the urban landscape, its facade weathered by salt air and decades of sun.
On the northern border, Ciudad Juárez sat directly across the Río Grande from El Paso, Texas. The two cities were linked by a crossing point where PCC trams operated right up to the edge of both countries. Tram No. 1509 approached from the Mexican side while No. 1516 crossed heading into Mexico — a routine crossing that thousands made every day.
In the highlands of Veracruz state, the town of Córdoba sat near one of Mexico’s more dramatic landscapes — a ruined church half-swallowed by an old lava flow. Getting there meant setting off on horseback from a nearby village, riding through terrain that told the story of a violent volcanic past.
South of Mexico City, Cuernavaca was known as the “City of Eternal Spring” for its mild climate. Cathedral San Francisco stood at the heart of the city — one of the oldest Christian churches in the Americas, built by Franciscan friars in the 16th century. Its grounds and surrounding streets were a gathering place for residents and visitors throughout the decade.
The Jardín Borda in Cuernavaca served as both a public garden and an event space. Town fiestas were held on its grounds, filling the air with music and the sight of families gathered under the trees. The Hotel Jardín Borda, built within the historic estate, offered views over the lush gardens below.
Outside the hotel, women washed clothes by hand — a common sight across Mexico’s cities and towns in this era, where laundry was done in communal outdoor spaces rather than with machines.
On the Pacific coast, the port city of Mazatlán had a more relaxed energy. Children played in the streets, unbothered by the heat, while the city carried on its role as one of Mexico’s busiest fishing and commercial harbors.
Away from the major cities, Mexican villages had their own quiet rhythm. Narrow streets ran between low buildings, and the pace of life was tied to agriculture and tradition rather than industry or tourism.
Mexico City, the sprawling capital, offered some of the most striking scenes. At Xochimilco, on the southern edge of the city, colorful flat-bottomed barges called trajineras carried tourists along ancient canal networks — waterways that had existed since the Aztec era.
The capital’s wide boulevards were lined with trees and institutional buildings. Near the great national museums, the roads were broad enough to carry heavy traffic, with lanes marked off for trolleybuses and trams running along the central reservation.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in northern Mexico City was — and remains — the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world. In the 1970s, the old basilica building still stood, though it was already showing serious structural problems from the soft lakebed beneath it. Pilgrims crossed the wide plaza in front of the church by the thousands.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico — known by its Spanish acronym UNAM — was a hub of both learning and political life. Trolleybuses lined up outside its gates in large numbers, serving the tens of thousands of students who passed through daily. The university’s buildings were covered in dramatic murals, painted by some of Mexico’s most celebrated artists, depicting history, science, and national identity.
Mexico City’s tram network was extensive. PCC cars — a standardized American tram design used across multiple continents — ran along the central reservations of the city’s wide boulevards. Line routes stretched from the railway station out to neighborhoods like Xochimilco.
Near the railway station, PCC No. 2409 rolled through the streets with a group of young men riding on its rear bumper — a common and risky way to hitch a free ride. The railway station area was also the site of workers’ rallies, where labor groups gathered in large numbers to demonstrate publicly.
Trolleybuses and trams shared the capital’s streets, each operating on fixed electric lines. Trolleybus No. 3220 served routes near the university, while No. 3613 ran on a tram line bound for Puerto Aéreo — the area around the international airport.
Back in Tampico, the port’s working life was captured in several photographs. Ferries crossed the Pánuco River, ships sat docked at the wharf beside flat-top cargo wagons, and the tram depot held a fleet of cars that served the city’s routes. The Tampico line to Playa — running along the coast — closed on December 13, 1974, ending an era for that stretch of track.
Street life in Tampico had its own character. Fruit stalls set up along the sidewalks, and letter writers — known as escribanos — sat at small tables in public spaces, helping people who couldn’t read or write to compose official letters and personal correspondence. This service was still very much in demand in 1970s Mexico.
Tampico’s tram fleet included both PCC cars and older rolling stock. Car No. 1784 and No. 1794 ran through the city streets alongside the ageing tram No. 26, which had been in service for many years by the time these photographs were taken.
In the town of Tequila, in the state of Jalisco, the famous distilled spirit took center stage. The tequila factory displayed rows of hand-blown glassware, each piece made on-site by local craftsmen. Outside, agave plants — the piñas used to ferment tequila — surrounded the facility. Buses gathered in the early morning at the local depot, including a Mexican Greyhound coach preparing for a long-distance run.
In Veracruz, the tram system was equally varied. Bogie Car No. 203 ran through the city streets alongside older single-truck cars like No. 133 and tram No. 206. The tram depot in Vera Cruz housed a mix of these vehicles, many of which had been in operation for decades. These photographs document the final years of a transit network that would soon disappear from Mexican cities altogether.
