El Parral: Vestiges of modern cuisine in Puebla

Although the architectural style of "El Parral" responded to modern methods (reinforced concrete and load-bearing walls), local materials known in the area, such as Talavera pottery and brick that line and decorate its facade, were used.

The kitchen is always at a strategic point within the apartment, near the dining room and living room, but far enough away from the rooms to create a separation between public and private spaces. In addition, the kitchen is smaller than the living room and dining room, which makes us think they might not have been thought of as only being confined to their dedicated activities.

Stripped of the elements of their daily use and victims of robberies and years of abandonment, subtle clues allow us to understand how those kitchens worked and what elements formed them.

Some furniture still in place gives us an idea of how these spaces looked 85 years ago, modular designs made of metal that responded to a modern and functional kitchen.

There was natural ventilation in each kitchen, windows where natural light came in and enhanced the colorful walls of each interior.

Home-made storage rooms where the pots and pans were hung were inherited from the colonial past and the big kitchens of the manor houses of centuries past.

Modular metal sinks coated with a ceramic finish were modern in their time. Now they lie oxidized and patched through years of continuous use and, recently, through oblivion and dust.

The walls witnessed the tastes, seasons and passing of the years. Moisture and grease stains point to where the sink and stove once were.

Different wall tapestries show the passage of different families through the place, multiple ways of using the space and cooking. Flavors and smells transformed into sticky paper.

Few permanent elements were located in the kitchens. One constant is the concrete base where the heater was located.

Another concrete base linked to the kitchen was located on the patio, one per apartment as well, and was used for gas tank placement. The open space where it was located protected the inhabitants from possible leaks.

The rest, every inhabitant added themselves. Wallpaper traces are examples of the love of the environment, not only of the act of cooking, but of the taste for the activity that was carried out in that space.

The grease attached to the walls, a result of years of use in the kitchen, gives an idea of the location of the stove, and at the same time is witness to constant invasions of pigeons in the building, by acting as a strange glue for feathers that creates a new wallpaper on empty walls.

Remains of furniture and shelves in the dining area, a sample of the taste of the inhabitants.

Again, we see the homemade storage rooms for hanging pots and pans. The legacy of the great colonial kitchens persists.

Stains on the floor indicate where food used to be chopped and grease was splashed.

"Architecture is the incorruptible witness of history, because you can't talk about a large building without recognizing in it the witness of an era, its culture, its society, its intentions …" Octavio Paz, (1914–1998).