jacal - 12/12/03 10:38 PM
"One hundred in the shade kept the vicinity somewhat depeopled. This quarter of the town was a ragged edge; its denizens the bubbling froth of five nations; its architecture tent, jacal, and 'dobe; its distractions the hurdy-gurdy and the informal contribution to the sudden stranger's store of experience. Beyond this dishonourable fringe upon the old town's jowl rose a dense mass of trees, surmounting and filling a little hollow. Through this bickered a small stream that perished down the sheer and disconcerting side of the great canon of the Rio Bravo del Norte."
This is quite a long description, but I didn't see how to
use only part of it.
"
In South Texas, rather than using the choza of Spain as the model for their Texas dwellings, the Spaniards borrowed the jacal structure of Mexico. The word jacal (Spanish for "hut," from Nahuatl xacalli) came to refer to a specific type of rectangular-shaped vernacular dwelling, consisting of four corner poles (horcones) buried in the ground at the bottom and forked at the top to hold the roof vigas. Between these upright corner posts were smaller intermediate posts also buried a few inches in the ground. Horizontal sticks were fastened at intervals to the inside and outside of the upright posts, and these sticks formed a framework that held the wall materials in place. The walls, supported by the horcones and the horizontal sticks, could be made of rubble, rammed earth, stone, mud, or other handy material. Some jacals, like those in present-day Brackettville, had palisade walls of thicker posts. When plastered inside and out with mud or lime mortar, the walls of most jacals were from six to ten inches thick and provided excellent insulation. A gabled roof was supported by a stout ridgepole resting in the forks of two long poles in the center of the narrow side of the house. A steep pitch was required to shed the sometime torrential rains in South, Central, and East Texas. The roof was thatched with grass tied in bundles, palmetto leaves, animal skins, tule, yucca leaves, or similar material tied to a framework of poles supported by the ridgepole and the viga sitting atop the walls. The thatch had to be replaced every three or four years, and some roofs were eventually replaced with handmade shakes and subsequently with galvanized metal. The jacal usually had a door in one gabled end and small windows on one or more sides. It had a floor of packed and hardened dirt or, among those with the means, of a lime, sand, and gravel mixture known as chipichil. When kept in good repair and whitewashed with lime inside and out, the jacal was a comfortable, attractive home that could last for decades. The South Texas jacal was normally from eight to ten feet wide and twenty to twenty-five feet long. It most often had one room, perhaps divided with a hanging cloth. The ridgepole was ten to fifteen feet from the floor. The size was limited by the materials available. The steeply pitched gabled roof made adding rooms impractical. For the poor, the jacal was often a permanent home, but for the more well-to-do it was looked upon as temporary shelter until a better house could be built. Houses of ciar (clay blocks cut from the earth), stone, and adobeqv became permanent residences for the more fortunate. Some of these can still be found in places throughout South Texas-Zapata, Roma, Laredo, Brownsville"
This is quite a long description, but I didn't see how to
use only part of it.
"
In South Texas, rather than using the choza of Spain as the model for their Texas dwellings, the Spaniards borrowed the jacal structure of Mexico. The word jacal (Spanish for "hut," from Nahuatl xacalli) came to refer to a specific type of rectangular-shaped vernacular dwelling, consisting of four corner poles (horcones) buried in the ground at the bottom and forked at the top to hold the roof vigas. Between these upright corner posts were smaller intermediate posts also buried a few inches in the ground. Horizontal sticks were fastened at intervals to the inside and outside of the upright posts, and these sticks formed a framework that held the wall materials in place. The walls, supported by the horcones and the horizontal sticks, could be made of rubble, rammed earth, stone, mud, or other handy material. Some jacals, like those in present-day Brackettville, had palisade walls of thicker posts. When plastered inside and out with mud or lime mortar, the walls of most jacals were from six to ten inches thick and provided excellent insulation. A gabled roof was supported by a stout ridgepole resting in the forks of two long poles in the center of the narrow side of the house. A steep pitch was required to shed the sometime torrential rains in South, Central, and East Texas. The roof was thatched with grass tied in bundles, palmetto leaves, animal skins, tule, yucca leaves, or similar material tied to a framework of poles supported by the ridgepole and the viga sitting atop the walls. The thatch had to be replaced every three or four years, and some roofs were eventually replaced with handmade shakes and subsequently with galvanized metal. The jacal usually had a door in one gabled end and small windows on one or more sides. It had a floor of packed and hardened dirt or, among those with the means, of a lime, sand, and gravel mixture known as chipichil. When kept in good repair and whitewashed with lime inside and out, the jacal was a comfortable, attractive home that could last for decades. The South Texas jacal was normally from eight to ten feet wide and twenty to twenty-five feet long. It most often had one room, perhaps divided with a hanging cloth. The ridgepole was ten to fifteen feet from the floor. The size was limited by the materials available. The steeply pitched gabled roof made adding rooms impractical. For the poor, the jacal was often a permanent home, but for the more well-to-do it was looked upon as temporary shelter until a better house could be built. Houses of ciar (clay blocks cut from the earth), stone, and adobeqv became permanent residences for the more fortunate. Some of these can still be found in places throughout South Texas-Zapata, Roma, Laredo, Brownsville"