Scott’s Taxco Legacy

Spratling and Scott each traveled around Mexico in the mid-1920s (inspired by Tulane’s anthropological Mayan expeditions). By 1930, they both settled in the mountain village of Taxco, Mexico. In Taxco, Natalie embraced new causes working for the preservation of Taxco’s ancient architecture and promoting another intellectual / artistic / literary colony. She started social and anthropological studies of the Indians of Mexico that eventually lead to anthropological expeditions among the indigenous peoples.

She also worked as a staff member of Frances Toor’s important magazine Mexican Folkways. Her cohorts in this endeavor included such luminaries as Diego Rivera, Dr. Atl, Frida Kahlo, Anita Brenner, and Rufino Tamayo.

Natalie’s most lasting Taxco legacy would be the social causes she pursued on behalf of impoverished people in the region. She pioneered social medicine for the community, introducing a sanitation system, and brought the first physician to the town. Natalie established a school for the town’s children, which she operated for the rest of her life providing early education to generations of Taxco children. The school enabled the children to escape the worst consequences of poverty. It fed them three nutritious meals daily, took them off the streets from early morning until evening, and provided medical care to each child, including access to surgery in Mexico City in many urgent cases. Not surprisingly, she became the godmother of many Tasqueños, most of them born in her bed as she brought expectant mothers out of unsanitary hutches for safe deliveries in more hygienic surroundings.