In Maria Auxiliadora, Habitat homeowner Gregoria Villasante Castro works with her husband Macedonio and family members to clear boulders from the spot where her oldest son will soon begin a Habitat house of his own.


Before the House, the Land (continued)

Leaving the Pirai River community means merging into the frenetic flow of traffic that fills Santa Cruz’s streets. Wide boulevards divided by tree-shaded medians give way to choked traffic circles and, in the case of the community of 2 de Agosto, an unpaved dirt road. Across a small ditch of water, mostly sewage and runoff from the area, sit dozens of tiny houses fashioned from bits of wood, mud, tarps and pieces of cloth.

Berti Orellana relocated here one year ago, splitting his life in two for nothing more — and nothing less — than the chance to one day own his own home. Orellana moved to this bright and dusty patch of land so that he and his family — a wife and five children left behind in a small community in the Bolivian countryside — could begin the lengthy process of land ownership.

Orellana represents one of the nearly 280 families that have built one-room shacks in 2 de Agosto. Unlike the residents of the Pirai community, the Agosto families are not squatting in the usual sense of the word, although they, too, live on land that they do not own. In some communities, one way to receive legal title to a plot of available land is to establish residency. Applicants for ownership must have lived on the land they desire for five years.

Orellana saved money to buy random pieces of pressboard and wood that he has patchworked together as best he can. He sleeps and cooks in one room, toting buckets of water from the adjoining neighborhood. Once Orellana has proved his residency and received documentation, he hopes to work with Habitat Santa Cruz. In the meantime, staffers like Bolivar regularly visit.

Orellana’s wife and children stayed behind in the country to tend the family’s crops of rice and yuca, a starchy tuber that is a staple of Bolivian diet. The former farmer sees his family maybe once a month, making the five-hour bus ride home when he can, he says.

The sun beats down; a large lizard scuttles in the dust outside Orellana’s back door. The farmer knows he is planting seeds for a future harvest. “I’m doing a sacrifice, but I have to do this,” he says. “I want a better life for me and for my children.”

On the outskirts of Santa Cruz, Habitat partner families gather on the steps of the La Guardia city hall. Eager to show visitors the location where they will build their houses, the men and women climb into the back of a truck, laughing together like the old friends they are becoming.

Habitat is helping these 45 families buy land in La Guardia, extending two- or four-year loans, credits that cover the cost of a plot of land and the necessary paperwork to prove ownership. Once these families have paid 70 percent of the land loan, they will be eligible to begin constructing their Habitat houses. The families regularly gather to clear the land they are purchasing in preparation for the creation of their neighborhood.

Future homeowner Martin Mario Munoz watches his future neighbors wield machetes and knives, taming the tangled brush. The group has divvied up community-planning responsibilities, he explains; Munoz works with city officials on plans for the development’s future streets. He and his family have had to routinely move, almost once a year, he says. They currently live in one room, a hole in the roof allowing in rain and mosquitoes that affect the health of his two children. The construction worker has long dreamed of his own house, thinking of it often as he helped construct other people’s homes. “I’m expecting that once we have the land,” he says, “we will have the house. Because I am a builder.”