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Back to the subject of building my house. I have been thinking of how wonderful it is to build whatever one wants, no limitations. It´s that kind of neighborhood here, no rules, just as long as you stay within your boundaries. One can build a tarpaper shack or one can build a mansion. It is your own business and no one judges. Here on the streets of my village all kinds of houses in all stages can be found. Rich and poor, one after the other. One stays in their neighborhood as they progress and just builds more. The tarpaper turns to block or wood, the block gets plastered, the wood painted, sometimes in months, sometimes over many many years. Its stages of growth. One of the best parts, the most wonderful, is that it is all paid for as you go. No payments, all yours. Just let your imagination go with what you can get and build whatever you can.
I have outgrown the first house my husband built here. It was always just a temporary one, even if it did last ten years now. Now the next is growing up, and again I think of how fortunate the freedom to build what you can and want is not taken away like it is in America. Americans have to build their houses like they are worried who is going to live in it next. Everything is rules and regulation and threatened fines and shut downs. One must build for the neighborhood. The loss of being able to start small and keep adding is a great one. Having to build it all complete to some idea of perfection make affording it a horrible obligation. Here, one can just live in one room, then add the next, building with what comes up. If you are poor you can receive land here, or for very little buy a piece and then start. The poor always have this chance. To be able to have a home is what is wanted and anyone should have that right to a little land and a little shelter. A country like America leaves to room for the poor, only those who want to make it on a larger scale. But one cannot get rid of the poor by outlawing what they need to do to cope.
I have no idea how long it will take to build my new house, all according to how money and time come in. Since it will be red bricks it will be easy to build slow and in stages, waiting for the right windows to come along. My imagination roams all over when I think of sun shining thru glass, so many possibilities.
11 comments:
Yes, it is amazing the culture shock of distancing from what they call freedom north of the border, the freedom to obey, and find oneself among those who enjoy the freedom to be. I swear I know those three boys in that picture one post down. I certainly know the houses there. They are so typical. New to the area gringos wonder "Why do they (always a 'they' in their wondering) build right on top of each other?" You can travel the road between Saltillo and Zacatecas. The area would be a national park in the US. It is right out of old cowboy movies. There. a village might be made of abodes a kilometer or two apart, some mansions, others one room adobe block, some an old bus or box car, maybe even a tarpoleon spread between poles. But in a town, the houses butt wall to wall. Suppose originally they were a distance apart. Land unused is free whether it be for cattle grazing or a home. Soon someone might put a roof between two suitably spaced along with a back and front wall. And, so is built a pueblo. Some grow to cities but with the same design. In the lands of fear, loathing, and rules to the north, it is important to have a nice front yard so passers by and neighbors can falsly or otherwise assess the level of one's financial sustanance. Note there are no front yards in your post's graphic and the walls bear different colors of paint used when some was available. Not important judgement of those who could care less about your level of wealth. But go inside and out through a back door to the enclosed yard. Ah, there is to be found something the visiting gringos never see, riches of the heart. But then, they don't seem to know about those. And that is their, and thus our, problem.
Yaba, you often contrast rural life to urban, and here I could even agree: many seem to prefer lately the former, or live in cities exactly because they can';t afford more. However, that is a worldwide problem.
The other is urbanism you mention: the freedom to do what one wishes also implies abuse of freedom, just the way freedom of speech - admirable thing in itself, something worth to die for - manifests itself so often in abusing it. Here you are free to build whatever you wish, wherever you wish, , the way you wish to: that resulted in the chopping down of the woods, barren streets, ugly buildings and unbearable noise, to the extent many cannot keep the windows open. Gardens and trees, floral arrangements - once the pride of this city - are gone. There is such a thing as healthy laws in healthy societies.
On the other hand you are right:I am also for a slower rythm, and less ready made things. Here most buildings - except the medieval ones of stone - are of brick. Let's hope we can admire a nice pic of your new home soon.
Pocho, the waste of those uselss green lawns in front of almost all American homes. It says I have land and water to waste, and not the good sense to do something better with it. What the front of ones house looks like here is not the point to speak of your wealth. They don´t even fence their front yards to make them safe for the children.
Mullet, it is good, it is freedom.
Redwine, you are right, freedoms often lead to abuse because the individual cannot limit himself to what is fair. These are the type that make laws come about. But as you say healthy laws, they can keep the people in balance. Your city sounds sad. Always here people have a place for beauty and altogether it covers up a lot of faults.
I am not so sure how fast my home will grow, time will tell. But I will post some pictures of progress.
I agree with redwine about the balance between individual freedom and the public trust.We are fighting an initiative here that would take away the peoples right to regulate development.They would be allowed to destroy the watershed ,landscape and wildlife habitat(and yes,aesthetic values) we the people have created regulations to protect.I would not want someone developing a race track or gravel pit next to my small but beautiful house.Do you see how my rights would be infringed upon? ps.thanks for visiting my blog
Excellent post. The poor will always reconcentrate unless given this kind of opportunity. Every moment the poor should be given a chance to move to opportunity, unlike the chance given the poor in Africa. Hope to see the pics soon. Warm greetings from the flying monkeys.
I would like to make a general comment in what you had to say about the american way of house building in your post.
While I agree that it is a waste of space, not to mention let the passerby know one's financial position, I disagree that we ought to comment upon it, unless it points to something harmful. If a man has purchased some land, it is none of our business to judge what he does with it. Whether he decides to make a forest of greenery or concrete of it, well, let's leave it to him. Moreover, such problems are present everywhere, even here in my nation.
It is important to bear in mind not to spill forth one's anger of the United States to just about any and every issue. I hate america for what she does to other nations; what she does to herself, if it can be contained within her borders, is none of my headache. I guess is how it should be.
Flying Monkeys, It seems for some of the poor, there are no chances and this is very sad.
Atanu, Waste is always harmful, and the mentality behind it threatening. To reserve ones anger for America just to what they do to others leaves so much of what is wrong with their country out. It is as a whole that America is its most damaging. And nothing America does is contained within its borders, it is advertised to the world that it is the dream come true. One should look closely at the American behavior and judge it for what it is worth.
If you are correct that nothing America does is contained within it's borders, then I agree with you. We ought to look at america as a whole, even to things her people do within, if those things are not contained within her.
The contrast of the entire population of Amsterdam being contained in an area the size of one of Austin's larger neighborhoods testifies to their hard earned (dredged out of the Zider Zee) land being so much more precious to them than the sprawl of Austin's 30-40 mile diameter for the same amount of people. It seems the more the US has, the less they care.
It is also the architecture and history of a place, and urbanization, Greg, often there is no point of comaprison. That some places manage better than others, that can be one though.
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