Children of Mexico

Filmed during the AMNH Educational Expedition to Mexico, 1940. Grace Fisher Ramsey of the AMNH Department of Education made a series of short films in 1940, during the Educational Expedition to Mexico This particular film is an introduction to the children of Mexico The film opens with Mexican mothers carrying their babies by tucking them into their shawls. Footage of children playing is seen, some of them girls with their dolls. New schools are visited where primary and intermediate students are shown with their teachers. The Morelia Art School is one of the institutions featured. The popular weekend spot of Xochimilco, with its beautiful flower trimmed gondola-type boats is shown, as well as vendors in less embellished boats selling flowers and radishes. Men gather watercress and plow fields with oxen, as children tend sheep, goats, and burros. Other children care for their younger siblings. A segment on the market at Urapin shows children both buying and selling merchandise.