Privilege and Division in the Post-Depression World

“A México por Automóvil Photograph Album” follows a young couple’s road trip from Los Angeles through Mexico and back in the summer of 1939, the final year of the Great Depression. The relative economic prosperity in Los Angeles, the path they follow, the car they drive, and the timing of their trip all suggest the anonymous couple are well-off residents of Los Angeles. The contrast between depictions of Mexican poverty and the couple’s experience at the center of it evokes issues of American morality, class consciousness, and, most of all, "otherness." Unlike the other pages of this exhibit, which show how American minorities' depictions of themselves reflect a self-belief of belonging to the “other," this page demonstrates the inverse: how the hegemony's depiction of marginalized groups shows a similar pressure of “otherness” was applied from the outside-in.

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Privilege

Throughout the photoalbum, the Los Angeles couple is depicted (sometimes among friends) enjoying all aspects of Mexican culture. Among the photos to the left, one shows the owner of the scrapbook posing for a photo among well-dressed friends (one of which is shown holding an additional camera) at the Pirámide del Sol. Another shows the owner with a group of girls in line to order Piña Frescas from a vendor. Another two show the owner with and without a group at nice eating establishments. The relative economic prosperity of Los Angeles during this time in history (Gregory 36-78), the timing of their trip, their attire and possessions (such as the camera), and the commodities they indulge in all suggest that the anonymous woman of the couple, whom we follow in the collection, is a somewhat well-off resident of Los Angeles. The following photos’ depictions of Mexican poverty are at odds with the couple’s privileged experience amidst the center of it.

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Division

The Great Depression initiated mass migrations from the “Dust Bowl” of the South to the more economically robust state of California—in most cases, Los Angeles in particular. Because mass migrations greatly strained Californian culture, economy, and politics, migrants were widely treated as outcasts and given nicknames such as “Okies” (a generalized reference to Oklahoman migrants) or “maggots” (a play on “migrants”) (Gregory 36-78). Meanwhile, thousands of Mexican workers were forcibly deported to the more deeply impoverished regions of rural Mexico (Balderrama 114-139). The persistant cultural divide between rich and poor in California during this summer of 1939 surely manifested itself in these travelers' reactions to poverty while on this trip.

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"Otherness"

Of the couple’s numerous encounters with poverty while exploring Mexico, one encounter is particularly glaring. When encountering a blind man begging, the creator snapped a photo, later scrapbooking it with the label, “Mendigo Ciego” (blind beggar). Their seemingly unsympathetic encounters with poverty deepen our understanding of the couple's privilege and the cold envrionment perpetuated by Californian residents toward Mexican immigrants and Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression. Indeed, these photos reflect the "otherness" of the unfortuante refugees and deportees of this era.