Un hogar en tierra prohibida (A Home on Forbidden Land)

Apr 15, 2020

When María Elena Paz moved to a plot of land on the outskirts of Mexico City, she was shocked to find no water, electricity, or roads. She and her neighbors weren't even supposed to live in the ecologically protected zone. But María Elena was ready to move mountains to show her community that the power to improve their living conditions was in their hands.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://podcast.duolingo.com.

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one day in 2002 Maria Elena bass found herself entering a big office building in Mexico City in her sweet soft spoken voice she asked to talk to the most important person there Jai jai alai reception donde estaba La Guardia de Salida a used my premium denim cake idea yo Les dije que hablar con Carlos Slim in maybe at amenti in peace

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sadhana real steady me Carlos Slim is a Mexican billionaire one of the richest people in the world and Maria Elena was a single mother juggling three jobs yet here she was at the doorstep of telmex a telecommunications company owned by Carlos Slim to request phone lines for her neighborhood a youth season premiered on poor giri hablar en el Hefe been an umbrella Jonathan

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Canada Carlos Slim Neil important take care of the end of those various media Channels with our piece of myself but habla con unas extended Carlos the guards were laughing but Maria Elena was dead serious she had tried and failed to get her local Township to provide the phone lines so she had looked up telmex headquarters in the phone book and found Carlos limbs name now she was

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in the halls of power love we Cena it and we will need to-- hello host Conan alfombra the color as soon Jame real assistant De Los Ojos 11 Kayla Linnaeus telephonic has gone on a sec dad para Las familias que Las escuelas de me comunidad no I don't know who the phone lines were a necessity not a luxury or lujo so she asked for them and she got them

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Alice limbs assistant agreed to put Maria Elena in touch with an engineer who would get the phone lines installed on the wahilla reception those Warriors my presentation on CIB hablando con alguien que yo Le dije que sí claro easily more content today it was a hard-won victory with a major payoff Maria Elena had just significantly improved the quality of life for her entire neighborhood but what she didn't realize that day was it she was

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training for her biggest challenge yet to inspire a whole other neighborhood in Mexico City to fight for a sense of home and a higher standard of living in their town oh just Hindi not look real possibly better Jessica Spencer most positive for the most of the inner Todo lo que necesitamos que nunca dijo another element that cmps hacer algo Lottery me

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Bienvenidos and welcome to the Duolingo Spanish podcast I'm Martina Castro every episode we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your Spanish listening and gain New Perspectives on the world the Storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish and I'll be chiming in for context in English if you miss something you can always skip back and listen again we also offer full transcripts that podcast

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start Duolingo.com

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Maria Elena bass is the first to admit that she's always been headstrong she married young against her family's wishes and by the age of 26 she was divorced with two daughters in a third child on the way so she moved back in with her parents in tlalpan a neighborhood in Mexico City

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you're gonna see in the Little Pond ebia as the chemical say it soon as wanna move your van I'm Joseph pitiless escuelas even when servicio de transport assume when one para Vivir but tlalpan wasn't without its problems and here's where Marie Elena's headstrong nature was an advantage when she noticed an issue like with the drinking water or drainage system she wouldn't wait for others to fix it

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she would figure out how she and her neighbors could tackle it themselves juntos considering Muslims are a nobody who had a basketball deep intimacy let's go Ella también The Collector must feed Mass parallel construction they don't want a pet owner the space there so the cvd elefsina the Carlos Slim Pilar corneal epithelium is telephonic has but I mean eponymous Vecinos as if we commence

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I say other be Carmen I mean come on either but as Maria Elena worked to improve clapping it was getting increasingly expensive to live there Marie Elena's parents had just enough to make ends meet so she had to hustle to help out

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Joy It Up Mamas Altera transport completely G La Comida y otras cosas she threw herself into three jobs at once in school administration at a law office and for the national election commission but I put it in his Mercy narrow and media Descanso yo India a lot is a latte is an ear of corn slather

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and in mayonnaise cream chili and lime but all of these jobs weren't enough as the family's cost-of-living continued to rise by the Elena's parents said they couldn't keep supporting her she had to pay rent or move out

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yo estaba muy triste por que había video Casa De La Movida and culpa yay is the Obama family not my creation

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right around that difficult time my dear Lena took a liking to one of her co-workers at the election commission he was a kind man named Solomon cuando La Luna see Nadia probably agree that I'm serious entonces yo - eval oficina Elastica wasn't Alice for until Nummies it's creepy you know if you can palamon djellaba equal have a conscience

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palamon asked Maria Elena if she had ever thought about giving love another try Jordan yummy though forgive me Premier matrimonio Nadia functional pero El médico de my own oportunidad De Paris at the Phillies 82:6 using tk7 go into the air

