Home Life in Puerto Rico, c. 1910
"In San Juan few of the houses are detached. The front walls come out flush with the sidewalk and form a continuous wall from street to street..."
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Down in Porto Rico by George Milton Fowles, 1910.
In San Juan few of the houses are detached. The front walls come out flush with the sidewalk and form a continuous wall from street to street. On the second floor a narrow balcony is built out over the sidewalk, which is rarely ever more than four feet wide. On the first floor the lower part of the windows, which extend to the floor, have an iron railing to protect the parlor from the street. The whole room, however, is exposed to the gaze of the passers-by when the shutters are open, which is of necessity most of the time, to admit light and air.
The higher class people occupy the second floors, and in some cases, they are found on the first floor, but this is not the rule. Entering one of these homes, we find that the material used for flooring is usually tiling for the parlor, dining-room and kitchen, wood for the bedrooms, and cement or tiling for the halls.
The parlor is the chief room of the house. This is used quite generally as the living-room of the family, and most of the furniture of the house is found here. Portieres commonly hang before each door and window of the parlor. There seems to be a uniform mode of arrangement of parlor furniture in all these homes. A center table with a marble top is found in the middle of the room. On either side of this table, and facing it, are several large armchairs and rocking chairs. Close against the four sides of the room, the small chairs and the sofa are placed. All these have cane backs and bottoms.
The furniture is either carved mahogany, which has been brought from Spain, or a style of bent wood painted black, which has been imported from Austria, or the cheaper woods which are also painted black, this being the popular color for furniture. Sometimes there are comer pieces, and also large mirrors in finely wrought frames, or little carved tables with marble tops made to set against the wall. The whole arrangement is in lines running parallel or at right angles to each other. The large number of chairs, and the stiff conventional manner of arranging them, are the most striking features of a Porto Rican parlor.
The ample dining-room contains the table, the chairs, and a large sideboard to hold the numerous dishes used at dinner time. The different meals are about the same as on the continent of Europe. Bread and coffee in the morning, meat breakfast between eleven and twelve, and dinner about six or seven in the evening. Dinner is the one full meal of the day. It has quite an elaborate menu which is served in courses. Soup, fritters, two or three kinds of meat, rice, red beans, salads, dessert, fruit, coffee and wine is an average dinner. There is no fixed order in the serving of the courses so that one is not sure what article of food comes next. Most of the food is quite greasy and is strongly flavored with onions and garlic. There is a marked sameness in the bill of fare week after week. The food seems to be wholesome and indigestion is not a common complaint.
At the close of the meal, the male members of the family light their cigarettes or cigars, while all remain around the table and join in conversation. The use of tobacco, which is quite general among the poorer classes of women, is not indulged in to any great extent by those of the better classes.
Passing from the dining-room to the bedrooms, we find in each of them a high iron bedstead with a mosquito netting across the top. This is tucked up through the day and let down at night. The coverings of the bed are the sheets and a counterpane. The sleeper rests either upon a canvas stretched across the bedstead, or upon a wire mattress with a covering not sufficiently thick to prevent the wires from leaving an impression upon the body. Carpets are practically unknown in Porto Rico, but a small rug usually lies in front of the bed. There is a mahogany wardrobe, which takes the place of closets, which are not used here, and a dresser, which adds much to the appearance and comfort of the room. There is also a small table upon which rests some religious emblem, as the image of the Virgin Mary or the crucifix. The only means of ventilation in these rooms is the door, and this is frequently kept closed during the night for the Porto Rican is afraid of a draught, and especially so of the night air.
In the kitchen, the most interesting feature is the great tile construction which extends across the side of the room and is used for cooking purposes. It is about three feet high, and two or three feet wide. In the top of it are a number of square holes into which gratings tit to hold the charcoal used in cooking. The number of these holes makes it possible for the cook to prepare several dishes at the same time. Extending over the entire range, in the form of an inverted funnel divided perpendicularly, is the large flue or chimney to conduct the heat of the fire and the odors from the cooking food to the air above.
The bath and toilet rooms are modern innovations that have come with the water works and sewers. The use of them is still comparatively limited, and there is much room for improvement in this direction. The old bath tubs were made after the Roman style. Huge vessels built of brick, cemented inside and covered with tile on the outside, or in some cases they were hewn out of marble. The modem porcelain tub is the one now being installed.
The homes of the well-to-do classes in the small towns and in the country are similar to the one just described, in their furnishings and the arrangement of them. They differ largely, however, in the construction and general appearance of the houses. Some are built of brick and cemented outside and inside, but more are wooden structures with light board partitions between the rooms, and all the walls painted. In the case of the brick buildings, the more important partitions are built of brick, and the others are of plaster. All of these partitions are given a lime "wash. Wall paper is little used.
The houses are one or two stories high, a balcony in front which is sometimes built around the side, large window openings extending to the floor and closed by double shutters. There are no glass windows. Sometimes a pane of glass is found built in the roof, or placed at the top of a shutter, or over a door, but such cases are rare.
Where there is room, the yard in front of the house is divided into flower beds in which grow large tropical bushes which either by their variegated foliage or the abundance of their flowers, give a most pleasing effect to the appearance of the home.
While there are quite a number of these houses scattered throughout the Island, they are remarkably few for so large a population. Perhaps the principal reason why there are so few elegant residences is the fact that most of the wealth has always been in the hands of the Spaniards, and they have regarded Porto Rico as a place to make money and afterward to spend it in Spain. The few Porto Ricans who became wealthy also thought of Spain or France as a place to seek pleasure rather than to spend their money in beautifying their homes on the Island. Thus the money secured here has been spent largely in Europe, while Porto Rico has been regarded as a place for temporary residence.
Fowles, George Milton. Down in Porto Rico. Jennings & Graham, 1910.
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