The first time I rode the metro in Mexico City a man got on wearing a backpack backwards on his chest. In one hand was a stack of bootleg mixtape CDs he was selling for 10 pesos ($1) apiece. With the other hand he fumbled around inside his bag, hitting the play button to a set of speakers protected within. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the music blasted forth from the backpack hit my ears. It was (very) loud chanting, some kind of goth mix. And weirder still, several buyers immediately pulled out their coins to make the purchase.

I always knew rock was big in Mexico, but I had no idea how many goths sprouted up in this part of the world. It's big—really big—here.

Just stop by El Chopo—a market held every Saturday where goths (and some rockers, see cool kids above) and more goths converge to buy industrial CDs, heavy metal T-shirts, black leather overcoats, cuffs, belts, jackets and more. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Mostly teenagers, mostly just looking at CDs and milling about South Street-style, or gathering in front of the stage in the back, waiting for the rock show to start.

The pictures posted here don't do justice to the numbers, but believe me...there are a LOT of goths in Mexico.