Page:Wood - Foods of the Foreign-Born.djvu/23

Rh from private wells in rural sections, and if the wells are shallow, the quality of the water is questionable.

The people crowd into their small houses, and often there is a deplorable lack of window space. Fortunately, the shacks are only one story high and are not close together, even in the villages. The life is an outdoor one; doors are almost always left open, and it is doubtful if the housing conditions have much to do with their ill health.

Infant mortality is always high among the Mexicans in both city and rural districts, and this is no doubt entirely a matter of feeding and bathing. Most babies are breastfed, especially during the first few months, but in addition to the milk, Mexican mothers generally insist on feeding the children heavier foods as soon as they will begin to take them. Very small infants are taught to eat frijoles or beans, and when the melons begin to ripen, the babies are stuffed with cantaloupes and watermelons. During the summer, and especially during the hottest months, infant mortality increases by leaps and bounds. If the babies can be put on milk diets under the care of a visiting nurse, they seem to do quite well, although it is necessary for the nurse to repeat her instructions many times.

There has been distinct improvement in the housing conditions in El Paso, and to some degree in other cities also, during recent years. A few years ago the Mexicans were living in crowded, small, adobe houses of one room only, sometimes with no windows at all, and only the door to admit light. In one instance eighty tenants lived in one block, the entire block being filled, leaving nothing but an alleyway which was not used. The houses were a miscellaneous lot of shacks, with one toilet for the entire