THE PATIO IN MEXICO 
By MRS. J. K. HUDSON 
W HEN one has lived fora time in a house 
with a patio, or uncovered central court, 
he comes to believe that the Moors of Spain 
had some very sensible and pleasing ideas in 
architecture. The scheme of building a 
house around an open 
space and enclosing 
it with a wall that is 
solid and unbroken, 
except for the wide 
front entrance, is of 
course no longer used 
as a defensive meas¬ 
ure, as it was long 
ago and for many 
years both in Spain 
and the Latin-Amer- 
ican countries; but 
what was once a ne¬ 
cessity for protection 
is now a necessity for 
pleasure and comfort 
with Mexican people 
of the better class. 
A Mexican gentle¬ 
man’s home is his 
castle in the strictest 
interpretation of that 
phrase which means 
so much. When he 
has driven through 
his gate, which is also 
his front door, and 
the bar is put up, 
he is as completely 
isolated from the streets as if he were miles 
away. The fountains and the flowers and 
the birds that surround him there are his 
own, and his family make a little world of 
their own. The patio affords fine opportu¬ 
nity for the use of prominent features of 
Moresque architecture—the arch and the ar¬ 
cade and the pillar—and the display of these 
beauty-lines is very pleasing and effective. 
Two or three tiers of corridors, each one dif¬ 
fering in some way from every other one, 
make a picturesque interior that can be sur¬ 
passed by no other style. This slight but 
constant variation of both outline and detail 
give evidence of the inherent artistic taste and 
ability of the Mexican artisan. He appre¬ 
ciates that repetition 
is the first law of 
beauty in architec¬ 
ture, as in music, but 
recognizes that vari¬ 
ation is its twin sister. 
The first or ground- 
level storey, in the 
typical Mexican city 
home, is devoted to 
the horses, carriages 
and servants, so far 
as the covered por¬ 
tion is concerned. 
The centra] area is 
more or less elab¬ 
orately ornamented 
with potted plants, 
vines and fountains. 
Wide stairways lead 
from the patio to the 
parlors and libraries 
and chambers of the 
upper floors,all open¬ 
ing into the corridors 
that surround the pa¬ 
tio on all sides of each 
storey. In the less 
pretentious houses, 
where there are no 
coaches and few servants, the windows of 
the main living-rooms open on the street, 
but they are always protected by iron grat¬ 
ings that give the exclusive, mysterious ap¬ 
pearance that our homes lack. We admire a 
house that looks inviting, and pride ourselves 
upon a hospitable entrance ; we have elimin¬ 
ated our division fences and thrown open 
our parks and private grounds until there is 
no such thing as exclusion left, at least for 
the eye. There are preserves upon which 
JL 
CLOISTERS AT XOCHIMILCO 
41 
