What is the Casa Hogar?

La Casa Hogar (the “house home” in English) is a Christian home for children in Mexico who are homeless or do not have sustainable living conditions in their original home or birthplace. This may be because of abuse from a parent, abandonment, or their physical living conditions. There are a few children who have a loving parent or relative, but they are physically or financially unable to care for the child or children. There are 30,000 cases of kids solely in the state of Oaxaca living in unfit conditions. In the state of Oaxaca, there are only 2 orphanages run by the state, one with 100 boys and the other with 100 girls. This leaves thousands of children living in unfit conditions and in the streets.The incredible Cruz family took it upon themselves to dedicate their lives to giving a safe home and creating hopeful futures for these children.

The home is located in the beautiful small town of Huajuapan de León in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. If you are not familiar, Oaxaca is situated in the southern mountains of Mexico. There are 40 children in total at La Casa Hogar, which is run in two different locations about 2 hours apart. The first location is for girls of all ages and boys under age 14. The boys over age 14 work on a sustainable farm to grow food (when possible for the main location) and learn valuable farming skills, which in turn lead to jobs at an older age. Once the girls are over age 14, they begin to work at Berta’s restaurant. This teaches them valuable cooking skills and allows them to begin to save money for when they leave La Casa to go to college or go straight into the job market.

La Casa Hogar was founded by a man named Alberto and his wife named Berta in the late 1990s. Berta and Freddy began taking kids into their home. As this number kept increasing, the gracious couple decided to open La Casa Hogar. Currently working as a minister, Freddy picked up a second job at Frito Lay working nights and overtime to make enough money to open the home. Seeing his hard work and his love for the children, Frito Lay decided to donate the money for the original small building which began the amazing home that it is today.

In the year 2015 after his completion of law school, Alfredo and Berta’s son, Danny, took over La Casa Hogar. The home is now run by Danny and his wife, Kezi. Danny and Kezi have two little girls named Hadassah (age 2) and Analia (2 months). Danny is a lawyer, which significantly helps in the difficult relationship the casa has with the social service system in Mexico. Today, the home has two different locations as stated before, the home location and the sustainable farm for boys over age 14, which is run by Danny’s brother. My next blog will be about the labor market in Huajuapan de León and in Oaxaca. In addition, the post will be about how Danny’s work in law specifically helps the children at the casa and the relationship between la casa and the social service system in Mexico. The post will specifically be in the form of interview questions with Danny.

A group of the kids who live at La Casa Hogar with my family: