I don't believe that the family was signed up on the couchsurfing website. Jenny met the daughter at a coffee shop and was invited to stay with the very poor family. After four days (during which time she was very sick and finally went to the doctor), it seems that they felt she should at least help out financially. Jenny says she offered small amounts (how small?) of money every day and they refused. Maybe they were being gracious at first? According to Jenny they eventually wanted more money and it upset them that she wouldn't pay and they got angry and kicked her out. They sound hospitable, but did they invite her for more than one night? Jenny's self-reported frugality gave the impression that she had very little money, so several people helped her with freebies along the way. But apparently she overstayed her welcome in this case. When they got angry, she said she'd go to the bank and get money, but after getting it, she decided not to give it to them and gave them only 16 pesos (about 85 cents!) before leaving. I hate to say this, but I will...I think Jenny was either totally clueless socially or a skilled user. JMO
The first links are her experience with the family posted on FB. One of them is personal and embarrassing if they read it IMO. The last link is the rest of the story.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...828.1073741827.100010065406266&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/jennycqd/posts/235602593451919
https://www.facebook.com/jennycqd/posts/236739990004846
https://www.facebook.com/jennycqd/posts/236742456671266
https://www.facebook.com/jennycqd/posts/236744736671038
http://media.weibo.cn/article?id=2309403954005670762820&location=35
My experience with third world countries is that everyone thinks that if you're American, you're rich. And we are. Comparatively speaking, we'll all rich, even a shoe-string traveler relying on buses and hitching, which Jenny Chen was not. She had plane tickets to at least some destinations, a camera, a laptop, and at least some money to take a several months-long trip. Yes, perhaps she relied on hand-outs and hospitality quite a bit, but most of us "wealthy, U.S.-types" aren't able to afford months off of work to travel. Certainly, most of the people she came across offering the hospitality in Mexico weren't.
I'll never understand staying in strangers' homes (unless, of course, there's no other option, but I'm not talking about planning to do it on vacation here, I mean should life's circumstances require it) so I feel a little hamstrung at trying to sleuth this, but it would seem to me that Jenny herself is a little "off". I understand recording the experiences one encounters on such a trip, but the manner in which she did it is just beyond me. You reward a poor family who has given you amazing hospitality -four free nights at their home and presumably food and drink- with immediate postings online of their primitive circumstances? In what culture would this be considered anything but a huge breach of etiquette? It's just basic decency to not do something like that.
And: So what if they initially said that she could stay for free. Whatever caused the change in circumstances (and I would think it highly likely, since she was dealing with an entirely different culture than her own, that it was simply a miscommunication) why wouldn't she realize that, again -WHATEVER was the cause, it was time to compensate them for their hospitality. If it had turned out that they were fine with her staying 4 days or 4 weeks, so be it, but they weren't, and one can't expect to simply rely on the charity of others while one travels the world, especially people who are obviously much less affluent then oneself. In a certain sense, I'm beginning to feel like JR and JC are two peas in a pod.
Do we know if that particular family has been contact by LE?