Change the lives of homeless people in Mexico City

We hope you are having a great day and would like to make an update on what has been going on with Mi Valedor since our last report. First and most importantly, big thanks to you for joining us in the run with your donation, everyone here appreciates it very much! 

We are happy to announce issue 23, Made in Chinga II (Done in a hurry II), was released. This is the second time around we chose to expand and explore all those precarious, quickly made and (in our perspective) beautiful structures that surround our city. They constitute a big part of what the experience on the streets is about, both aesthetically and ideologically. 
This is a remix of sorts of issue 3 in all of Mi Valedor's issues, appropiately named Made in Chinga. The title is a direct reference to the late 80s and 90s golden "Made in China" stickers, with a mexican twist to them. Chinga means a lot of things here depending on the context, but most importantly it means "fast and intensely paced", it as well has a "swear word" quality to it, which makes it much more likely to be heard or said on the streets than behind closed doors. It is a way of living and constructing space, one that didn't arrive voluntarily but has forged it's way into our identity as mexicans living in our city.

We organized a special event for this issue to be presented: a discussion panel featuring mexican writer Juan Villoro, the director of Mi Valedor, María Portilla, head of the style correction organization for the magazine Jimena Acevedo and independent illustrator Josías Castorena. The four of them talked out loud about the magazine and the challenges it presents while a bunch of happenings took place off-scene. A photography exhibition by the vendors and staff, a digital art gallery with all the vendor's work throught the years and a vendor-human-library kept the assistants flooded with the project's work. 

Furthermore, we organized a totally public and welcoming event in the form of a picnic to celebrate 4 years of existance. We are pleased to announce capacity was exceeded (not to worry, just more chairs and tables had to be brought in) and had a wonderful food flow. So much that actually the vendors ended up taking most of it with them, while the rest was stored in the office for future workshops and such.  

Last but not least, we got to release issue 24, ¡Ya viene el sol! (Here comes the sun), our first bilingual issue. It has to be said, a great part of Mi Valedor's existance is due to the existance of The Big Issue and their labor in the united kingdom, that has essentially what brought María and Delphine (two of the main founders) together. The clash between those two very different (yet also alike) cities is what we are all about. We wanted to aknowledge our heroes and the figures we look up to by giving them a piece of their home, but mexican, far from where they would look for it...

Links:

• http://www.mivaledor.com
• https://www.instagram.com/mivaledor
• https://www.facebook.com/mivaledor