When I was younger (about 10 years old) and I saw street scene pictures of older buildings in places like Europe, I used wonder why the structures weren’t better maintained. I couldn’t understand why the paint was allowed to flake off or why the rendering over the brickwork wasn’t repaired. I used to think, “Oh they must be too poor”.

When I got a little older (mid teens) I remember thinking to myself that Europe was still recovering from WWII and that perhaps the economies still hadn’t recovered enough for people to fix up their houses. Now that I’m older I find that I like the interesting textures and colours that are formed as a building starts to weather and show it’s age. I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes the patina of age on buildings as there is now an industry that is based on reproducing faux surfaces so that the new can be imbued with a bit more character.

I’ve notice that in first world countries like the US or here in Australia that many people like to surround themselves with earthier textures. Things like coarse hand-woven cloth, terracotta tiles and lime washed or distressed wood. I guess it’s a reaction to the smoother more linear surfaces that one sees in newer cities.

As Sir Osbert Lancaster (1908-1986) once said

“All over the country the latest and most scientific methods of mass-production are being utilised to turn out a stream of old oak beams, leaded window-panes and small discs of bottle glass, all structural devices which our ancestors lost no time in abandoning as soon as an increase in wealth and knowledge enabled them to do so.”

Conversely, I’ve noticed that in places like Morocco or Mexico that the locals are sick to death of hand made objects and want things that are more refined.  A sure way to let a Moroccan merchant know that you are a clueless clown that can be separated from their money easily is to wear anything that smacks of ”home spun”, hand-woven”, “natural dyes” or the like. If one looks at the average Moroccan in the rural areas, one will notice that even the poorest people wear clothing made from finely woven materials. No self respecting Moroccan would be caught dead in what they would feel was coarse badly made clothing. The corollary is that if you wear coarser clothing you must be very poor or stupid.  Since, from a Moroccan perspective, foreigners are rich, any foreigner wearing coarsely woven material must be stupid and doesn’t know what quality is and therefore can be sold any old piece of crap.

I remember once back in the early 80s, when I was first in Mexico, I was standing in line to see a movie. I was just dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and I noticed that all the locals were dressed up in their finest clothing. Obviously going to the movies was a much bigger deal to them than me. It occurred to me that the locals were still trying to reach some kind of “escape velocity” from poverty so they could live the life they saw in movies or on TV. Where as many people in the more developed world are seeking an escape from the “plasticness” of their lives by surrounding themselves with more “natural” textures.

So what’s all this got to do with the picture above?

If you look at the light fitting on your right you will notice that there is a line of lighter coloured material that goes straight down from the base of the obviously new (faux) coach light where the wiring has been put in. This begs the question, why not repair the cement rendering over the exposed brick while you’re covering over the wiring for the light with cement? It would’ve been a small thing to do and it’s not like the cement or the local labour for that matter, are very expensive (in comparison to the light).

I suspect the reason why the brickwork was left uncovered is because San Christobal de las Casas makes a fair bit of it’s income from tourists who come to see the quaint old houses with their “picturesque decay” and the locals with their “hand made and woven” clothes.