This black & white educational film “Mexicana” is about the country of Mexico. Copyright is circa the late 1930s or early 1940s. It was made by the Calvin Co. of Kansas City.
Opening titles: Little Features presents Mexicana (:07-:18). Mexico City. National Palace. Palace of Fine Arts. Residential districts. Cars go down a boulevard. Chapultepec Castle with a bronze grasshopper statue in the courtyard. People walk around the castle grounds. A man wears a sombrero. Cathedral (:19-2:01). Ancient ruins of the Aztec civilization. Pyramids of the sun and the moon. Outside the pyramids. Modern highways. Natives have their wares strapped to their backs. A man rides a donkey. Oxen teams pull carts. Burrow trains carry fruit and supplies. Taxco is a town in the state of Guerrero, southwest of Mexico City, famed for its silver jewelry production and Spanish colonial architecture. Bell of a cathedral (2:02-3:42). Cobblestone streets. People wash dishes and clothing by a small water inlet. A boy sits near a parrot. A man walks with donkeys. An old method of making wool. Silversmiths at work. Mexican men on a rooftop. People in a marketplace. A little girl drags a pig (3:43-5:13). Rural area. Children play. Hillsides filled with the century plants. An end of the plant can be used for a needle and thread to do primitive, crude sewing. Farming. A man plants corn kernels (5:14-6:29). Plowing the field. Corn, wheat, rye, barley, vanilla and more are grown in Mexico. Farmers and peasants at work in the fields. Tropical fruits: lemon, orange, grapefruit, banana and papaya grow. A large crowd watches bullfighting. It is the national sport of Mexico. El Toro runs wild in the bull ring (6:30-8:18). Bull charges a man on a horse. Matador helps control the bull, a second matador comes to assist. People applaud. Children at play, they slide down an old rail down a hill. A younger child can’t do it and cries. A farmer uses oxen to plow. A man rides a donkey. Adobes for the Mexicans (8:19-9:41). End credits (9:42-9:51).
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