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it was like a fairy tale from cuento they are has not only did they quickly fall in love but by Le Mans mother offered them a part of her land it was in a tiny Community called a twisted Le on the outskirts of Mexico City about an hour from where Maria Elena had grown up El terreno it a grand así que podemos encontrar una Casa de and I don't know opportunity that incredibly but I'm Pizza una Nueva Vida juntos

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but Maria Elena hadn't realized was how different that we stood Le was from her hometown

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she'll never forget the day she moved in mob yellows Navi Iowa yoga mean Ava in a tiara and a skoda the train was nothing but rocks and dirt Ricky defense has marked property lines donkeys and chickens wandered about and the humble houses were a hodgepodge of red brick stones and corrugated sheet metal

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mr. Pandey the Fairytale life she had envisioned with palamon seemed like it was starting to unravel this was her new reality maybe but I want a catwalk e4k maybe Nobita

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with a population of 21 million Mexico City is dense and sprawling on the outskirts people have long been creating neighborhoods like that we stood Le which are beyond the limits of where local government offers basic Services let's put a metal skeleton tease you got on I'm easiest Dennis años adjacent edges then invoke of ragussis in Northern Indiana Lugar para BB and gobierno Bo

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caviar mucha Gente que hace que Toma una decisión alessi who kept winning and Iraqi palutena kissing mr. Rodriguez

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they had to follow rules because they had unintentionally settled on top of a very important aquifer a natural water source designated an ecological Zone it's protected by various laws for the him blue is the previous opponent Bobby Mentos in Disguise concrete cases migrantes Owens and airfoil in a sari has a beard has he told us Las Casas de Benton in areas where these

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they also can't dig a hole in the ground for a latrine no tree removal is allowed and residents are required to keep the neighborhood streets spotless Lala most importantly is less ENT establish a video contaminated ecosystem

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all the rules made it difficult for Maria Elena to feel at home in the we stood Le to make matters worse she and her neighbors were always at risk of being kicked out Nosotros tenemos que hacer las cosas con mucho cuidado Porque Si hombre estaba buscando una razón but as I can muzzle territory BBG and I'm going to be physical local officials did agree to help the town's 1,000 residents

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and how to live on protected land but the city refused to provide any basic services and mighty Elena's new neighbors seemed resigned to the lack of support So Maria Elena did her best to adjust to the new rhythms of her daily life the Lord are completamente no Panem you made any actual event are temprano para poder de certeau last areas Delia with Obama's he has a policeman but her condition is mighty facilities

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one problem was that they had to walk everywhere na VI maybe has a transport foreclosed by close Napoleon's will a clean soul Xavier Caminos a tiara if he ever has parallel program a scrubby era Alexis will allow

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to get water Maria Elena had to hike down a steep dirt path every single day and then trudged back up the hill with a little donkey hauling her water jugs

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when the 30 min Ava the a buscar El agua yo meet any given year in Pierre La Casa para para La Comida y por último hablar con Los Vecinos so the common cold are not revealed this place is so palimony covid El trabajo de Nosotros para Mas Tiempo juntos

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one day my dear Lena witnessed a neighbor nearly give birth on the hillside because she had no way of getting down to a hospital that was it she thought something had to be done you're a blakeney's because he knows he'll spray want a given Moses are is my facility car peritoneal most cases are positives eponymous a trabajar at first people didn't really know how to

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how to respond to their new assertive neighbor prior to marry Elena's arrival disagreements over property lines land usage and adherence to the rules threatened to tear neighbors apart IBM muchisimas conflicts yeah I'm with you fizzy llegar a La una cuerda Maria Elena was convinced that if the community got organized and managed to get along they wouldn't have to wait for the government to give them a better quality of life

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could make improvements themselves so as a first step she joined the communities leadership committee Johanna now when you come here that will team up a skilled wound healing and Committee just for this poisonous a man Porky and I'm gonna be until the Messiah the Magista Parolees proposal or Hina plan comes in cooperatives our guys lose Linnaeus telephonic has

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it can be Venza

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eventually the men on the committee accepted Maria Elena and she convinced them to get behind her five point plan the first thing she wanted to tackle was access to water so she got in touch with the PBS private water trucks to see if they would climb the hill and deliver water to their houses El comité de contact o una Empresa de servicios de Biba's parent knows position on a condition

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tener que Horas para sweetly: so first they have to fix the roads Maria Elena had gotten in touch with the municipal government to see if they'd help by donating water tanks they said no but it'll be alone is there a briceno material but a construe it Camino ecologic these paths were more economical and environmentally friendly way to build roads on a steep Hillside there essentially paved

