48 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBUCATION NO. 1 1 



HOUSES AND SOLARES 



In 1945 there were 725 buildings in Quiroga, of 

 which 632 were inliabited, 10 were under construc- 

 tion, 43 were temporarily uninhabited or were 

 abandoned, and the remainder were utilized as 

 stores, workshops, storage places or warehouses, 

 schools, churches, etc. The distribution by cuar- 

 teles was 1—187, 11—192, III— 195, and IV— 151. 

 In the central manzanas the houses were built so 

 that there was a continuous wall of varying height 

 completely inclosing the block. Because of the 

 great variability in shape and dimensions of the 

 blocks any statement of average size or dimensions 

 of blocks and of homesteads or solares would be 

 misleading. We measured the frontage of every 

 house and solar in Quiroga, and the most signifi- 

 cant resultant fact was that houses and solares 

 varied from as little as 4 meters in width to more 

 than 50 meters. The majority of the house plots 

 and houses ranged in width between 9 and 16 

 meters. Because of the lack of visibility and be- 

 cause we entered the interiors of the solares only 

 when invited to do so (which was only in about 1 

 of every 12 houses), we have only a few measure- 

 ments and estimates of the depth of the solares and 

 lengths of the houses. It would appear that there 

 has been some retention of the colonial depth or 

 length of a solar (50 varas or 41.9 meters), but that 

 the frontage has commonly been divided into 

 about four parts. Perhaps the typical house plot 

 is 10 or 12 meters in width by 40 to 42 meters in 

 depth. It is obvious that in a completely occu- 

 pied rectangular block the solares at and near the 

 corners have been developed at each other's ex- 

 pense, while the solares toward the center of each 

 side can extend approximately to the center of 

 the manzana. The normal occupation arrange- 

 ment on a solar is the house occupying all of the 

 front portion (between one-quarter and one-third 

 of the length), and the remainder constituting a 

 backyard with fruit trees and ornamental plants, 

 privy, poultry shed, etc. Only about one-seventh 

 of the houses, usually in peripheral position, had 

 contiguous seed plots or semevteras. About one 

 in every four solares (187) had a livestock corral, 

 which was commonly a fenced-off portion of the 

 backyard. The most common fencing material, 

 within and at the sides of the solares, was adobe 

 bricks built into walls averaging about 7 or 8 feet 

 in height. Toward the peripheries of town, walls 



of stone and fences of barbed wire punctuated 

 with magueyes, colorines, chupires and cactuses 

 predominated. Privies of some type were present 

 in 389 houses, and 336 had none of any description. 

 The predominant type of privy or excusado was 

 the simple one- or two-hole backhouse over a 

 trench or pit, and only 12 were water-flushing 

 toilets known as moderno (modern) or estilo ingles 

 (English style). 



Although a few of the buildings are of 2 stories 

 (33 buildings including 2 hotels and the municipal 

 building), the great majority (692) are of but 1 

 story. However, this represents quite an advance 

 over 1884 when there were but 4 buildings in 

 Quiroga with 2 stories. Twelve of these larger 

 buildings are in cuartel I and the remainder are 

 fairly evenly distributed tlirough the rest of the 

 cuarteles, but the actual concentration is in the 9 

 central manzanas. Sun-dried adobe bricks are 

 the basic material of the house walls in aU but 37 

 buildings (675 of adobes, 7 of adobe and stone, 

 5 of adobe and brick, 1 of adobe and straw, 1 of 

 wood, and 36 of brick). The one wooden building 

 is a modern plank shanty to house a highway 

 employee on the margin of town. There are no 

 Sierra Tarascan type wooden trojes except 3 or 4 

 small structures in back yards used as granaries. 

 Practically all of the brick structures are along 

 Benito Juarez and Zaragoza, and most of them 

 are on the south side of these streets and represent 

 the structures erected by the Govermnent in 

 recompense for the buildings destroyed in widening 

 these streets for the highway. Adobe houses are 

 popular because of then' cheapness, durability, and 

 good insulation qualities. Most of the houses are 

 built of adobes made from the soil in the same 

 solar in which each house was erected. This soil 

 has about the proper proportions of clay and sand, 

 and all that is necessary to add is some chopped 

 straw or dried equine manxu-e, and water. After 

 proper mixing the adobe mud is shaped by packing 

 into a wooden frame, then the adobes are dried 

 in the sun for several weeks, alter which they are 

 stacked and allowed to season for a variable 

 period of time. A shallow trench is dug where the 

 walls are to be erected, and in this trench is built 

 a masom-y foundation which commonly extends 

 about 6 inches above the ground level so as to 

 keep the surface waters of the rainy season from 

 contact with the adobe wall. Upon this founda- 

 tion the adobe bricks are laid in staggered courses 



