Antique & Vintage Postcards

A young Zapotec flower vendor pauses before the ornate Baroque façade of the Basílica de la Soledad in Oaxaca, Mexico — a wicker basket of marigolds, dahlias, and chrysanthemums balanced effortlessly on her head, her crimson china oaxaqueña skirt fanning wide as she turns toward the camera. Photographer Mark Turok captured this iconic image of Oaxacan street life in the 1970s, when the traditional dress of the china — mestiza market women of the Sierra Juárez — was still a daily sight on the zócalo's cobblestones. The Basílica, completed in 1690 in the local green cantera stone, looms behind her, its niched saints gazing down. The card traveled to "The Codys" at 250 Dartmouth St., Rochville, NY, sent by a traveler named Margaret and a companion who had just returned from the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula, marveling at Mayan ruins and wishing they could send along some of that warm Mexican sunshine.