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Building ...One Block At A Time
Do you ever wonder how the world survived without big business and union
workers? Well, we’ve learned that here in Mexico the big business and union
workers haven’t taken hold, and millions of skilled workers build homes and
businesses every day...brick by brick...with hand-mixed cement, buckets of water
and brawn.
Each day the workers across the street from our home show up at around 8 a.m.,
armed with only muscle, flip-flop shoes, and sometimes shirts on their backs and
caps on their heads. They arrive to
work on bicycles, buses, by car, or on foot. Occasionally we will see a worker
carrying a pickaxe, a small sledgehammer and a cold chisel in a bag too. We see
this in every neighborhood, whether it be commercial space, office buildings or
homes, and the work is far from shoddy or amateurish.
The 5 workers across the street from our home don’t quit until 5 p.m. or later,
taking only 30 minutes or so to eat a light lunch on the premises. These same
workers do the excavation, plumbing, electricity, walls and floors, and will do
the painting, too, when it is finished, as well as clean up all the debris. They
told us it will take 5 months to complete the addition to the house, because it
is being transformed to almost double its size. They have added a garage with
electronic door, a front patio, a back patio with built-in bar and outdoor
kitchen, a laundry room, and a service room with bath. The "service" room I
refer to is a bedroom/private space for a live-in housekeeper or nanny.
When
building these structures, they build ramps, scaffolds and ladders from planks,
boards and rocks. They mix cement by hand in the street, and place it in 5
gallon buckets, then transport it up to whomever is working with it at the time.
The total structure is cement and cement block. Wood is scarce, and wood is
expensive here. You will not find houses built with wooden frames, shingle roofs
or siding. You will see homes made entirely of concrete and stucco. They know it
is cooler, and also hurricane-proof. The supports for a second floor or roof are
thin trees, shorn of leaves and branches, almost like bamboo. They will also use
an occasional piece of scrap lumber or concrete block to be that support.
Remember, all the overhangs and ceilings are made of concrete, so these little
sticks hold up tons of weight!
The large commercial builders usually send pickup trucks or buses to pick up
workers from the city and surrounding villages to bring them to the sites day
after day and take them home when the day is done. They also provide shaded
tables so the workers can take their breaks for lunch and stay on the premises.
We have been pleased and amazed to see the structures that start out as concrete
blocks and cement, rebar and sticks....structures that turn out to be beautiful
buildings with hand-formed ornamentation created by plaster artisans who were
taught their skills from their fathers and grandfathers. There are many arts
here that have been lost to the rest of the world...it's nice to see them again!
