The Earth and What It Grows: Northwestern Mexico (1951)
1951 · Short film · 10 min
- Documentary
Synopsis
The Earth And What It Grows: Northwestern Mexico is a short documentary from 1951 that gives viewers a look at the agriculture of northwestern Mexico (namely, cotton and hemp). The film opens with scenes of the desert landscape of Northwestern Mexico. At a farm in Casas Grandes, a farmer and his wife feed chickens outside their home. The farmer draws water from a well in the house’s courtyard (01:27). The two climb into their old car to head into town. Their son, Carlos, rides his horse. Carlos and his uncle walk to a harvester combine, and the shot features an old horse-drawn hay mower resting in the foreground (02:55). There are more shots of the landscape in northwestern Mexico and a little canal that moves water for irrigation (04:00). There is a cotton field (04:10), and picked cotton is sucked up from the back of a truck and moved into storage bins. The cotton goes through ginning machines. Men prepare a bale mold for the cotton fibers. A man latches metal straps around a molded cotton bale (05:30). A tractor pulls a trailer with the cotton bale; men stack bales of cotton (06:49). The film then takes viewers to the small town of Pericos, which is located in the desert with tall cactus plants rising from the sandy soil (07:12). The film shows a field of henequen—agave fourcroydes (07:47). Men unload bundles of henequen leaves at a factory. Workers put the leaves into a steamer. Henequen fibers are loaded onto a wheelbarrow and are taken out to the drying yard. Men toss…
Uploader's description on archive.org
Details
- Running time
- 10 minutes
- Collection
- Ephemeral Films
Subjects on the Internet Archive
- Mexico
- 1951
- Northwest Mexico
- Cotton
- Hemp
- Stock Footage
