Located on the seafront, Casa MAM has been a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer, but now its permanence is threatened.
Irais Garcia.
Casa MAM is a large building located on Manuel Ávila Camacho Boulevard, between Mina and Iturbide streets, facing the sea in the port of Veracruz. It has five levels, eleven rooms and holds within its walls dozens of stories of women who have suffered from breast cancer. Some are still seen there and others have passed away, but lived their last days with company.
Eight years after being founded by Roxana Guízar, Casa MAM could have its days numbered, as a businessman wants to buy the land where the house was built to build a building, as it is one of the areas with the highest added value in the metropolitan area.
The founder and the activists who work with her intend to buy the land and prevent the women who are currently receiving care there from being left without the support that Casa MAM has provided them.
CASA MAM could disappear; they would lose property in Veracruz
Flor Oros is one of the women who has found refuge in the pink house located in front of the sea, where dozens of other women from Veracruz also do, as the state increases in cases year after year. In 2023 alone, 1,243 new cases were diagnosed, while in 2024, as of week 29, there have already been 504 detections, according to the Epidemiological Bulletin of the federal Ministry of Health.
“For me, Casa Mam is and will be the place where I have been able to meet women who, despite adversity in their own lives, have dared to help, support, guide and even lend their wings so that many others feel sheltered, surrounded by empathy, sisterhood and love,” said Flor.
She said that thanks to everyone at Casa Mam, she did not spend time alone physically during her illness.
Esmeralda Toral is another member of this community. She remembers when she arrived at MAM’s house, Maricela welcomed her and gave her some words that touched her heart.
“From that moment on, I knew that I would find the perfect place to go through the process of breast cancer. This keeps all of us who make up this beautiful house united and that we find here the way to be happy first of all, to feel empowered, supported, useful, and above all to know that our questions will be answered with certainty,” she recalled.
While for Magally, Casa Mam was the place where her life regained meaning after receiving the terrible diagnosis, Alam Ruth said she has found a source of emotional support in a welcoming place surrounded by women who, like her, are in a struggle.
Jessica, another patient, learned about Casa MAM at the beginning of her treatment and describes it as a safe place, a “beacon in the darkness,” and a place where she knows she will always be welcome.
Casa MAM, a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer in Veracruz
AT RISK
For some months now, Roxana has been aware of a businessman’s intention to buy the house where they now have their headquarters. This businessman owns a plot of land adjacent to Casa MAM and had the intention of building a building.
“He has already bought the back part. What the doctor (the owner of the house) told me is that the dimensions of the land are not sufficient to build a building, he absolutely needs this land,” he explained.
Roxana indicated that the owner already spoke with them and told them that he will not sell the house, as long as he lives, to this businessman.
Casa MAM, a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer in Veracruz
But he is willing to sell them so that Casa MAM can continue its work there. The amount is 5 million pesos, much less than the house is really worth in the real estate market in the area.
“There is a lot of pressure because we know that the owner is already old, and that one day his children might decide to sell. So the idea arose that we could buy it. The owner wants to sell it to us at the cost of the land, so that we can pay for it. He loves the work we do here,” said the activist.
Casa MAM, a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer in Veracruz
THE BELL
This is how they have started a fundraising campaign on social media, which has also been replicated through the Go Found Me platform.
“If 50,000 people donate 100 pesos, we can buy it with that and we won’t be afraid of it being sold,” said Roxana, founder of Casa MAM.
They have sought out influencers to help them be ambassadors for this campaign, and to raise the 5 million needed to purchase the home, however, they have not yet reached their goal.
Casa MAM, a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer in Veracruz
Roxana believes that if they lose this house, which is now the headquarters of Casa MAM, she would not be able to continue.
“I don’t see the association anywhere else. It’s their place, it’s their refuge, we have the places we need, we’re in a location where everyone can come. I’ve talked to the girls, I don’t know if at that point (if they lose the house through a sale) I might stop them,” she said.
