This is America?

The New York Times covered a housing development known as the colonias, in the southern Texas. I was extremely startled to read that just as short as 15 years ago the development of over 400,000 people had just a small minority with running water and indoor plumping. The government had failed to provide these people, hard working legal immigrants with the basic necessities of civilized life. This doesn't sound like America... not at all.

As bad as the situation was, improvement is finally being seen. Presently, over 2/3 of the residents have running water. Nevertheless, a third still lacks this most basic infrastructure that we all take for granted. Through the hard work of community advocacy groups and others progress has been made. Many families are utilizing incrimental building strategies similar to the process used by Un Techo Para Uruguay, the non-profit I worked with in Uruguay to build houses in the barrio. What is scary is the fact that the situation in South Texas seems to be quite similar to the situation in South America.