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Emilio Hernández and Bertha Flores have been married for twenty-eight years and have three adult children: Deisy, Ocyel, and Jonathan. Deisy is married, but their two sons still live at home with them in Cofradía.
Emilio works as a day laborer, and Ocyel contributes as well by cutting hair in the community. The little house they live in was built by the government many years ago, but it leaks during the rainy season, and the income that Emilio earns is not enough to afford the much-needed improvements. In addition, Bertha has been diagnosed with uterine cysts which will cause even more expenses for the family. They comment that to have a home with better conditions would be a great blessing as it would provide security and comfort against the rains, as well as in many other aspects of life.
Rolando Parra Rojo and Zoica Oronia Galicia met while working in the fields. They are both very shy, and for many years neither of them could work up the courage to talk to the other. After five years, Rolando worked up the courage to ask Zoica out on a date. They dated for one year and then decided to get married. They have been married for four years and continue to hope and pray the Lord will bless them with a child.
Rolando works in the fields or in construction. Although they not have the expenses that children incur, their savings have not been sufficient to afford the cost of building their own home. Through great sacrifice, they were able to build a shack made of sticks and mud on a plot given to them by Zoica’s mother in Cofradía. Having their own cement-block home would, for them, mean security from the threat of animals in the area and protection from the rain.
UPDATE 12/19/2022: Rolando is not working. He is currently waiting for a surgery on a hernia.
Valentina is 61 years old and a single mother of three kids. She has lived in borrowed houses all her life. She is currently living with her parents. The past few years have been very difficult because there are other siblings sharing the house as well. For that same reason, there is a lot of conflict amongst her siblings. Her fear is that once her parents are no longer alive, her siblings will take over the house and leave her with nothing.
She is the one who takes care of her parents and has been doing so for over 25 years. One of her sons just recently passed away. She had been taking care of him since birth also. This was very hard for her, but in the midst of all the pain of that loss, God has given her peace and hope.
Her second son works and provides for the family. Her daughter, the youngest, is married and started a family with her husband; they live in their own home.
Having her own place would be significant and a great blessing from God. It would help her feel secure and confident without fear of being placed on the streets.
(This interview was done in 2019).
Christ the King Church (Anacortes, WA) built a house for this family in February 2023. Click here for the video.
Eduardo and Zeferina live in Eduardo’s hometown of Cofradia. Zeferina is from the indigenous community of Agua Aceda, one of the first indigenous towns as you make your way up into the mountains from Cofradia. She had come to work in the fields of Cofradia where she met Eduardo. After a time of getting to know each other, she moved in with him.
At the beginning of their lives together, they had to rent a house which was very difficult for them financially because of their low income; they barely had enough to eat. That led to Eduardo’s dad gifting them a piece of property where they made the house you see in the pictures where they live. As you can see, one of the walls is a tarp.
Eduardo is a hard worker, but it has been very difficult to build his own house with the wages he recieves. They have four children. The oldest two are from Zeferina’s former marriage and the younger two are their’s together. The kids’ ages in 2019 when they were interviewed were: 13, 10, 6, and 4.
María Vázquez is a hard working single mother raising her son, Eric, in the nearby town of Santa Fe. When she was younger, María worked in Ruiz where she met Eric’s dad. He moved to the United States, and later María and Eric moved there to be with him. It didn’t work out for them, so María and Eric moved back to Mexico when he was young and stayed with her sister. However, when her sister’s husband returned home, they had to move out. She rented a house for a while, but it was very difficult for her to make the payments with money she earned selling meals. After her mom passed away, she and Eric moved in with her dad. In recent talks with her, she revealed she is worried that if her dad passes away, her older siblings who she does not get along with will ask her to leave. For her, having a home would mean happiness, peace and the security of having a place of her own where she knows she would never be asked to leave.
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