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MEXICO CITY. Trans women are self-employed, serving meals, and welcoming those in need of a hot meal. They come from vulnerable backgrounds and run a new community soup kitchen, where a three-course meal costs eleven pesos.

At 2 Rossini Street in the Peralvillo neighborhood of Mexico City, those who arrive at the soup kitchen run by the Casa Lleca organization greet the girls who serve them and register on forms. These are used to record who requests this service and how many meals are distributed each day. So far, the soup kitchen has provided 100 meals and keeps track of the recovery fee.

Community response to inequality in care

“This soup kitchen is a community response to the lack of care the state provides to our communities . During the elections, politicians talked about the national care system. But none of these policies are focused on our communities or their needs. We are the ones making these proposals that come from collective care . And while this soup kitchen emerged as a government program, we are the ones giving it this focus through the community work we have been doing because the government is falling short in terms of public policies for LGBT people and homeless people ,” Victoria Sámano, founder of Lleca, said in an interview.

This soup kitchen is a project promoted by Lleca, Listening to the Street . The organization emerged four years ago, when human rights defender and sex worker Victoria Sámano opened the doors of the apartment where she lived to provide shelter for LGBT+ people. They were primarily homeless gay men and trans women, who were more exposed to the pandemic once hotels closed their doors and the number of young people evicted increased due to family exclusion .

Lleca opened its doors a year ago in the Peralvillo neighborhood. It's the first soup kitchen run entirely by trans women who are also self-employed.

In Mexico City, there is also Manos Amigues , a community soup kitchen that was created during the Covid-19 crisis to address the specific forms of violence experienced by some LGBT+ people, especially youth and sex workers.

Casa Lleca, the shelter that drives the dining room

Casa Lleca is the first shelter for LGBT+ people who are homeless or at risk. It was created in response to the lack of safe spaces for the LGBT+ population. There are eight shelters run by the Secretariat of Inclusion and Social Welfare (Sibiso), but they lack awareness and training, and LGBT+ people experience violence from staff and users in these shelters.

It has provided shelter to up to a dozen people, and five trans women currently live there. The youngest is 25 years old, and the oldest is 57. Each one faces unique situations and needs: sex work, substance use, migration, internal forced displacement, social reintegration, unemployment, access to healthcare, living with HIV, and more.  

“At Casa Lleca, we cover the most basic needs: shelter, food, and a bathroom. And we're organizing ourselves to address issues of physical and mental health, and violence prevention and treatment. But there was one thing that was beyond our control: employment. Some of them go out to apply for jobs, and we see how difficult it is due to the rejection of their gender identity, because they live in a shelter, because of their age, and even because they don't have a birth certificate. So, we decided to join the Sibiso community kitchen program with the goal of making it something we can manage and, above all, to employ our colleagues,” says Victoria. 

Five trans women are self-employed

Victoria says the process for opening the soup kitchen was through a call from Sibiso, which requires certain requirements . It took Sibiso a year to approve Lleca's proposal. The costs for gas, plumbing, and plumbing installations, as well as the purchase of tables, chairs, and pots, were not managed by the state, but rather by the members of Casa Lleca. Some of them were sex workers.

Today, the five trans women who live in Casa Lleca run the community kitchen and receive a nominal stipend, but not a salary. They cook, wait, cashier, and host. They also serve a set meal (usually rice or beans, a stew, tortillas, salad, and a glass of water).

At the opening of the Lleca community kitchen, Oaxacan mole was served, a traditional, emblematic dish with a high level of celebration in the country. It was prepared by Carolina, a resident of Casa Lleca, coordinator of the project, and the main cook.

“I feel very happy, and truly proud of the house and the restaurant where I now work. And of being the main cook. I'm the one who adds the magic touch to the food because I'm also from Oaxaca and I have my own flavor. Being self-employed is an opportunity and very satisfying. After having nothing, here we not only have a place to sleep but also a place to work. It's a symbolic income, but it means a lot to all of us,” Carolina says in an interview with Presentes.

“We have the audacity to care”

Outside the dining room, there's a line of people checking in and paying eleven pesos for a meal. At the back of Casa Lleca, on one of the sofas, we asked Victoria Sámano how she learned to care. “The first people who taught me how to care were my maternal grandmother and great-grandmother. They knew what I was from childhood and always tried to take care of me. I felt very safe. Later, other trans women taught me about caregiving .”

“ My way of caring is by cooking with love because love is what I found in this shelter . Love for my companions, love for myself and for Victoria, who has been a turning point in my life because here I received the tools that the government didn't provide me, forcing me into sex work and the streets,” says Carolina.

“I believe that caregiving always comes from trans people in the absence of a state to protect us. We are always the answer. Despite all the adversities we trans people experience, we still have the courage to care,” Victoria reflects. “Knowing how to care doesn't emerge from nowhere; it's knowledge that is passed on . Probably when I'm gone, someone else will take over to care, and that's how new community leaders emerge.”

Where is it located and what are the opening hours?

The Lleva soup kitchen is located at 22 Rossini Street in the Peralvillo neighborhood, Cuauhtémoc City. They serve meals for a recovery fee of eleven pesos, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.