Images from the 1930s and 1940s focusing on Mexican Americans during the Great Depression from the Library of Congress

1. IMAGING THE DEPRESSION FOR
MEXICAN-AMERICANS
Photos from the Farm Securities Administration

2. The FSA photographers captured
photographs during the Great Depression
untilWorldWar II began, then worked for the
Office ofWar Information until the project
stopped operations in 1943.
Iconic Images

3. Segregation and The South
This image of a
plantation owner and
African Americans in
the Mississippi Delta,
near Clarksdale,
captures the idea of
segregation and life in
the rural south in 1936.
Library of Congress.
Digital ID: fsa 8b29713
http://www.loc.gov/pict
ures/resource/fsa.8b297
13/

4. Migrants and Oakies
One of the most
famous of the FSA
photographs, Dorothea
Lang's "Migrant
Mother" photograph of
32-year-old Florence
OwensThompson
taken in Nipomo,
California, in early
Spring 1935. Library of
Congress Digital ID:
(digital file from original
neg.) fsa 8b29516
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pn
p/fsa.8b29516

5. What can we learn from the FSA photographs about
the condition of Mexican-Americans?What do they
tell us about the time period?
FSA Photos of Mexican-Americans

6. Outhouses in Mexican
Neighborhood, Crystal City
“Backyard privies of
Mexicans. Crystal City,
Texas.” Russell Lee,
March 1939. Digital ID:
fsa 8b21064
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pn
p/fsa.8b21064

7. Mexican Kitchen, San Antonio
“Kitchen of Mexican
house. San Antonio,
Texas.” Russell Lee,
March 1939. Digital ID:
fsa 8b21086
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pn
p/fsa.8b21086

8. Pecan Shellers, San Antonio
“Mexican pecan
shellers. Union plant.
San Antonio,Texas.”
Russell Lee, March
1939, Digital ID: fsa
8b21316
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pn
p/fsa.8b21316

9. Boys Playing Marbles, Robstown
“Boys Playing Marbles,
FSA . . . Labor Camp,
Robstown,Texas.”
Arthur Rothstein,
January 1942, Digital
ID: LC-DIG-fsac-
1a34254
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pn
p/fsac.1a34254

10. Migratory Worker
“MigratoryWorker, FSA
. . . Camp, Robstown,
Texas.” Arthur
Rothstein, January
1942, Digital ID: fsac
1a34263
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pn
p/fsac.1a34263

11. Rita Rodriguey
“Rita Rodriguey.”
Howard R. Hollem,
October 1942, Digital
ID: fsac 1a34937
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pn
p/fsac.1a34937

12. Lonestar Restaurant Association
Sign, 1942
“NO DOGS, NEGROES, MEXICANS.” Lonestar Restaurant Association,
Dallas,Texas. Printed “Jim Crow” sign, n.d. Black History
Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (024.00.00)