Off to La Casa Roja... the Red House.. with Spencer MacCallum. What a treat it was to see La Casa Roja, another old adobe home that the MacCallums have deidcated themselves to restoring and preserving in Casas Grandes, Mexico.
What a truly beautiful home this is! Such a wonderful sense of the true history of the area. Spenser knows so much of the history of this part of the world, and it was fun to learn from him. The home is actually quite large, and furnished with local antiques... a true wood burning stove that is typical for the homes here, some beautiful examples of Mata Ortiz Pottery on an antiwque mantelpiece, and an antique iron bed with a delightful hand made quilt.
There was something of interest in every direction, including looking upwards...
This is a picture of the wood ceilings that are used in the traditional adobe homes. Spencer explained to us how they use the wood beams as the foundation of the roof, and then cover the beams on the top with dirt. In the olden days, it would be necessary to change out the beams periodically, as the weight of the dirt was amplified with the rain, and then the beams would start to sag with the weight being supported. Nowadays, people still use this method, but then top the roof with aluminum or some other form of covering, to solve this problem. Much easier than changing your wooden roofing every couple of years!
We also found the interior doorways to be interesting... traditionally the doorways are quite low.. perhaps we are getting taller and taller as the years go on, but these doorways are especially low! But they also add a certain charm to the house. The walls are also adobe on the inside of the house..quite thick. The adobe walls serve as a great source of natural insulation, and a barrier to outside noise. Not like the paper thin drywall of today's modern construction.
Outside in the back yard we stumbled upon a chicken..quite friendly and active
Also in the backyard of the house, it was very interesting to hear about how Spencer and Emi had purchased a trailer to haul their belongings down across the border when they decided to relocate their home to Casas Grandes. The trailer is now in the back yard, but they have surrounded it with adobe bricks just like the buildings and fences of the area. they still use it for storage, but it blends in perfectly with the surroundings! What a great idea! 
Now it was on to the next house..and the most exciting one of all... La Casa Azul... the Blue House, and the house that I had read about and was dying to see!
La Casa Azul is another of the adobe homes that was purchased by the MacCallums, and then restored. (it is actually for sale currently, and I will forever be jealous of anyone who purchases this beautiful home!! The price has been reduced due to the realities of our economic times, and is a steal at $40,000 US. Contact Spencer and Emi for more information at SM@look.net ) This home is actually used to house artists who are participating in the Artist in Residence Program. In this program, artists stay at La Casa Azul, and decorate it to suite their individual taste and needs. The artists work on the craft while in Casas Grandes, teach interested locals and students their art form, and then have an exhibition of their work shown at the local museum. What a marvelous cultural exchange program that benefits both the artist, and the local community! The current artists in residence is a Fantastic photographer from Flagstaff, Arizona by the name of Rachel Running. We were overwhelmed by the beauty and authenticity of both her photography and her subjects. You can see her work on her website http://raechelrunning.com Rachel's father is also a very talented photographer who has taken some absolutely stunning photographs of the Tarahumara Indians of Northern Mexico. Some of these photos were on display at our home away from home, La Casa del Nopal, while we saw more of his work from Rachel's own collection inside of La Casa Azul.
La Casa Azul was decorated perfectly in our opinion... a sense of life, color and artistry in every niche. It was truly awe inspiring on its own, and it was hard for us to resist taking and posting pictures of her work. Out of respect, I'll leave you to look at her website, but share only a few of the beautiful interior of the home... impossible to capture with my limited photographic talents however.
Then Spencer showed us the part of the house that I was most excited to see... the hidden room!
The entrance to the partially subterranean room was hidden under a carpet. Once the carpet was folded back, a latch was revealed.. a latch the held the key to accessing this wonderful piece of history. Once the door was raised, we were able to carefully descend the stairway into the room. Wow! Once here, Spencer told us that this room was originally used to hide the women and children from attacking Apache Indians. The area was once controlled by the Apaches, and fighting between the Indians and the settlers was a common occurrence. We actually learned that the village of Mata Ortiz was named after a captain (or colonel -- my army knowledge is not the best..sorry) who was in charge of the dealings with the Apache Indians in the area. Later, during the Mexican Revolution, the room was used to hide from Pancho Villa and his troops. You can read more about Pancho Villa on this Wikipedia link if you like..it is quite a fascinating time in history in which he lived http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa
Sorry for the slight detour... back to the hidden room, the hidden gem of this historical house...
Being down in this room, one could really get the sense of the fear and danger that anyone hiding in this room would have felt. The ceiling of the room is the floor boards of the house. Looking up, you can see through the spaces in the boards, and see part of the activity going on above. The noise alone, of people walking above you, knowing what their intentions must have been... that whole sensation was quite disturbing, even now in the safety of our times. But back in these times in history, the fear would have been quite present and quite overwhelming. You hear stories of mothers smothering their babies, just to keep them quiet and the rest of the family safe from discovery... the fear must have been all consuming!
Spencer told us that there used to be four homes in Casas Grandes with this type of hidden room, but all were done away with in renovations. This is the only surviving room of it's kind in Casas Grandes! What a incredible sense of history that this room, and this house provide... a true glimpse into our past. A history like this must be conserved, and a home like this should also be preserved. If we cannot see our past, and learn from our mistakes as a collective human race... what future are we doomed to, and what mistakes will we be prone to repeat? A question that perhaps is worth asking ourselves, as even today we race to modernize and obliterate our pasts... again I digress, sorry...
Thanks to Spencer for a wonderful morning, an inspiring tour, and an education that will last a lifetime!
We returned to Casa del Nopal, and took our leave of Spencer and Emi and went on to the museum to see the artwork of Adalberto Perez Meillon... and kind spirit, an ambassador of Mexican culture and tradition, and an incredibly talented artist!
Adalberto's artwork is just beautiful! The use of the natural and traditional Amate paper (an organic paper made from boiling the inner bark of a tree, that can be traced back to pre-Colombian times), combined with the designs native to the Mata Ortiz/Casas Grandes/Paquime region... combine to create an esthetically pleasing and fresh art form, that ties itself to the roots and culture of its past. While the use of amate paper as the base for paintings is nothing new in the traditions of Mexican Folk Art, Adalberto's interpretation actually elevates this form of folk art to a true level of fine art. The designs and colors used in his art, appear to jump off of the pottery of Mata Ortiz. To me, this art form is a natural evolution and compliment to the pottery of the region. As mentioned previously, Adalberto owns a gallery in Ensenada, Mexico where he sells Mata Ortiz Pottery. If you are in the area, please make sure to stop in and say hello...he has some fantastic examples of Mata Ortiz Pottery in his gallery... and please also be sure to see some examples of his own beautiful art! Visit his website at: http://www.potterymasters.com/index.html
After leaving the museum we were on to MATA ORTIZ.... time for some pottery purchases!!!
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