Mexico City stepped in to host the Games after Santiago, Chile,  and São Paulo, Brazil,   withdrew their offers. It was the third major sporting event held there in seven years, after the 1968 Olympic Games and the 1970 soccer World Cup.

The design of this poster shows a tornado-like funnel built from layers of the Games logo emerging from a map of the Americas with Mexico City being the point of origin.  The logo uses Mexico's national colors and comprises a graphic rendition of the letter "M", for Mexico.