Spaniards take on the banks.

• Author: Carrion, Maria

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ON SEPTEMBER 6, AS SPANISH Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy met in his office with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to negotiate the terms for a financial bailout of Spain's wretched economy, across town about 100 people formed a human wall at the entrance of a modest apartment building in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcon. They were blocking three court employees from entering the building to enforce an order issued about 500 times in Spain every day: the eviction of a family after a home repossession.

Up on the fourth floor, Lucia Intrago sat nervously in her bare apartment with two of her neighbors. The forty-four-year-old Ecuadorian mother of two, who earns her living cleaning houses, had lost her home after her husband, Franklin, was laid off from his construction job and the family defaulted on their mortgage payments. They received notice of their home's repossession, followed by a court order to vacate.

"We tried to convince the bank to let us pay less until my husband found work but they refused," Intrago explained as she glanced anxiously at the rowdy street below. "Now he has found work, but they say it is too late. My kids are very upset. We had to take my eldest son to hospital last week with an anxiety attack."

The Intragos had tried to find an affordable rental, but landlords were put off by their ruined credit rating. Then they heard about a local association that helped families facing eviction. It was one of the many popular assemblies born out of the Indignado 15-M movement that last year occupied Spain's main squares and helped inspire Occupy Wall Street. "I went to a meeting with the assembly's housing commission and explained my situation," Lucia recalled. "They sent a lawyer to help us negotiate with the bank."

The eviction was an urgent matter, but even worse was the debt that the family would face for decades to come. Although the Intragos had already paid $98,000 of a $323,000 mortgage, the bank demanded an additional $405,000, even after taking back the apartment.

"The family has to pay interest, late fees, and compensation for a lower property value," said attorney Manuel San Pastor, who volunteers for 15-M and the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages and has intervened in about thirty home repossessions and evictions. "Not only do they lose their home; they are also saddled with debt for life."

San Pastor said that despite many attempts to negotiate a cancellation of the debt and an agreement to let the Intragos stay as renters, "the branch manager and the bank's legal department refused to speak with us."

The Intrago case is not unique. Under Spanish law, banks have...