Oaxaca Cultural Navigator

This just in!  You can see that some of the walls are nearly topping off at 12 feet high.  Eric took this photo with his iPhone this afternoon.  It rained in Oaxaca today.  The sky is a bit gray and water is pooling in the foreground.  The open side is the soon-to-be north wall of the courtyard which has not yet been enclosed.  The room on the left is the bedroom (incomplete wall) and straight ahead is the arched entry to the kitchen/DR/LR.  A  stairway to the left of the bedroom and inside the courtyard will lead to a rooftop garden patio where we will have a 360-view of the Oaxaca  Valley.    I just read another blog by a woman who is building a house in Puerto Escondido.  She had a crew of 8 and the casita was completed in 11 weeks!  Un milagro!  We’ve been at this since mid-January, with, at most, two people working at a time.  That’s okay.  We’re in no rush                          

The casita is coming along! You can see the construction site below –a bird’s-eye view from Picacho. Four months after breaking ground on January 12, 2008, we now have walls! Eric says the brick was well-baked and has a nice color. By the time we arrive back in the village in late June, Omar Architecto thinks all the walls will be complete. The wall height from floor to ceiling is 12 feet, with tall windows to allow the breezes to pass through the house into the courtyard. Progress so far — walls beginning to enclose the greatroom — living room, dining room and kitchen area. The bedroom, bathroom and laundry room are yet to be started.

There are about 40 rugs piled up in various corners of my house — in the entryway, the living room, my office, and a few packed away in the attic waiting for Eric’s return in October. We’ve decided to take photos of them and display them on the website: www.oaxacaculture.com

When you get there, just click on “Rug Gallery” to take you to the page. These will be offered for sale, too, and I’ve also included several beautiful decorator pillows in the offering. Keep checking back, because I’ll be adding more to the gallery this week and next. And, let me know if you have any questions.

All, except a few pieces, are dyed with natural materials or are handwoven using the undyed natural color of the sheep wool.

The traditional patterns express Zapotec mythology, iconography and interpretations of animals, insects, and other elements of the natural and mystical world. If you look closely, you will see a butterfly, lightening, mountains, rain, birds, stars, the eye of God, a cactus flower, the sun and moon, the caracol snail symbolizing communication, numerology, and more. Some of the designs are innovative and much more contemporary, and take elements of traditional designs as their foundation. The Chavez family are artists and every great artist continues to explore and develop their art form.

Do you think green builders and interior designers would be interested in knowing about these rugs for their clients, since all the materials used in their creation are natural?

The casita is an L-shaped design facing a walled courtyard. We really love the courtyard at Las Bugambilias in Oaxaca City, and decided that having a small, private outdoor living area would be wonderful. Along the L of the house extending into the the courtyard will be pillars supporting a 10 foot overhang that will give us shaded space for dining and lounging. Perhaps we’ll hang a hammock between the pillars! The indoor space includes a great room that will house a small L-shaped kitchen, a dining/work table, and living room area with corner fireplace. This space is 14 feet x 28 feet with windows facing north and south. The one bedroom, 14 feet x 16 feet will also serve as an office, and a small bathroom, laundry room, and a couple of closets fill out the space. All the walls in the house will be 12 feet high to keep the space cooler in the summertime. To the left of the courtyard entrance, a stairway will lead to the rooftop terrace where we will have a 360 degree view of the village and surrounding mountains. The sunsets will be glorious.

The idea of living in a simple, small, one bedroom casita is very appealing. We continue to downsize. Our North Carolina house is a passive-active solar cottage, 1,500 square feet, with two bedrooms. It is very basic by U.S. mega-house standards, but elegantly simple with a wonderful kitchen and living area with windows that face a pond. We learned, by building this house, that size was not as important as quality and conserving energy. With the wood stove and the radiant heat floors powered by solar hot water, and AAC block construction, we are doing our part to conserve. I also learned how easy it is to live smaller and with fewer things. The beauty of the outdoor landscape becomes part of our furnishings, and I intend to use the casita courtyard as a living room during most of the year.

You can see photos on my website:  www.oaxacaculture.com   Go to the page: Casita Construction.

The casita construction is progressing.  Each week photos come in either from Eric or Omar el Architecto showing us the developmental stages of the foundation.  Since this is an entirely made by hand project with two men on the job, even a small home like ours will take 6 to 8 months to complete.  This is fun, because we really don’t have any nail-biting decisions to make right now, and I’m not certain, given the simplicity of the casita and its size (860 square feet), that there will be any major issues confronting us throughout the process.

The footing trenches are about 3 feet deep.  They have been filled first with giant boulders.  Then, smaller rocks are poured into the trench to fill the gaps between the boulders.  All are cemented together.  The cement comes in bags from Cemex, just like in the states.  But, it’s mixed with gravel and sand (not a pre-mix) and water right there on the ground in small batches.  There are no big cement trucks rolling in here!  I am amazed at how great the construction is … and why not?  These people have been building Zapotec temples for over 2,000 years, and have been the labor responsible for all of Spanish-colonial Oaxaca.

This is earthquake country and foundations need to be solid and deep.  There was a 6.5 earthquake last week centered near the Chiapas-Oaxaca border that sent tremors up and down the Oaxaca Valley.  Eric and Janet said they felt it, they were scared, but nothing was damaged and no  one was hurt.  I read that there were 40 earthquakes in Oaxaca last year, and that could be a good thing, since the earth is heaving regularly to relieve pressure.

When Stephen and I walked around the village a couple of years ago, we admired the beautiful quarried stone in rich hues of pink, salmon, green and gold that made up many of the building foundations.  These quarried stones are cemented on top of the boulders of our foundation base and rise above ground level about 9 to 10 inches.  The floor of our casita will be this height above ground  so that there will never be a water problem.  After the foundation is completed, the rebar that forms the support pillars for the house will be filled in with cement.  The roof will be constructed, the terra cotta red concrete floors will be poured using integrated color, and the 12 foot high red brick walls will be filled in between the pillars.  I’m not exactly sure of the sequence.  I’m told the floor will be poured after the house is “dried in.”

The bulldozer came to dig the trench in mid-January.  About six weeks have passed, and it’s still too soon to tell whether we are on, ahead of, or behind schedule.  It really doesn’t matter, because progress happens according to the rhythms of the season and lives of the people.  Fiestas and family celebrations take precedence and there’s nothing we can do to accelerate any of it.  I do know that the rocks and concrete get delivered, that the workers get paid.  There is one more foundation wall to complete, and then accounts will be reconciled and we will move on to the next construction phase.

Two sturdy, reliable and experienced men are building our casita foundation with rocks quarried from the local area, Cruz Azul cement and gravel.  The rocks are as big as boulders, their varying dimensions are about 3 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet more or less, rolled into a 4 foot deep x 3 foot wide trench.   

These are men who know what they are doing.  We are fortunate.  They have been working for Omar Architecto, Eric’s cousin, for years and are building Omar’s new casa, too.  The foundation construction is going faster than we expected, but there is a slowdown this week.  The men are from the neighboring village of San Juan Guelavia and there is a fiesta there this week, so they will only work on the foundation for two days.

These giant rocks are rolled into the foundation trench by hand using a piece of rebar or a sturdy piece of wood as a fulcrum.  Watching them work, I can only imagine what it was like to build the village church, or before that, the majestic Zapotec temples that line the valley.   Not much has changed in 2,000 years, except now we have a Cruz Azul cement store right in the village.  This is a region of earthquakes, so anchoring deep and building strong is very important.

At the corners and at strategic intervals along the foundation, rebar will rise, secured in feet of cement.  The rebar will form the structural columns that will hold the walls and the roof, frame the doors, and create the pillars that will support the patio overhang in the walled garden.   When the foundation is complete, Omar will send us a summary of expenses and we will reconcile accounting for this first phase.  Then, we will pay him his 10% to cover the cost of oversight.  We have a general estimate of what this 800 square foot casita will cost to construct, but it is really, pay-as-you-go, just like building a new house in the U.S.  Omar will have his cash flow income as we go along, too.

