Mi Valedor: Mexico City to Launch New Street Paper - for the Homeless Laura Kelly - Street Roots News
go to original January 25, 2015

Vendors of the new street paper, Mi Valedor, which is set to launch in Mexico City. (Maria Portilla)

Among the colorful markets, historic plazas and grand cathedrals of Mexico City, there are tens of thousands of homeless people living on the streets. Many live their whole lives without ever having a place to call their own. Some are the third generation of their family to be born into homelessness. Opportunities to escape the cycle of poverty are limited, and violent gangs prey on the estimated 40 percent of the country’s population who live in poverty.

In this challenging and dangerous environment, 26-year-old artist Maria Portilla is leading a team of six brave young women — all in their mid-20s, and without any prior experience in the magazine industry — to bring her home country its first street paper. Mi Valedor will launch this month and join 114 street newspapers in 35 countries around the world, including Street Roots, that are part of the International Network of Street Papers.

“Mexico City needs this,” Maria says. “There are grandparents who were born in the streets and have lived their whole lives there. There are very few organisations, or laws from the government, to help homeless people. The government doesn’t even have a proper count of the people living in the street. So they are super-excluded. They don’t have any good attention or facilities.”

Mi Valedor was supported by the INSP program to help fledgling street papers. Mi Valedor is “my pal” in Mexican slang, but Maria says its meaning for them is “something like ‘my protector’ or ‘someone who looks out for me.’” That’s what the street paper aims to be for its vendors, she says.

Alongside Catholic charity La Carpa (The Tent), they have already recruited 10 vendors to start selling their publication. They hope to add to that number soon with help from Street Soccer Mexico, the local organization that sends a team to the Homeless World Cup each year.

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