Mazatlán’s Old Town Is Spry Again

ON a cool Friday night at a sidewalk cafe in Plazuela Machado, in the center of Mazatlán’s old town, a wedding party of well-dressed Mazatlecos greeted each other with kisses and toasts. They clinked glasses of imported wine, the women wobbling on high heels, the men looking on.

Across the plaza a few hours earlier, the layered rhythms of música folklórica erupted from the city’s Municipal Arts Center. Those horns and drums had been replaced by......