Mexico City’s other dance halls face similar dire circumstances amid a pandemic that has hit Mexico particularly hard, with the world’s fourth highest total confirmed COVID-19 death toll. The storied California Dancing Club — where taxi dancers still plied their trade up until the March shutdown — pledges wistfully to return. The owner of another dance hall, the Salon La Altena, died during the pandemic.

Nieto says it would be a double tragedy if the Salon Los Angeles succumbs to this most antisocial of pandemics, which has brought night life in Mexico’s capital largely to a halt.

“This kind of activity, dancing, is important, and it is important to change this trend toward isolation and not communicating with other people. We have to stop social isolation,” said Nieto.

Accountant Ricardo Zamorano, 58, would agree. He showed up over the weekend dressed in the kind of attire he has worn to the Salon Los Angeles for the last 20 years: a red, baggy Pachuco suit and a matching broad-rimmed hat. His date, Paola Tiburcio, dressed as a 1940s “rumbera” dancer.

Zamorano called the salon “an icon, something very important, a tradition,” saying it transforms their everyday lives.

“From the moment you walk in, no, what’s more, from the moment you leave your house to come here, you are someone else,” said Zamorano. “When that is gone, you feel as if something is lacking, something is ending. We are very worried that they’re talking about closing the dance hall.”