Hills of dry pine forests surround the town of El Tuito, about 90 minutes south of Puerto Vallarta. As you enter this small rural community, you will first notice the colorful adobe buildings in earthy colors of burnt orange, ivory, and brown created from a wash made of the local clays.
The clay here has a unique quality that is ideal for making bricks. Potters come from near and far to dig their own clay, which they claim is some of the best in this part of Mexico.
Clay, a simple and readily available material, was used for mud bricks found in many places around the world, some dating from 7000 BC. These were handmade from local mud, shaped into bricks, and sun-dried in the open air.
Firing the mud bricks in a kiln came later. Fired bricks have been excavated in China that date back to 4000-3000 BC. In Mexico, the Aztecs made and used handmade, sun-dried adobe bricks in the 15th century. They used these bricks to build many of the Aztec pyramids still standing today.
I have come to know the El Tuito family, which has been making adobe bricks for three generations. Their brickyard is up a dirt road just outside of El Tuito. Here, you will find them almost any day of the week, hand mixing and forming mud bricks, sometimes hundreds in a day. The clay in this area is red in color due to the iron it contains. After firing, it oxidizes to a rich reddish brown.
The clay is dug from the side of a large hill on their land using a steam shovel. A makeshift screen removes the large pieces of stone and rocks, resulting in fine dirt. This is then mixed with water and natural organic fibers like straw, manure, agave fibers, or sawdust, available from the local lumber mill.
The fibers act as a binding material to hold the clay together. Once the desired mixture is reached, it’s put into brick-shaped wooden forms so the mud can dry in the sun. This takes 7 to 10 days, depending on the weather.
When dry, the bricks are removed from the forms and placed in the wood-fired kiln, which is sealed off to maintain the internal temperature from 1600° to 2200°F.
Fired bricks are more durable than sun-dried ones. The time required to fire mud bricks depends on the size of the kiln and the load of bricks in it but can range from 8 to 40 hours. After firing, the bricks are left to cool in the kiln for 48 to 72 hours; if they cool too quickly, they may crack and weaken.
In addition to the standard building bricks, this family also makes larger rectangular bricks and half rounds or tejas used for building roofs. Since these bricks are heavy, they need a sloped concrete base to rest on. The design of tejas allows rain to quickly flow off the roof, thus minimizing flooding and leaks into the building.
Today, adobe bricks are a common building material throughout Mexico, giving the landscape and the towns their signature rustic color and style. In addition to being environmentally friendly, they are valued for their durability, thermal properties, aesthetic appeal, and economic price.
