Week No. 5 of 16

Pader, Ellen J. 1993. Spatiality and Social Change: Domestic Space Use in Mexico and the United States.

Summary and Reflection: This article does a great job of highlighting the influence that the home space has over behaviors and in subtly modifying both behaviors and values. Indeed, one of the core differences between Anglo-Saxon Americans and Mexican Americans (I use American to denote people from the North or South American land masses, not citizenship of the United States), is the distinction between familism (collectivism) and individualism. Pader does a decent job explaining the two concepts, but she does a great job of providing examples of how home structure and socio-spatiality affect (supporting or suppressing) both ideals. To describe familism, she offers examples of semi- and non-private toilet areas, shared bedrooms and beds, and front patios that open to the street and where typical "back area" activities like washing, mending, and cooking take place. Contrasting with individualism, Anglo-Americans place moral and resale value on multiple bedrooms and multiple bathrooms with interior privacy locks, segregated "back areas" for laundering and cooking (away from guests' eyes), and formal spaces for receiving visitors. Overall, square footage found in Angl0-American housing in the United States was lower than the homes Pader studied in Mexico. The principle areas that were lacking in the U.S. were the outdoor (but enclosed) patio area and the indoor zaguán—two spaces that are defined by behaviors related to sharing, family togetherness, openness, and communication. As such, the patio and the zaguán may be interpreted as the most powerful Mexican architectural symbols of residential familism, and thus, the two spaces most at odds with United States' Anglo-Saxon values that promote individualism.

Based on these observations and research, Pader makes her main claim that because of the social and behavior-modifying powers of architectural spaces, and of the home space in particular, socio-spatial elements of a dominant culture can have the impact of colonization over another culture. When Mexican migrants come to live in the United States and they encounter housing that lacks the traditional patio and zaguán, their familial behavior patterns must necessarily change. However, Pader also covers in her research, the way that change progresses over time (in 2nd and 3rd generation Mexican families having settled in the United States), showing how preferences also change to reflect the dominant architectural aesthetic (and value system). She further elaborates on the effects of migration over values by discussing the preferences of Mexican migrants who have spent time in the United States, but later returned to Mexico. Aided by their financial gains in the North, they express both prosperity and modified values by adding onto their homes or building new ones that incorporate at least some aspects of Anglo-American housing.

Obviously Pader's article is a helpful resource to support arguments for culturally sensitive housing, particularly for the way in which she calls out the architectural colonization of subordinate cultures by the mainstream. Doing so has always seemed a bit contentious to me--the world colonize being a powerful one in my opinion, and the nature of voluntary migration seeming to fly in the face of the term---but words aside (although words are everything), it is clear by Pader's argument that spatiality not only influences behavior, when options are restricted, it can actually define behavior.

Our class discussion on the article was rather short, but touched on many parts of the article. The main idea that came out was the idea that while Pader elaborates well on spatialiaty as a concern of architecture and a way in which architecture mediates cultural practice/behaviors, and in turn, values, she does not elaborate on the programmatic concerns associated therein. It was then that we heard the presentation of the culturally sensitive design research that Dr. Hadjiyanni does, as the link between theory and practice in not only highlighting ways in which architecture affects and is affected by inhabitants, but taking it a step further to show how designers can enhance the ability of inhabitants to mediate, increasing their options and decreasing their associated stress.

Questions: Pader spent a lot of time looking at ways in which the traditional Jaliscan house was defined, as well as how returning Mexican sojourners from the U.S. were influenced by the architecture found north of the border. The work done in the culturally sensitive housing study is very much the other side of the story; how sojourners and immigrants are influencing housing while IN the United States. I would be interested to compare that process between Mexicans who plan to settle permanently (immigrants) versus those who plan to return to Mexico. I would anticipate that settling immigrants would be more interested in incorporating an American aesthetic more quickly and more comprehensively--even as they maintain ties to their Mexican roots. Conversely, I imagine that sojourners will be less invested overall, and less concerned with modification, thus "tolerating" conditions that they find uncomfortable since there is an attitude of temporariness.