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June 1937. "Child of Texas migrant family who follow the cotton crop from Corpus Christi to the Panhandle." Photo by Dorothea Lange. View full size.
The car looks like a Ford Model T Coupe circa 1926/1927.
Its hard enough being 12 years old (or so) even in the best of circumstances. This poor girl is growing faster than her family can afford to feed her. Her dress is likely remodeled from one of her mother's.
My mother and her family made their way through Texas in '35, traveling in similar conditions. Seeing Lange's image ... just pulls at my heart and makes me want to cry.
Dorothea Lange's photos invariably evoke the dislocation, grinding poverty, and unremitting labor confronting migrant agricultural workers. All of this was a mere three generations ago. Yet these folks endured, survived - only to face a world war. Should put our problems into perspective.
Of all the photos I've seen of the Depression Era, I think this one captures the angst that people felt. This poor girl looks completely sad, thin and exhausted from toiling away her days in the fields.
Already 100 degrees there, in early June. Not sure where the cotton crop would be between Corpus and the Panhandle in June 1937, but most likely uncomfortably warm, wherever.
if she had any, no doubt spend a lot time in that pose! At first glance I thought she had a cellphone!
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