Lumber Workers. Bay of Campeche (from: Mexican Art - A Portfolio of Mexican People and Places)

Alfredo Zalce

This image is one of two supplemental color lithographs, done for a portfolio of ten black-and-white lithographs showing images of Mexican people engaged in daily activities, primarily labor and crafting, by ten different mid-century Mexican social commentary printmakers who were members of the Taller de Gráfica Popular print collective. They were printed in on cream wove paper, each signed by the artist in pencil at lower right.

This image depicts the lumber industry in Campeche, one of Mexico's 31 states, located in Southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the states of Tabasco to the south west, Yucatán to the north east, and Quintana Roo to the east, and to the southeast by the Orange Walk district of Belize.

Campeche was part of the province of Yucatán but split off in the mid-19th century, mostly due to political friction with city of Mérida. Today, much of the state’s economic comeback is due to the finding of petroleum offshore in the 1970s, which has made the coastal cities of Campeche and Ciudad del Carmen important economic centers. The state has important Mayan and colonial sites but they are not as well known or visited as others in the Yucatán.