In Mexico, Casita Linda is building hope

Just a few miles from multimillion-dollar homes in this central Mexican resort town, the countryside yields to dirt-floor lean-tos made of sticks, rocks, cardboard, blankets or tarps. If residents are lucky, they have a panel of sheet metal as the roof. Out here in the campo, most have no running water, no electricity, no sewer system, no paved roads. These people -- some of about 20 million Mexicans who live in extreme poverty -- hold title to small plots that average about 650 square feet, thanks to land reform policies initiated in 1934, but they have little money to build.

By Jeff Spurrier

November 29, 2008