Antique & Vintage Postcards

The ancient Montezuma cypress known as El Árbol del Tule — believed to be over 1,400 years old and possessing the stoutest trunk of any tree on Earth, measuring some 58 meters in circumference — dominates this vibrant chrome postcard from Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, its vast canopy dwarfing both the ornate 17th-century church of Santa María de la Asunción beside it and a cheerful yellow pickup truck parked at the entrance gate. The tree, a Taxodium mucronatum sacred to the Zapotec people long before the Spanish arrived, was already ancient when the Aztec empire rose and fell; local legend holds it was planted by Pechocha, a priest of the wind god Ehecatl. Photographed by Mark Turok for Figueroa, S.A. of Oaxaca under the Vistacolor imprint, this rounded-corner chrome card captures the tree at its most majestic, with clouds piling behind it as if the sky itself is paying homage. The card number V369 and "Lito en México" confirm mid-1960s production.