Today I posted a reel to Instagram where I showed an issue of a women’s magazine from the 1950s, “Paquita.” The magazine might be of interest to fans of Mexican Gothic, as well as those curious about my upcoming novel, The Intrigue, about a con artist who browses lonely hearts ads looking for victims.
The cover of “Paquita” shows a promotional shot of Elizabeth Taylor. Hollywood movie stars were a favorite topic of these magazines in the 1940s and 1950s. The magazines featured tons of fashion tips and photos. Here we see a dress that Noemí Taboada might want to wear.
Often when people picture Mexico in the past, they think about Revolutionary Mexico, with sarapes and big hats. Something out of Speedy Gonzalez. But as you can see in these ads for cosmetics and stories about new fashions, Mexico in the 1950s is a country that is eager to embrace the latest dresses, makeup and hair styles. By the 1950s there had been a huge migration of people from the countryside to the city. Many people looking for work opportunities searched for them in newly opened factories and thriving business centres. Mexico City hummed with activity, showing movies in beautiful cinemas and affording people the chance to eat meals at an eclectic range of restaurants.
Magazines like “Paquita” offered an aspirational life style. Many people in Mexico were still earning low wages and could not afford the Parisian designs advertised in its pages, but these publications offered a template of life for the growing middle class.
Below is a vintage add for cocaine lotions and powders, to show you the range of products you could find in the pages of these magazines. It’s advertised as a “luxury” item. Talk about another time period!
But anyway, that’s a good segue into the realm of fantasy. The other thing these magazines provided was an opportunity for fantasies to bloom. Not only could women look at products that promised to turn them into refined and seductive ladies, but the magazines included serialized romance novels or short stories. These allowed readers a chance to fantasize about handsome lovers and adventures in a cheap, affordable format. Romance was always a huge part of women’s magazines. The products emphasized the capacity to entice men; there were tips about cooking to keep your husband happy and the right shapewear to look sexy, along with romance stories.
And there was one section that perhaps exemplified these dreams and fantasies more than others: the lonely heart ads.
Nowadays, when classifieds no longer exist, lonely heart ads may seem like an alien subject to young people. Lonely hearts ads went by several names, including “sentimental mail” (buzón sentimental) or as we see below “sentimental exchange” (intercambio sentimental). Whatever the name, they were small ads with a number next to them. If you read the ads and were interested in someone, you’d write to the number and your mail would be forwarded to the appropriate party.
The tone of the ads varied, though many emphasized that the person was serious about pursuing romance and provided a description of themselves. The ads in this issue of “Paquita,” for example, have a woman of 20 saying she is looking for a sincere, Catholic, good looking young man who is hard working.
As you might imagine, while there were many sincere people looking for love, lonely hearts ads also allowed criminals a chance to target victims. That is the plot of The Intrigue, out July 2026.