For planning purposes Havana is divided into neighborhood units, one of which is La Guinera, which I.I.S. members visited. La Guinera, a municipality in the southern part of Havana is not a cooperative, but is a self-managed community of 24,000 people, with its own physical and social characteristics. Before the Revolution, a marginal community, with a very low standard of living, La Guinera today is still visibly a poor neighborhood with a mixture of new, rehabilitated, and deteriorating housing. Materials, machinery, and technical help are provided by the government. The process begins with a neighborhood housing assessment and recruiting campaign.
Volunteers walk around the neighborhood, noting the poorest housing.
They knock on doors house by house, asking residents to join the brigade. A series of meetings and workshops follows. The most responsible and committed people people form the brigade, and elect a chairperson from among themselves. The brigade members receive construction skills training, but also turn for expertise to the architect assigned by the central agency to their neighborhood. The current brigade consists of 33 people, with a woman as elected leader, who began building in 1994.