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ER tracks with the rest filled in with grass and rocks to allow water to seep into the ground and make its way into the aquifer is this guy is fully inserted with Assad has no sólo por Las Peppers Sino también por Las ambulances LA policía water services but ayuda a la comunidad so they took the material that was donated to them by the municipality and they got to building these ecological paths the neighbors came together to do all the work

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work themselves Nosotros vamos por group has empezamos a trabajar en Los Caminos Las Venus the same man they will titla significant Lugar de Piedras porque Como Su nombre de Indica is on a sauna plasma Hades last Busca Vamos a Los Hombres prep 11 La Miss Clark colleges

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once they had built 11 roads Maria Elena went back to the PPS they approved of the tracks and agreed to start delivering water to days a week those onions is please prácticamente the last Las Casas Brazilian Iowa we are going William O CN an T porque no film trabajo fuzzy cuando La Primera Peppa so we will achieve our El agua Miss Vecinos istavan contents were given Grand Cambio potatoes

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unfortunately Mighty Elena's Victory didn't last long sometimes the water was dirty and after a change in government one of the bi-weekly water deliveries mysteriously stopped so why the aleena turned to plan B collecting rainwater she contacted an NGO called Isla or Bona to see if they could help and they agreed

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Nosotros empezar moose are a collector illawarra Dallas Texas Islam or banana no Sensei know who preceded me into the olympius canosa you don't really know says this was a total Game Changer Nosotros like oh hey Mose El agua De Lluvia de mayo and noviembre yes that was it be but a todos Los servicios except para Tomar

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finally solving the water and Road issues brought Maria Elena a lot of credibility with her neighbors her partner and her daughters were proud of what she had accomplished young I won't tell a soul Siempre tenido La ayuda in conditioner the parliament is a mysterious assassin has Santo Domingo Vida emergency as yell and the success motivated Maria Elena to go even further the next point on her plan

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was cell service again she called in a favor at Carlos limbs office she secured the money for another cell phone tower this time until we stood Le I'll principio algunos De Los Vecinos No Cry enemy in 1940 automaton decisions and Su comunidad better después Del Tiempo Megan El respeto de Casi todos Mis 11 and luckily I'm a piñata is so

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may I see a valise

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with her community finally coming together Maria Elena turned her attention to the next big issue electricity

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some residents of Twisted Le had connected themselves to a nearby electrical grid and they shared electricity with their neighbors but for a long time nobody wanted to let a newcomer like money Elena connect to their power lines yo beabea in an Oscar that cause he never come Bella's usable in turn but idle when you in language in tones has the CDN a lizard La situación para poder de encontrar una solución yosuke

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if this covid e koala La cantidad necesaria the what but obviously électricité de a de la Laguna De Maria Elena learned that if they bought their own transformer they could get rid of their dangerous Patchwork electrical grid and have a more stable source of light so she organized a fundraising campaign with her neighbors in just one month they had the money they needed Nosotros tuvimos que comprar total material

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are in contract only like three sista capacity trabajar con has corrientes por que era has epilepsy doses

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it's been 15 years since Maria Elena first decided to tackle the issues in that we stood Le today she and her neighbors can do things like drive home take a shower and flip on a light switch simple but life-changing acts people are constantly giving Maria Elena tokens of gratitude Yodas Vietnamese Vecinos he has my respect enemy guano necesitan algo Melody see Yo Busca La Manera de ellos

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pero yo no trabajo Soul someone's gonna keep economic and population see there's still work to be done the water trucks still only come once a week and big trucks sometimes break down on the Steep neighborhood streets but despite the room for improvement by the Elena has finally found the one thing that was missing from her life for so long a stable permanent home I'm human

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who's David Elena to Dallas you escuchando Sparkles easy until a drink later no I muchos Carlos he put them was coming up quality era drink element todos Mis Vecinos plant on Flores of what Isis cos Mi Vida que es una experiencia more your mouth

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Maria Elena past lives in Mexico City at the age of 54 she's studying social work at the national autonomous University of Mexico and she intends to apply what she learns to Future projects in that we Stila she's also thinking about running for office someday

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this story was produced by Grant Fuller a writer and editor based in Santiago Chile we'd love to know what you thought of this episode send us an email with your feedback at podcast at Duolingo.com and if you liked this story please share it you can find the audio and a transcript of each episode at podcast dot Duolingo.com you can also subscribe at Apple podcasts or your favorite listening app so you never miss an episode with over

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red million users Duolingo is the world's leading language learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world Duolingo believes in making education free fun and accessible to everyone to join download the app today or find out more at Duolingo.com the Duolingo Spanish podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adam the media I'm the executive producer Martina Castro gracias what his coach at