In order to fund the “This Is a Home” project, which includes the publication of a book and the production of an exhibition at the UNAM Geology Museum, we organized a community fundraising day. Neighbors aged 60 and over contributed stews and desserts to sell, we prepared tamales and drinks to raise funds with the visit of locals and outsiders. The musical group Psique-son performed in a Huasteco trio format, encouraging attendees to sing and dance. We installed game stations such as lottery and marbles; collaborators of the Communal shop of the year were present offering their products, and an art auction was held with pieces that artists allied with the organization contributed to the cause. In this way, we managed to not only reach but exceed the established goal.

To remember our deceased in community, members from the neighborhood brought photographs of their people to place a collective altar during the days of the dead. According to the traditions of the Huasteca region, where this season of the year is called Xantolo or Todos Santos, apart from the essential elements like flowers, bread, incense and flower arches; certain songs are played, sang, and danced. This way the members of the Trio Masakali came to share a little of the spirit of these festivities, of which neighbors shared their own experience and knowledge, also dancing for the memory of those who are no longer there.

The trades constitute the wisdom of the neighborhood to attend, do, solve, recreate and inhabit our daily lives. With their expertise, the workers hold a great source of knowledge from their experience, which preserves memory, tradition, innovation and bonding in the territory. How has the historical journey of these ways of knowing and doing in our community been? How have they been transformed, how were they before, and how are they now? How are they learned? How many trades survive in the neighborhood, what diversity of them can we find in the rest of the country? These are some of the questions that guided our intervention on the walls of Salón Huev@, with the aim of activating an educational program in 2026 that will enable us to discuss, experience, appreciate, recognize, and revalue the living practices of those who contribute so much to the social fabric of our neighborhood, and to reflect on how we can continue to inhabit it collectively as a community. The illustration is from Enrique Sañudo and Mr. Adam Navarrete, from Alzate Labels, was responsible for putting it on the walls of space.

Since early 2019, seasonal dances have been held to create a gathering space that strengthens community ties for neighbors over the age of 60, who attend individually or with their friends from the neighborhood. In addition to the dances, on certain occasions social activities are organized, such as board games connected to participants’ experiences, projects, and personal interests, as well as activities related to the neighborhood, including the installation of a photo studio where they can be portrayed with family and friends. Dances provide an opportunity for seniors to meet, create new friendships, and enjoy moments of leisure. This aligns with Casa Gallina’s overall interest in offering alternatives to the conditions of isolation and emotional vulnerability in which many of them live.

An average of 60 people usually gather for the social gathering, where drinks and food are shared, and the space is adapted into a dance floor. The music comes from the house rockola, which contains a selection of songs chosen by neighbors and local businesses in the neighborhood, which have been put together by young people like musician Javier Celis, baker Christian Zepeda, or Sebastian Navarro and Alberto Olvera.

The menus for the dance are usually cooked by the Casa Gallina team, although for the closing dance of 2022, neighbor Norma López helped by preparing vegetarian tacos de canasta and punch. Similarly, in December 2023, the ally Angélica Palma prepared a dish with quelites de la milpa, called tortilla del tiempo verde- tlaxcalxopantlaualli in Nahuatl-. During that dance, seed cushions made by neighbors were also donated from a workshop led by neighbor Ere Lo. And at our 2025 summer dance, Fábrica de Huertos provided us with baskets with vegetables and a diverse harvest, to be able to give to the attendees at the end of the event.

On the occasion of the first 11 years of Casa Gallina and in a fortunate alliance with the Baxin Cagal family, a collective celebration was held that allowed the sharing of music and festive foods prepared in accordance with the traditional knowledge of the Los Tuxtlas region, Veracruz. With the guidance of Doña Juana Cagal and Hortencia Baxin, we prepared tatabiguiyayo prepared for the more than 100 attendees of the anniversary. The entire family—also bearers and teachers of the Sotavento musical tradition—played, sang, and danced selections from their repertoire of sones jarochos, while sharing their recent story: the replanting and continuity of their art across younger generations. Thus, from the grandparents to the grandchildren, and together with the great family and community of Casa Gallina, we celebrated the journey traveled and the one yet to come.

On the occasion of the Market’s eighth anniversary—an ally of Casa Gallina in previous projects and held in the neighboring borough of Azcapotzalco as a local initiative connecting producers and consumers interested in conscious agri-food processes in our city—two short films were screened in Salón Huev@: Mercado Capital Verde: cosechando cercanías y alimentando la vida (Dir. Gabriela Medina) and Sano y justo sabe mejor: propuestas de sustentabilidad alimentaria en la Ciudad de México (Prod. CEIICH, COUS - UNAM & La Sandía Digital). The same producers and transformers from the market, their coordinators, regular consumers and members of the neighborhood, who enjoyed the testimony, registration and video reflection on the process of proposing and sustaining this short chain of marketing in the north of the capital.

We welcomed the Baxin Cagal family, originally from Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, at the neighborhood gathering Musical Flavors. This family, dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of son jarocho, shared their traditions through music and gastronomy. Residents of Santa María la Ribera enjoyed traditional dishes prepared by Juana Cagal, while we talked about the countryside, Veracruz cuisine, and the cultural roots of the region. Maestro Arcadio Baxin also shared his wisdom regarding agricultural cycles and music, performing sones jarochos that reflect the link between the land and the musical tradition of Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz.