(AFP) – Tesha MartÃnez and her husband left Mexico City for La Guancha, the first cohousing project in Mexico for elderly people worried about their independence away from retirement homes, in a country that is gradually aging.
This 65-year-old retired professor and her husband Francisco Vigil, 61, are part of a group of about thirty retirees who together built six houses in Malinalco, a village of character 100 km southwest of the capital.
In a land surrounded by forests and mountains, six people already live full time in La Guancha (the name of the project), while others come and go, waiting to settle in Malinalco for the rest of their lives.
“In my professional life, I gave and returned because I received a salary,” explains Mr. Vigil about the spirit of cohousing, a collaborative model that comes from Denmark.
“Now it’s different because it’s about collaboration,” continues the former automotive industry employee. “I learned that giving is much more fulfilling than I could have imagined.”
In front of a large garden and a swimming pool that adorn the common areas, the couple explains that they want to grow old in better conditions than their parents. And they want their children to stand on their own two feet.
The elderly “never get the attention they need, they are very lonely,” says Ms. Martinez, whose father died at 91 while going through a nursing home.
– share –
La Guancha was born in 2009 in the form of a university project led by the doctor of social sciences Margarita Maass on improving the living conditions of the elderly.
“In recent decades, Mexico has experienced a demographic transformation with the decrease in fertility and birth rate, and the increase in life expectancy,” the academic writes in an article. “This has increased the number of older adults.”
Proportionally, Mexico remains less affected by aging than the European Union (EU), where more than 20% of the population is over 65, as in Quebec.
However, “advanced moderate aging” is at work in this country of almost 130 million inhabitants, according to the expression of the government.
The proportion of people over 60 increased from 12.3% to 14.7% between 2018 and 2023, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INEGI). The fertility rate fell from 2.07 to 1.6 children per woman on average.
With several partners, Mrs. Maass purchased a plot of land where a few years later, the owners built by installing solar panels to heat the water.
They also planted fruit trees (mango, oranges, guava, etc.). “Nature is something that fills my soul,” says Tesha Martinez.
For the community, Francisco Vigil designed a computer system to establish the shopping list based on collective menus.
“Cohousing is a very good solution for people who are alone,” explains Mrs. Maass. “For people who don’t have a lot of money, because it’s about sharing the costs, and for people who have health problems, because being together they share the doctor.”
This model differs from the structure of retirement homes because the group “decides how they want their home, where they want it, what size, with which people and with which economic resources,” he explains.
– “New Life” –
Margarita Maas takes the example of a resident who died of Alzheimer’s disease, for whom the experience of La Guancha was beneficial, because he could divide his time between dominoes, cinema and swimming.
Tesha MartÃnez integrated into life in Malinalco, where more than half of the population is poor. He took advantage of his teaching experience to teach English and participate in pottery classes. “A new life,” he assures.