Gabriela (33 years old) has been living in the Valparaíso region in Chile for eight years. Born and raised in Santiago, she migrated to Cartagena because her grandparents are from the area and she always wanted to live there. Many of his six uncles and aunts lived in his grandparents' house, numerous cousins ​​and cousins. It was a tiny house where family members took turns sleeping at night. Gabriela always adapted to these typical circumstances of large families without means, but when starting to work, having to wait for others to leave the bed available to sleep became unsustainable. From the age of 19, she started saving on a house book, but could not obtain any benefit, she was swindled in a strange application. He lost the money and, having no charges, was unable to access a state subsidy.

Gabriela's story is no different than thousands of women who organize with other workers to solve the housing problem.

This led Gabriela to join 54 families to plan the taking of a site in the hills that divide Cartagena and San Antonio, and then negotiate the purchase of the land with its owner. The land on top of a clay hill, away from the city was a micro-landfill. Without access to basic services such as water, electricity, streets or public lighting, it was plagued with debris from the nearby cemetery: dead animals and the remains of vehicles. Something very common in the hills of the region. Together with the families, they began to clean, make lots and see the boundaries until Villa Las Loicas was completed. Due to the high demand for housing and the continuous expulsion of people with less income from the city, in three years 300 families have come to live in the town. Without basic services, they get water through a large hose and electricity "hanging on the wires", which is regularly disconnected by Chilquinta. But the camp persists. "They take away the cables, we go for more cables and there we play persistence."

This persecution is ongoing, but despite this, the community organizes to support a neighbor who is electro-dependent and who, if not connected to electricity, may suffer cardio-respiratory arrest due to sleep apnea.

There are also people who are insulin dependent and have to keep insulin refrigerated and therefore connecting to electricity is life or death. There are complicated housing situations. After three years the houses are more established, although at first they were cold and lived in tents. They have installed lamps to light the streets by recycling some bottles and each passage has a small square that they designed together. Some have started to make organic gardens.

Educating the children is an odyssey. There are children who literally cross two hills to go to school. They have sent letters to the mayor and councilors to facilitate transportation for the 30 children from the village to get to school in Cartagena. They have no answer. Children are at risk of accidents and being approached by people like last year in October when a man followed them. With schools closing due to quarantine, remote learning replaces walking. But Gabriela thinks that this is not possible. “I am a babysitter and I work in Santo Domingo with a nice couple, they have helped me a lot, but I see the difference. I have nothing against them, but I am a witness of the social injustice that there is regarding the children that I have in the taking. They strive to have their daughter's things, but here we lack the basics ”. In the Villa many times there is no electricity to charge cell phones. These are essential to obtain the information from school, not even to think about a computer. Nor do the most vulnerable schools have a digital platform to download guides and follow classes online. There are days when children can connect and receive assignments from teachers via WhatsApp. Children try to respond, but for many it is very difficult to do it in the midst of precariousness. Apart from the difficulty to connect, mothers and fathers do not have the education to support their daughters and sons. Many of them did not have the opportunity to educate themselves. "It is complicated, difficult, strong, Gabriela confesses. It generates contradictions for me to witness this inequality: my work versus my reality. Here I have children who do not have a bed to sleep, except a cell phone. There are other children who have it all. I do not judge because they have everything, but it is impotent that mine have nothing.

As a pandemic like this will no longer affect us, says the town, if we never had anything even without quarantine. We simply cannot stay in our homes. We will always be more at risk than that the others". Those families that appear in their homes today, connected to their computers, with their full pantries and their salary at the end of the month. We do not have electricity in the camp today, says Gabriela.