It’s early morning and raining in Chapel Hill.  A major snowfall is predicted for this afternoon, just in time for the #1 Tar Heels to play Maryland, wrecking havoc on game-goers plans.  I’m dreaming of Mexico where it is warm and dry, imagining the construction of our 800 square foot casita.  On Friday, January 11, 2008, the day before I returned to North Carolina, the bulldozer came out to the land in the Ruu Dain to clear the area for Omar Architecto and his two builders to come later in the day to mark the foundation with chalk. Stephen had returned to North Carolina earlier in the week, so I documented the event by taking 20 photographs of the large machinery, of Omar, Federico, Eric and Janet looking over the site, and shipped them off to Stephen.  They measured, pounded rebar stakes in the ground, strung blue plastic line and marked the outlines of the house, then filling in for the bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, and great room that would be our all-in-one kitchen, dining and living room.  One of the men walked the line holding a stick affixed a tin can punctured with holes and filled with powdered chalk.  When he was finished, it was almost dark, and there I was standing in the living room looking out on the courtyard and beyond it, Picacho. On Tuesday, January 14, The heavy machinery returned to dig the foundation and Omar sent us photos of the 3 foot trenches and the piles of huge rocks that will be used to  support our little house.  This was no small feat.  We starting talking with Omar about a year ago after we were invited by the Chavez family to be their compadres on the land that they own just outside the village.  They offered us a small plot on which to build. They had wanted to build a new house for many years, but having us with them was the impetus for them to start discussions with cousin Omar, too.  In Teotitlan, only Zapotecs can own land and one must be invited to live there by a family after a trusting relationship is formed.  There are about a handful of Gringos living in the village, so this is a really special situation.   This is a trusting relationship; we have no contract, a verbal handshake, and as of yet, no written informal agreement. The expense of building the house is ours and we are doing it for many reasons: the beauty and great weather, the reasonable cost of living, the kinship we have with the family, an economical plan for retirement. We thought we would break ground 6 months ago, but Omar’s computer broke down, he lost his internet service, he lost our files for the  design of the casita, he needed to complete his community volunteer service for the Kindergarten committee, weddings, baptisms, saints days, funerals and fiestas, our limited Spanish and his limited English, interrupted our plans.  This trip, we sat down with him after he redrew the plans, made the changes, worked out the details, he gave us a list of materials needed to start, and we gave him a check.  What I learned, and continue to learn in Mexico, is that it happens when it happens and there is nothing I can do to move the process along much.  The forces of community and village life take precedence over individual needs and wants.  In Teotitlan people do not borrow money to build houses.  This is a cash economy. There are no mortgages (so no tanking mortgage market which is turning our economy upside down).  When people have money, they put it into land and housing, add on, make improvements, build another bedroom or a second story.  All over the village, there are hoarded piles of rocks for future constructions projects, rebar sticking up into the sky in preparation of a future second story that may never come. Omar is building his own house for his young family within the Santiago family compound on the main road.  He’s run out of money, so the construction is coming to a halt.  This is a perfect time for us because the workers will move over to our site to build our casita and Omar will see that it is done quickly, I think, because he will get paid sooner and then will be able to finish his house.  I’m anticipating that we’ll be done in the next 6-8 months.  Hurray.  I have no idea how much all this will cost in the end…it’s pay as you go.  We are anticipating it will be around $40 a square foot, mas or menos. Of course, there are always surprises in Mexico, but in the photos I’m getting, I see that Federico is there to look over things along with Omar, and that is reassuring.  I am missing the day to day excitement of watching the rocks being rolled by human hands into the deep ditches, and the cement being mixed by hand directly on the earth in small batches.  But, I can imagine and it is good.