This picture is “Grinding Corn in Tehuantepec” by C.B. Waite in the year 1902. This picture depicts two young girls, working on some sort of mechanical device for corn, with one of the young girls holding a small infant. As both women are facing and looking at the camera, this picture was clearly staged by the photographer. This indicates that Waite had a message that he was attempting to portray through this photograph. The two young girls are clearly dirty, with manual labor the forefront of their plight. This demonstrates the working conditions and situation that young women had to face in Mexico in this time period. On top of this, the young woman holding the infant shows matriarchal symbolism in that a young woman is taking care of the infant, with the parents nowhere to be seen. This depicts the abandonment of young women in Mexico, not having the parental and monetary necessities and luxuries wealthy European or American children had at the time.

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/mex/id/2574