I should have walked across the room to ask our historical architect, Dr Mario Sanchez. He wrote the book A Shared Experience, which Ms Adams cites. He described chipichil to me as "limecrete." The book and its companion teachers guide are online in their entirety at a website maintained by Rice University www.rice.edu/armadillo/Past.
BJH
Barbara J Hickman, Staff Archeologist
Archeological Studies Program
Environmental Affairs Division
Texas Department of Transportation
125 East 11th Street
Austin TX 78701
Telephone: 512.416.2637
Fax: 512.416.2680
>>> On 27 July, 2012 at 4:00 PM, in message <[log in to unmask]>, Lisa Adam <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Another member of the listserv mentioned the query about chipichil to me.
Chipichil, sometimes spelled tipichil is a lime-based concrete with
aggregates of sand or gravel. I’ve also seen a reference to the use of
cotton fibers and goat or cow’s milk as additions.
Tipichil was often used for roofs and floors of structures in our region in
Spanish colonial and early Mexican times. It was particularly valued as
roofing because it was fire-resistant, compared to the thatching used in
smaller jacales. It was also more waterproof. As you probably know, the
lime or cal was often made by burning with mesquite with local limestone or
caliche rock.
Tipichil is mentioned in A Shared Experience: the History, Architecture,
and Historic Designations of the Lower Rio Grande Heritage Corridor,
published by the Texas Historical Commission, and in some other books about
the region, such as De León: a Tejano Family History (Castillo Crimm), Ranch
Life in Hidalgo County after 1850 (RamÃrez), and Early Texas Architecture
(Echols). In our collection, we have two small fragments of this
material—they more or less look like flattish rocks—from a South Texas casa
mayor.
I’ve never heard of a chipichil cross, although I would certainly be
interested in seeing or learning about one.
Best regards,
Lisa Kay Adam
Registrar and Curator of Artifacts
Museum of South Texas History
200 N. Closner Blvd.
Edinburg, TX 78541
Ph: 956.383.6911
Fx: 956.381.8518
www.mosthistory.org
...preserving and presenting the borderland heritage of South Texas and
Northeastern Mexico
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