Casa Xochiquetzal

Support and Shelter for Women

Our Story

Casa Xochiquetzal was born in response to an urgent reality: many older sex workers, after years of labor and marginalization, ended up living on the streets. In 2005, a group of them sought the support of public figures such as Martha Lamas, Elena Poniatowska, and Jesusa Rodríguez to bring visibility to their situation. Their call was heard, and in 2006, with the backing of the Mexico City government, our home opened its doors. Since then, we work every day to offer them the respect, protection, and dignity they have always deserved.

Our Commitment

Thanks to your support, today we can keep offering a safe haven to more than 450 women sex workers and their families. Here they receive comprehensive support including medical, psychological, legal, and social care. Your solidarity is essential so that we can continue our mission and ensure that each of them lives with dignity, care, and respect.

Team

Jesica Vargas Gonzalez

Director

Antonio Gonzalez Aguillon

Administrator

Monica Vargas Gonzalez

Social Worker

Miriam Falcón López

Cook

Henni Pampe

Volunteer

+450

Older women cared for each year

+3000

Meals served each month

+600

Cultural and recreational activities held each year

Who We Are

Casa Xochiquetzal is the only shelter of its kind in the world, giving refuge to women who worked in the sex trade and who, in old age, were living on the streets. For them, for the past 19 years, this home in the Historic Center of Mexico City has meant shelter, food, activities, and the chance to live in peace in a dignified and safe space.

Get Involved

Support the older women who devoted their lives to sex work and who today find a safe and dignified home at Casa Xochiquetzal. Your involvement helps provide them with companionship, activities, care, and the chance to live with peace and respect.

Become a Volunteer

Support Us

With your donation, you help older women who devoted their lives to sex work find a home at Casa Xochiquetzal. Your support allows us to offer them food, care, comprehensive attention, and activities that strengthen their well-being. Every contribution transforms lives.

Donate Now

Testimonials

"They are like survivors — something is always happening to them, but in the end they rise again."

— Bénédicte Desrus, Photographer

"A refuge like no other in the world. These women are, quite simply, incredible."

— Alice Tomassini, Documentary Filmmaker

"Casa Xochiquetzal is a home. For its residents, but also for those of us who visit them. Stepping into the most beautiful building on Plaza Torres Quintero, you feel at home immediately. Getting to know these women teaches you so much. But listening to them with an open heart changes your life. Let us support «las chicas», as the staff of the house call them. Let us support them too. Another world is possible — all it takes is small decisions like this one."

— Jorge Pedro, Writer and Chronicler

"Casa Xochiquetzal is a home I have visited since 2011, where extraordinary women live — women who worked in the sex trade and, on reaching old age, had no roof over their heads. It is a home for survivors who do not see themselves as victims and who, instead, shelter you when you share time with them. The small team that cares for them and raises funds to sustain this unique place lives for it. For me, Casa Xochiquetzal is far more than a refuge; it is an oasis where old age and dignity stand as a bastion. There live «the fiercest of the loving ones»."

— Celia Gómez, Journalist and Writer