THE HISTORY AND THE HEART BEHIND CASA MAM
At the beginning of 2014, Casa MAM did not exist, there were only the foundations of the great project that it is today in the imagination of Roxana Guízar.
One day she found the perfect place that fit what she wanted and what the women who would arrive needed. It was a nice house with a privileged location. At the time, all the walls were painted white, and it had a big “For Rent” sign in black letters.
Casa MAM, a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer in Veracruz
“I passed by here and saw the big house,” he sighs with a laugh.
When Roxana saw the building, she immediately thought about what she had discussed with Jaime Navarrete, an oncologist at the Veracruz Regional Hospital, regarding the urgent need for a comprehensive breast cancer diagnosis center in Veracruz.
“Then, eight years ago, Jaime Navarrete, an oncologist at the Regional Hospital, told us that women were dying because there was no timely diagnosis, because the mammogram was useless. From then on, the idea arose to create this timely diagnosis center where we could give them ultrasounds, mammograms and biopsies, all in three days, a rapid diagnosis that saves lives,” he recalled.
For the past six years, Roxana had been working on her group Mujeres Apoyo Mujeres (Women Supporting Women), which was established on March 8, 2010. However, she was very aware of the need for a place where she could concentrate all her efforts, and for her, that huge, old, white house was just the right place.
So she made up her mind and called the real estate agency that advertised it. They were asking 30 thousand pesos in rent, which she couldn’t afford. She put it off for a while, but then her anxiety returned and she began to investigate. She found the owner’s number and called him.
Casa MAM, a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer in Veracruz
The owner of the house turned out to be a doctor. When Roxana told him what she needed the house for, he was delighted. He told her that the house was bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside, so it would have all the space needed for the diagnostic center. And he went further, telling her that he could reduce the rent by 10 thousand pesos, leaving it at 20 thousand a month.
“It doesn’t look like it has five levels, it’s eleven spaces,” he said.
And so she started working. Her first goal was to raise the 40 thousand pesos required as a deposit and advance to guarantee the property. She has always worked in the tourism and restaurant sector, so she began to use her savings to fulfill this dream.
A dream that arose because Roxana lost her mother to breast cancer at a time when there was not much openness and support to save her life. She saw how her mother’s health deteriorated rapidly, until she could not do more for her and had to say goodbye to her.
“The house was a little bit battered because it had been abandoned. I started painting it by myself. I bought paint bottle by bottle,” she recalls with a laugh.
“I brought furniture, then I brought some small wooden boxes, I painted them and so little by little we started,” he recalled.
The association’s first bank account was created with 1,500 pesos donated by a close friend.
“From there we started doing the races and with that I bought the room, some pink armchairs, which we had made for 19 thousand pesos,” he said. Those armchairs are still there, and are part of the identity of Casa MAM.
Over time, everything took shape. Roxana decorated everything in pink, the symbol of the fight against breast cancer, and combined it with white.
And so began the story of this building, which not only means a lot to Roxana but also to all the women and their families who have been treated there, and who have also found in this space, and among other women, the medical and emotional support necessary to go through the difficult stage that cancer represents.
Casa MAM, a beacon of hope for women with breast cancer in Veracruz
Esmeralda, one of the women interviewed by e-consulta Veracruz, who receives care at this facility, stated that all the activities that Roxana carries out at Casa MAM, as founder, administrator and organizer of many activities to raise funds, are admirable, since she has time for everything.
“The love that is capable of giving and projecting, this, keeps us all united who form this beautiful house and who find here the way to be happy first of all, to feel empowered, supported, useful, and above all to know that our doubts will be answered with certainty,” she said.
Her partner, Jaqueline Manzárraga, said that she found at Casa MAM the strength she needed to navigate her cancer journey.
“Casa MAM has a heart and that heart is called Roxana, without her the Women Supporting Women project would not make sense. Whoever comes to Casa MAM receives the strength that a common enemy has stolen from us, it is a pink place,” said the woman.
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