Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-07-18
iMEX|CAN Poems
| ARE. COMMENTED
! :. IN ADOBE HUTS
Thousands Live Along the
I Highway That Runs With
: the Rio Grande in Texas
and New Mexico.
RH The Associated Press. }

Ell Paso, Tex, July IT. On the
highway that runs along the Rio
Grande for miles in Texas and New
Mexico are persons who see fine
automobiles every day pass them
by the hundreds; in the clear blue
sky above they often see airplanes
soaring like big birds, and they
know that not far away are big
buildings, expensive homes and all
the Injuries of a city, yet they
these people in their adobe huts
on both sides of the river-are
-contented. Life to them with
their many children scantily at
tired, with their several hairless
dogs, skinny goats and game chick
ems, is sufficient.
SeUp and down the Rio Grande,
on. the Texas, New Mexico and
Mexico sides, are hundreds Of
small houses made Of native soil
and straw covered, partly at least
With brush wood and weeds and
dirt, in which dwell Mexican fam
lilies.
Along the highway one can see
many of these adobe houses made
of 'dobe mud and straw baked in
the sun and dried brushwood
which has been cut from along the
river bank or dragged out of the
slow current of the stream. They
have stood the weather, with its
rains and windstorms for years and
have sheltered a contented, not
to say uncouth and ignorant class
of MeXicans-peons.
Houses Usually One Room.
mi 1.
room. If there is more than one
room it usually is more of lot
or pen than room and generally
+. is made of dead wood and brush
piled up to make a sort of fence,
square in appearance and proba-
bly, without covering.
The family lives in the room
with the walls made of adobe and
the goats and chickens live in the
-adjoining pen.
= On the walls outside and within,
Sand on the roof hang large bunch
res of red peppers-chili, they call
lit. These peppers are used in pre-
%paring most all of the food the
Mexican peon eats.
Z The yard, or the space in front
-of the house, is kept clean. Women
-clean and sweep it with a limb of
"a tree to which is tied broom
-weeds.
: Inside the one room house, 1t is
ras neat as care can make it. The
floor is dirt, but it is kept as clean
.as a hard surfaced ground floor
-could be kept. There is little fur
niture. There is no stove, save In
very few of these sort of places
and there usually are no chairs. In
-some huts, however, there are
-broken rockers, or a handmade
straight chair. The family sits on
-mats, The meals are prepared on
IAN open fire-outside in summer,
.inside in the winter.
: The beds are against the walls,
zlying on the rioor, and are made
-of straw, hay, small brush wood
-and covered with heavy canvas, a
clark blanket or a skin.
: Few Cooking Utensils.
: The dishes and cooking utensils
zare stacked in one corner. If there
rbe dishes, they also are very scarce
@and are thick, dark chinaware.
Cooking utensils consist of gallon
rucket to MAKE coffee in, or an
old fashioned coffee pot, a big
iron pot to cook beans in, an earth
en- pot and a bowl or two.
- The food is simple, too. For
breakfast these poems eat tortillas
and drink coffee. Tortillas are UNI
leaven bread, made of corn flour,
salt and water. They make the
flour themselves, by pouring corn
IN a heavy earthen or solid rock
bowl and grinding and pounding it
with round shaped rock FOUNDER
.Often the corn is grown in crooked
rows not far from the river banks.
The other two meals consist prl-
snnarily of frijoles, or brown beans,
,and tortillas. The American often
orders "chili'' and is brought a
mixture of bean soup and chopped
.fneat strongly Favored with pepper.
TO the Mexican chilli is nothing but
pepper. He mas TWO kinds of chilli
.-green and red, the former not
very hot, the latter burning hot.
He eats lots of both. If he wants
what the American calls chilli, he
.inakes chilli con carne, pepper with
,meat," and it never contains beans,
but lots of red pepper and chunks
of meat
- Seldom Has Meat.
=. The Mexican likes meat, but the
.peon has it seldom. Rice also is a
luxury with the people in the adobe
nuts and so are tamales and enchl-
.ladas Tamales are ground meat, |
dorm meal and hot pepper, cooked |
together and wrapped in a corn |
.husk. Usually they are as big
around as a mans arm, whereas
the Americans tamale is not much |
larger than a persons finger. An
other holiday food is the enchilada,
thade by frying a tertilla and
Chopping up onions and cheese and
pouring hot red chilli sauce over it.
= Eggs are another holiday dish
and usually there are three or four
hens and a game rooster which
compose a highly priced flock of
these families.
: Coffee is black and the poems
seldom use cream or sugar in it.
However, the goat is ever at hand
and If cream is desired, goat milk
lis a fair substitute to them. Goats,
seem to be kept more
for customs sake or as companions
to the chickens, dogs and children,
than for their milk.
- Families Live Cheaply.
1t doesn't take much for these
families to live. nor does it take
much labor to provide it. The land