I’m putting together another update soon, but for now I wanted to share a quick update on Ximena’s situation:
I have been speaking off and on with Ximena, and the other day she talked about a new possibility that has come up. The community has offered for her to live permanently in a part of the house for tourism that was constructed some years ago, but has never fully been realized (for a variety of reasons, tourism has never caught on in Chontal like hoped). It would take her some investment into the house to make it truly habitable, and so she is considering using the $1500 from the combined fundraisers toward that. That would mean that she would give up on her house, defaulting on the loan and leaving it to the bank. My guess is she would lose whatever equity value there might have been. However, she also would be free of debt, so, going forward, she could focus her efforts and income on her new living conditions without the burden of debt, albeit with a negative credit history (which I imagine carries less weight in that area compared to the States, where good credit levels are needed more frequently in our economic and housing functioning.) An additional benefit of going this path is that the money would largely stay in the community, or at least not just go directly to the bank. Always a plus!
With that possibility, she went to the bank and requested that they try again to get her husband to assume his half of the debt, a sort of last ditch effort at that. Because if that were the case, it would obviously cut her debt responsibility in half if she were to keep the house, and it seems she would consider re-negotiating with the bank under those circumstances.
We’ll see what she decides. It’s difficult to give up one’s house. But it’s clear that the money from the fundraisers has opened up a new housing opportunity, so that she can leverage out of the tremendous debt, should she be willing to give up the house.
Please continue to keep Ximena and her family in your prayers!