In the south of Mexico there is a restaurant so small that the hearts of its owners barely fit through the door.
It is called MexVen and is located in the city of Juchitán de Zaragoza, in the state of Oaxaca, where thousands of migrants heading towards the United States recover strength and resources after crossing the Darién jungle between Colombia and Panama.
MexVen is a business owned by a Mexican family who wants to support migrants.
Its employees are Venezuelans in transit They cook the cuisine of their land and sell an abundant lunch for 70 pesos (less than $4 dollars).
In exchange, the workers receive money that they save for weeks to be able to continue their route.
“Everyone is happy. The employees because they are paid and have a safe place to rest, and the customers because they find the food they wanted, at a good price, after passing through so many countries,” Luis Antonio López, co-founder of the restaurant, tells BBC Mundo.
Solidarity business
López and his family saw a business opportunity and solidarity when more and more migrants began to arrive in Juchitán.
“First we offered them Mexican food, but they didn’t like it very much,” he says.
For tired stomachs not accustomed to Mexican seasoning, it can be irritating and inflammatory, which poses a health risk for many who arrive with their defenses compromised.
“So what do you guys eat? We can look for the ingredients and you are in charge of cooking,” López proposed to some Venezuelans.
Said and done: those Venezuelans became the first salaried cooks for López and his family. MexVen had just been born. They have been running for two years now.
Passage area
The restaurant is located in the Che Gómez market in Juchitán. It’s a humble space that doesn’t appear on map apps and benefits from word of mouth.
The stoves share the room with a single long table where diners arrive starting at noon.
If suddenly several accumulate at the same time, more tables are enabled. They also prepare lunches to distribute in the surrounding areas.
Next to the kitchen, in the same building, there are other businesses and cubicles that serve as improvised payment rooms.
Dozens of people spend the night on the floor of the bus station, about 200 meters from the restaurant, or camp around the city. Many sleep outdoors.
Venezuelan is the nationality most detected by Mexican immigration authorities among migrants who cross the country, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration.
In 2023, according to this entity, more than 220,000 Venezuelan migrants were identified in Mexico, compared to 119,000 from Honduras, the country that follows in the statistics.
Juchitán, having good services on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest interoceanic region of Mexico, is a frequent point of passage and temporary stay for migrants coming from South America.
From here daily buses leave to the city of Oaxaca, where travelers connect with Mexico City and continue the journey to the border with the United States.
“When our cooks raise enough money, they leave, others come and we employ them. We employ exclusively Venezuelans,” says López.
Gastronomic oasis
Venezuelan Yoel Parra, from Maracaibo, commanded the kitchen on the day at the end of May when BBC Mundo visited the restaurant.
“Fried chicken, chicken in sauce and grilled chop,” he lists off the menu as he tosses the chicken thighs into the pot.
The protein is accompanied with lentils, rice, salad, fried ripe plantain and guasacaca, an avocado-based sauce that Citlali and Selene Sánchez, the other two Mexican co-founders of MexVen, have already mastered due to its similarity to guacamole.
The Sánchez sisters assist Parra and serve what the chef takes out in plastic boxes.
“Apart from what we sell, we bring dozens of lunches to other migrants in the station and surrounding areas. This way they eat cheaply and in the process we promote the restaurant,” says Venezuelan Javier N., in charge of distributing the food with his wife in addition to helping in the kitchen.
The strategy works.
“They told us that here in Juchitán there was a place that served Venezuelan food and we came straight,” says Carlos José Soto, from Carabobo, who recently arrived in the city and photographs his dish to show his family.
Parra has been traveling for more than a month. They told him about this Venezuelan gastronomic destination, he went to eat and two days later he got a job as a cook.
“It is extraordinary that someone has thought about our culture and food, generating income for their family and for us, who seek to reach our destination to also help our families in Venezuela,” he says gratefully.
“Make yourself at home”
While the diners arrive and the Venezuelans prepare their lunches to the rhythm of salsa, Luis López sits thoughtfully at the restaurant’s entrance.
It is a hot day and a breeze circulates through the door that attracts other Venezuelans who frequent the restaurant.
López appears shy as the migrants talk a short distance away about the kindness of his family and what this community space means to them.
“It is a happiness that the migrant is supported like this, with flavors from home at a price that allows us to save,” says Ángel Lemus, from Zulia, who dreams of being a boxer.
“Us As people we feel satisfied that we did this business and in the process we fulfilled the needs of the people.. These guys arrive after having spent a lot of money and here we feed them well and cheaply,” says López.
In Mexico, organizations such as Human Rights Watch report that Venezuelan migrants and other nationalities suffer abuse, extortion and kidnapping by authorities and criminal groups, in addition to lack of access to basic rights.
Venezuelans also face episodes of xenophobia in receiving countries.
Perhaps that is why, before leaving, the employees want to put an end to stereotypes and insist that I take a photo of the restaurant’s banner: “MexVen Venezuelan food: feel at home.”
It is the closest thing to a home that many of those who pass through here experience on their journey and who still have a hard road ahead in which they risk their lives.
All thanks to the altruistic Mexican family that changed mole for beans.
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