
#1017-M-038 Mexico December 1970 The National Autonomous University The National Autonomous University of Mexico (Spanish: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) was founded in 1551, making it the oldest in North America. It is the largest university in Latin America and was ranked the best in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

#1017-M-025 Mexico December 1970 Young Love In the 1970s, as much as 25% of Mexican girls were married before the age of 18. In rural areas, it was not uncommon for girls to be married at 11 years old.

#1017-M-022 Mexico December 1970 Plaza Sunrise Street vendors were introduced after the Spanish took control of the Aztec Empire centuries ago. Since the 1500s, vendors have set up stalls on the public streets and plazas and have been been targeted by local governments who want to displace or control them. Today, most street vendors are required to be licensed and taxed.

#1017-M-018 Mexico December 1970 Chiclets Girl and Baby In Mexico City, about forty percent of the population live in poverty. Mexico’s economic inequalities have led families to make their children work on streets or in worst cases abandon their children. These children are victims of the economy and society structures.

#1017-M-017 Mexico December 1970 Chiclets Girl and Baby In Mexico City, about forty percent of the population live in poverty. Mexico’s economic inequalities have led families to make their children work on streets or in worst cases abandon their children. These children are victims of the economy and society structures.

#1017-K-004 Mexico December 1970 School Children Over 90% of children in Mexico attend primary school but only 62% attend secondary school. Only 45% finish secondary school. After secondary school, only a quarter pass on to higher education. A commonly cited reason for this is the lack of infrastructure throughout the rural schools.

#1017-K-023 Mexico December 1970 Three Wheel Truck The macroeconomic policies of the 1970s left Mexico’s economy highly vulnerable to external conditions. These turned sharply against Mexico in the early 1980s, and caused the worst recession since the 1930s, with the period known in Mexico as La Década Perdida, “the lost decade”, i.e., of economic growth.

#1017-K-027a Mexico December 1970 Farm Village Agriculture in Mexico has been an important sector of the country’s economy historically and politically even though it now accounts for a very small percentage of Mexico’s GDP. Mexico is one of the cradles of agriculture with the Mesoamericans developing domesticated plants such as maize, beans, tomatoes, squash, cotton, vanilla, avocados, cacao, various kinds of spices.

#1017-K-031 Mexico December 1970 School Girl In a Mexican household, the men taught boys their roles and responsibilities. Girls learned from the female elders.

#1017-M-013 Mexico December 1970 Shoe Shine Vendor and his Dogs During the 1990s and 2000s street vendors paid union leaders “dues” in exchange for the right to occupy a piece of sidewalk without city permission, an illegal act. The unions in turn, bribed and lobbied city officials to allow the vendors to stay.

#1017-J-002 Mexico December 1970 Mr. Cool At the game arcades at night, no girls were present. In the Mexican culture, boys are given a lot more freedom than girls.

#1017-F-033 Mexico December 1970 Bride at Church Wedding During the wedding ceremony, the pastor will bless the couple, and the groom presents 13 coins to his bride as a gift. This Mexican tradition signifies the groom’s commitment to supporting the bride and serves as a representation of Jesus and his 12 apostles to show that their relationship to God is crucial to the success of their marriage.

#1017-F-013 Mexico December 1970 The Plaza Mexican plazas function as communal living rooms. They supply places of commerce, stages for religious festivals, galleries for artistic creations, rallying points for political demonstrations, and venues for enormous concerts.

#1017-C-030 Mexico December 1970 Two Boys and a Clay Pot Mexican society is sharply divided by income and educational level. Although a middle class has struggled to expand in the cities, the principal division is between the wealthy well-educated elite and the urban and rural poor, who constitute the vast majority of the population.