Mexican Kitchen
date: label: Date made
content: 1948
name: label: graphic artist
content: Charlot, Jean
notes: label: Description
content: The French-born artist Jean Charlot spent his early career during the 1920s in Mexico City. His 1948 lithograph depicts a scene from the domestic life of a Mexican indigenous woman, a favorite theme of the artist. Household work—without the aid of most, if any, electrical appliances—was a full-time job for many working-class and poor Mexican women, north and south of the border, well into the 20th century. Food preparation was especially labor-intensive. Corn had to be processed, wood gathered, and water fetched, in the midst of child rearing and other household duties. This was the daily fare of most women, who rarely worked outside the home after marriage. Mexican American women who found work in cities like El Paso in the early 20th century were either single or widowed. Many worked as domestic servants, others in industrial laundries or textile mills. Like today, some women turned to their kitchens to earn a living, making meager profits selling prepared food on the street to Mexican American workers and Mexican migrants.
label: Description (Spanish)
content: El artista francés Jean Charlot pasó los años 1920, a comienzos de su carrera, en la ciudad de México. Esta litografía suya de 1948 representa una escena de la vida doméstica de una mujer indígena, un tema favorito del artista. Las tareas domésticas—sin la ayuda de la mayor parte de los aparatos electrodomésticos—constituían un trabajo de todo el día para muchas mujeres pobres de la clase trabajadora de México, al norte y sur de la frontera, hasta bien entrado el siglo XX. La preparación de la comida era especialmente trabajosa. Debía procesarse el maíz, juntarse leña y acarrear el agua, sumados a la crianza de los hijos y otras obligaciones domésticas. Así era la vida diaria para la mayoría de las mujeres, quienes raramente trabajaban fuera del hogar una vez casadas. A principios del siglo XX, las mujeres mexicoamericanas que trabajaban, en ciudades como El Paso, eran solteras o viudas. Muchas se empleaban en el servicio doméstico, otras en lavanderías industriales o fábricas textiles. Al igual que en la actualidad, algunas mujeres convertían su cocina en un medio para ganarse la vida, obteniendo exiguas ganancias a través de la venta de comidas preparadas en la calle para trabajadores mexicoamericanos e inmigrantes mexicanos.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Colorado, Colorado Springs
label: place made
content: Mexico
title: label: Title (Spanish)
content: Cocina Mexicana
topic: label: Subject
content: Food Culture
label: Subject
content: Latino
label: Subject
content: Immigration
label: Subject
content: Native Americans
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Work
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content: Mexican America
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Anonymous
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.23377
label: catalog number
content: 23377
label: accession number
content: 299563
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
label: Other Terms
content: print; Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 42.6 cm x 32.2 cm; 16 3/4 in x 12 11/16 in