La Casa de Las Flores
Educational and Recreational Center for Working Street Children
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México
Wokolawal te talat liA' ta La Casa de Las Flores
¡Bienvenidos a La Casa de las Flores!
Kolavalik ti La talik li'ta La Casa de Las Flores
Bienvenue á La Casa de las Flores!
Herzlich Willkommen Im La Casa de las Flores!
Irashai La Casa de las Flores!
Benvenike a La Casa de las Flores!
Welcome to La Casa de las Flores!
La Casa de las Flores E youkoso!
Benvenuti a La Casa de las Flores!
La Casa de Las Flores (The House of Flowers) opened its doors in 2008 to serve the educational and recreational needs of working street children in the historic center of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Our purpose has been to create a home where these marginalized children are accepted, loved, respected, and treated with dignity through our various educational and recreational programs.
The two faces of San Cristóbal de Las Casas
San Cristóbal de Las Casas is one of Mexico's top tourist destinations, among its attractions being the presence of dozens of indigenous (Mayan) villages in the surrounding area. While its historic center is crossed with pedestrian walkways featuring fine restaurants and gift shops, outside San Cristóbal's center lies what is called the "Ring of Misery," a belt of shantytowns encircling the city. Several factors contribute to this situation. First, five centuries of enslavement and discrimination against the indigenous peoples have left them marginalized and impoverished. More recently, the Zapatista uprising of 1994 caused some families to flee their villages; while ongoing religious conflicts—in which families converting from the traditional faith are expelled from their land—bring destitute families to San Cristóbal. Further, some boys leave their families and villages, rent rooms in San Cristóbal, and work in the streets.
The result is that San Cristóbal has perhaps the highest concentration of working street children in Mexico—children who do not attend school, have no time for play, and suffer from malnutrition as well as stunted emotional and intellectual development.
La Casa de Las Flores offers these children a warm, welcoming space where they can eat a nutritious meal, play, and study. We offer "open" elementary and high school programs where children study at their own pace and receive credit from the school district. Please see our Programs page for more information on the workshops and courses we offer. We welcome volunteers to join us; please see the Volunteers page for more information. And, of course, we always welcome donations; please see our Donations page. We hope to hear from you soon!
A Note from the Director
Hello,
my name is Claudia Castro. I was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. When I arrived in Chiapas for the first
time at age 19, I noticed the segregation and discrimination affecting the indigenous (Maya)
people. The city of San Cristóbal had still not grown much, and one didn't see children working in
the streets.
After the Zapatista uprising in 1994, the indigenous people began to immigrate to the
city and the streets began to fill with working children, the majority as vendors or shoeshine
boys. Being a mother, every time they offered me a service or product, I could tell that the
majority could not add or subtract, read or write. They began their workday at 8:00 a.m. and 12
hours later went home. If they had had a successful workday, they went home by public
transportation, but if not, they walked. I also realized they had eaten little in the morning and
much of the money they earned was used to buy bread and drinks, or to pay to use the public
bathrooms.
Little by little I bonded with these working children and felt a profound empathy for them, but I also felt complicit in the indifference toward these destitute children until I decided to do something about it: open a house where they could rest, use the shower and bathroom, prepare meals in the kitchen, fill their water bottles, and learn basic math and literacy. Little by little we have expanded our activities, leading us to where we are today.
At first it wasn't easy. The teenage boys were extremely violent and hostile; they were filled with resentment exacerbated by the society that had excluded them. Changing their violent behavior took some months and its solution seems very simple: I had to develop confidence and caring to be able to transmit and encourage these qualities among the boys. From the start, I assumed that the boys would test me again and again to see if I would stick with them through thick and thin, and with time they have realized that I am with them through the very worst, but that I have also tried everything within my power to provide them with a safe house where everyone is respected, trusted, and loved as they are.
I love my work, I feel passionate about it, and every day I leave feeling enriched by what each child has shared with me. I consider myself an extremely fortunate person, because every time I close the doors of La Casa de Las Flores, I leave with my heart filled with happiness. I know that each child and youth who has come to La Casa de Las Flores has felt a moment of peace, serenity, joy, and refuge from their long, hard workday in the streets of San Cristóbal.
This story is a great inspiration to me:
A Single Starfish
by Loren Eisley
As a man was walking along a beach reflecting on his life, one of his thoughts was that no matter how he tried to make a difference, he always seemed to be spitting into the wind.
He felt a crunch under his feet and, looking down, saw that the beach was covered in thousands and thousands of starfish washed up by the tide. He continued his stroll, thinking how cruel the ocean was as they would all be dead by morning.
Further on, he came upon a lady throwing starfish back into the sea. He said to her, "For every starfish you throw back, three more are washed up on the shore—how can you be making any difference to the situation?" The woman looked thoughtful, picked up another starfish, threw it into the sea, smiled and said, "It made a difference to that one!"
Sincerely, Claudia