The Distaff Side (a.k.a. Mexican Kitchen)

Jean Charlot

Charlot commented about this print, "Here I've depicted the activities of women in a Mexican kitchen. The woman standing stirs the pot and prepares to add some herbs. The little girl standing on a box is fanning the flame with a straw fan, while the dog sleeps by the warmth of the fire.

In the background, a mother is showing her daughter how to pat the round tortillas, while grandmother in the foreground is grinding the meal on a stone metate. As she is working, the youngest in her family has gone to sleep, wrapped up in the grandmother's rebozo." (from an interview for AAA Bulletin).

This impression was published by Associated American Artists in New York who, in the 1940s, was working to introduce Mexican prints to the United States. In the case of this image they worked with Charlot's major printer, California Master Printer Linton Kistler, to print the edition.