A bustling festival of flat-bottomed trajineras crowds the famous "floating gardens" canals of Xochimilco on the southern edge of Mexico City — flower-arched name boards spelling out "Cecilia," "Ofelia," and others jostle for dock space beside a pavilion with striped awning, while cypress trees tower overhead in this silver-gelatin real-photo postcard that crackles with pre-war energy. Xochimilco's chinampas date to Aztec times, and by the 1930s the canals had become a beloved weekend escape for city dwellers and tourists alike; the scene here captures that golden era when the waterways were still ecologically vibrant. "Mary" dashed off a breezy note to Major G.H. in San Antonio — "Flower vendors, Music, Noise galore, but a beautiful place" — seven words that distill Xochimilco perfectly. The postmark reads June 4 and the stamp dates the card firmly to 1934.