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<TITLE> Query: cuilote</TITLE>
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<DIV id=idOWAReplyText33242 dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> A colleague of mine in transcribing an interview
he did recently with a<BR>> 100-year-old man in Ozumba. At one point, his
informant states that he "built a<BR>> house of zacate and cuilote." Can
anyone shed light on either the materials or<BR>> the implied method of
construction?<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>Once more I recommend Francisco Santamaria's
<EM>Diccionario de mejicanismos</EM>, which has the following on
<EM>cuilote</EM>:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>Cuilote (?Del mex. <EM>quiyotl</EM> tallo de yerba?
MOL.) m. Vara seca, más o menos guresa, que sirve para formar paredes de chozas,
que luego se embarran, hacer setos, y también zarzos que en climas calientes
sierven de cama.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>Note, Frances Karttunen's Analytical Dictionary has
"cuilO-tl, stick/palo (T)." Molina has "quiyotl, talla de yerva o de verdura,
&c." The latter has got to be the same as quiote, the name for the huge
flowering stem of the maguey, which was used in San Luis Potosi (and probably
elsewhere) for construction, and was the main framing post for jacales back when
people still made them, not too long ago. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>The way jacales were built up in SLP was this: an
A-frame was built of maguey quiotes; a roofing frame of the thinner lechuguilla
quiotes was tied to the sides of the A-frame; and maguey leaves (pencas),
softened in a fire, were woven into the roofing frame like roof tiles. I suppose
if a pueblo had the right kind of grass to use for thatch, they would use
that instead of the pencas de maguey, but the rest of the frame would
probably be the same.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2> </DIV></FONT></DIV>
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