Welcome to Casa Venus, a LGBT-Led Hotel Which is Radically Redefining Hospitality
SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO — Casa Venus, a resort with a simple white-walled exterior, opened its doorways on a key thoroughfare in downtown San Cristóbal de Las Casas in September 2023. In the entrance, guests see the hotel’s symbol, which depicts Venus, the Roman goddess of adore, rising from a carnivorous plant. A close by indication announces that there is no discrimination in this room.
Casa Venus is the initial resort started and managed by trans persons in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the second-most touristic town in the point out of Chiapas. It employs 12 men and women who detect as nonbinary, gay, lesbian, trans or allies. Due to the fact opening, it has been explained as a revolutionary regional area for inclusive work.
The hotel’s founder, a trans person named Pen, claims the job arose as an different given “the absence of opportunities for trans and queer people today,” teams that practical experience discrimination on a regular foundation.
Regardless of anti-discrimination legal guidelines in Mexico, and even with the truth that the constitution prohibits discrimination, 37% of individuals who recognize as users of the LGBT neighborhood say they experience discrimination, in accordance to the 2022 National Study on Discrimination, done by the National Institute of Figures and Geography. The survey also confirmed that much less than 50 percent of workers in this group have published contracts (47.2%) or obtain to social safety providers (48.4%), both equally of which are primary legal rights stipulated in the Ley Federal del Trabajo, the country’s federal legislation governing labor.
Marissa Revilla, GPJ Mexico
Tomás Chiu, a manager, and Pen, the hotel’s founder, guide the Casa Venus crew.
“We have been incredibly intentional in choosing our team,” claims Pen, who prefers to be referred to by this name.
Casa Venus staff say operating in the hotel gives them a emotion of security they did not have at other work opportunities.
“It’s my very first time doing work in a space like this, with people today from my community, a position the place I sense at simplicity and accepted, without persons hunting at me, devoid of judgment, without the need of labels,” claims Ana Ramírez, a receptionist at Casa Venus at the time of the interview.
Like her, Tomás Chiu, a single of the hotel’s managers, who is trans, suggests, “It’s the initial time I sense validated” in a place of work.
Chiu claims that in former employment he satisfied with discrimination from his bosses, who would use female pronouns to refer to him and restrict the things to do he was permitted to do.
Marissa Revilla, GPJ Mexico
Ana Ramírez poses for a portrait at the Casa Venus hotel, in which she labored as a receptionist until finally February.
Trans guys have an 18.3% likelihood of experiencing violence in the workplace, in accordance to figures released in 2023 by the Comisión Nacional de los Salarios Mínimos (CONASAMI), the federal agency that establishes the requirements for environment minimum wages. This determine rises to 36.9% for trans women. Both equally figures are bigger than these for cisgender adult men and ladies (14.3% and 16.1%, respectively), as properly as nonbinary people today (16.6%).
The ambiance of respect and validation inside of the crew is perceptible to site visitors. Alan Eduardo Pérez Martín, a tourist from Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco, claims he determined to remain at Casa Venus based mostly on tips he read on social media.
“The persons who work right here are really inclusive, and that’s not prevalent,” he states. “Witnessing men and women currently being in a position to exhibit their personalities lends design and style and a pleasurable come to feel to the lodge.”
A strengthen for inclusion in the office
Casa Venus’ struggle against discrimination has garnered the attention of other merchants and activists in the spot.
Maricarmen de la Encarnación Petate, an advocate for the rights of trans girls in Chiapas, states the lodge is “a landmark in recognizing and respecting identity” in an spot viewed as “cosmopolitan but pretty traditionalist, eminently Catholic.”
Marissa Revilla, GPJ Mexico
Tomás Chiu and Pen pose for a portrait on the Casa Venus roof.
In accordance to CONASAMI, in 2021, trans ladies experienced an 18.8% likelihood of getting denied work. By distinction, the probability that those people who had been cisgender would be denied the opportunity to get the job done was 5.1% for adult men and 4.3% for women. Eduardo Villatoro, president of Cámara Nacional de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, a group that promotes the pursuits of neighborhood firms, is thrilled that Casa Venus exists and hopes far more companies will follow its example.
“The work the resort is doing [spreads] dignity and contributes to the elimination of stereotypes, stigmas and taboos when it arrives to this section of the inhabitants,” Villatoro states referring to individuals in the LGBT local community.
Pen, who suggests San Cristóbal de Las Casas is “an extremely transphobic area,” states he will continue doing work to beat place of work discrimination and provide dignified operate to customers of his community.
“Making the marginal ‘normal’ feels like a political act,” he suggests.
