The Loviths with the Elekes couple

This photo was taken in Mexico around 1929, I am eating a gelato. The Elekes, a Hungarian couple is down in the boat. The woman is overweight. The first on the left is my father, my mother is the second from the right, standing next to the Indian. I remember my father had a camera and he asked somebody to take this picture because he wanted to be in it, too. I was born in 1923 when my father was already in Mexico. Two or three years later my father collected enough money so that he could send us ship tickets. I went to Mexico with my mother in 1926. My father was waiting for us with a rented furnished apartment. Somehow word spread that there was a club for Hungarian emigrants in Mexico City, where this group of Hungarians would come together. There my parents met with a tailor couple, their the Elekes, who didn't have any children. They had a very good tailor business and their own tailor's shop. We became really good friends with the Elekes and we would often go hiking together on Sundays and my family would bring food for brunch. Mrs. Elekes was a fine, sturdy woman. The place in the photo was called Xochimilco. This is a tourist attraction, a big swamp with islands and canals. Some parts of it, where there were Indian settlements, were cultivated. They dried up parts of the swamp and planted trees there. The place had a wonderfully rich plant life. It became the main fruit and vegetable supplier of Mexico City, the capital. At the same time it also became a holiday place and the Indians transported the tourists in unique canoes. From spring to fall while the weather was good people went on boat rides. The boat was covered with a canvas against the sun and the rain. There were beautiful flower decorations on its deck and the name of the boat was on the back. There were also so-called ?singing boats?, where people paid some money and the Indians sang melodies throughout the boat ride. The boat was spacious: two benches and a table could fit into the middle so a family could comfortably fit on it. An Indian always stood on the edge of the boat and pushed it with a huge pole. Depending on how much you paid you could be on the boat for half or for an entire day. We always went on Sunday, because Sunday was our hiking day.