Urban Residence by Christien Klaufus

Author:Christien Klaufus [Klaufus, Christien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, Urban, Political Science, Globalization, Architecture, Urban & Land Use Planning
ISBN: 9780857453723
Google: WyTNkqzEhYYC
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2012-04-01T05:21:29+00:00

“Fashionable” and “Ordinary” Houses

As far as the homes of their own neighborhood were concerned, neighborhood residents generally distinguished “ordinary” homes—simple mediaguas and casas made of adobe or stone—from “fashionable” ones. Fashionable homes were associated with technical innovations and the neoliberal world economy. In practice, these turned out once again to be the casas and villas of the nouveau riche and migrant families.

Lorena: There is little difference [between homes in Ciudadela Carlos Crespi], because most homes are adobe and the newer ones—the ones built in the past decade—nearly all concrete or brick. The only ones that are a bit different are the ones behind the school there. Those are pretty fashionable. Apartment buildings are located there as well, next to or across from the sports field. Why is that? It's because those people went abroad and made them far more fashionable and so on. But here, in this sector, are only one or two really fashionable homes, no more. The one owned by doña [Maria Caridad], because her husband went to New York, and changes like that happen slowly, but otherwise…

Her husband: And the one owned by doña [Julia].

Lorena: That one owned by doña [Julia], yes, is basically next-door. That is why I say: yes, there are three or four other homes, no more, because most people own adobe homes, and the newer ones are made of concrete blocks and bricks.

Esteban, who lived on the other side of the neighborhood, also mentioned the migrant homes of Julia and Maria Caridad when we spoke about fashionable homes.

Esteban: Three or four of the homes across from here are copies of homes in the United States. Not in this part: there are only old homes here.

Christien: Do the two parts of the neighborhood differ in this respect?

Esteban: Yes, the difference is that most people across from here have relatives in the United States. So their properties look like they receive more care, and the construction is better. Unlike here, where all homes are about the same from top to bottom. Most are adobe.

Conversely, Maria Caridad, who lived in one of the migrant homes, reported that except for one or two older, traditional homes, the neighborhood was filled with fashionable houses. She explicitly avoided the rich-migrant-wife label and described herself as an “ordinary” resident, even though her home was more comfortable than most of the ones in the neighborhood.

Adobe homes with a tiled roof, of which a few dozen remained in Ciudadela Carlos Crespi (rather than one or two, as Maria Caridad maintained; see Table 10), were regarded by most residents as exemplifying traditional construction. They knew that those homes were built in the early days of the neighborhood, when this area had not yet been incorporated into the city but was still part of the rural community of Sinincay. People told me about the rustic, rural architecture of the homes there. By the early years of this century, nobody in the neighborhood used adobe blocks to build anymore, because such work was physically strenuous and time-consuming.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.