Tables, trucks and stands filled with food, art and clothes are going to surround Chuco Relic Sunday, March 26. “Mija, Yes You Can” is hosting its annual Mija Market at Chuco Relic Central, 10 p.m. to 3 p.m. 2750 Gateway Blvd East from where women leaders are being represented.
Iris Lopez the founder and executive director of “Mija, Yes You Can” runs the nonprofit organization with a powerful vision to help women and girls in the El Paso region. They provide resources for women to become ambitious in their future.
The organization is celebrating its three years of existence with a market full of women-owned businesses. For National Women’s Month, the organization plans to showcase women who impact the El Paso community with their businesses.
The celebration started off small, but over the years, the organization saw the rising support from women owned businesses. This led the organization to collaborate with Chuco Relic, a women owned business, to sell the Mija shirts which in turn gives profit back to the organization.
“The amount of women who wanted to be a part of the market was just overwhelming and that was when we realized, oh, wow, there’s a lot of women-owned businesses out there,” Lopez said. “This year, we just wanted to really make it more about the vendors and kind of a celebration for them.”
The vendors were chosen by the organization‘s committee of two women.
The vendors who signed up were chosen by their products and if the business was not well-known by the community. The organization chose to invite different and new vendors this year.
The women-owned businesses will include Star Glampers Sleepovers, Pica Dientes and La Confitería who are just three of the 20 vendors planned to be at the market.
Over the last two years, the event has brought in different cultures through art, fashion, and essentials. The organization is partnering up with Little Caesars Pizza to provide food towards the vendors.
“The special thing we do is we don’t charge the vendors anything, this is actually a celebration for them.” Lopez says. “We’re gonna feed the vendors, give them water, and they don’t pay a fee, they just donate whatever item that they sell, they donate one to use and we raffle it off during the market.”
This market expresses the importance of bringing in anyone interested in buying from the locally women-owned businesses that display their product, grow and become well-known businesses in El Paso.
Many of these locally owned businesses are very small and are not well known to El Pasoans.
During the event, you can find other fun things to take part in rather than just the market, there will be raffles every 20 minutes and the “Mijas” will be collecting feminine hygiene products to “Her Pantry” which is a nonprofit organization diaper bank. In addition to that, the market will be a way for the organization to fundraise for their “Mija, Yes You Can!” scholarship and other additional events where they help countless women across El Paso.
They are collecting all proceeds from the Mija merchandise that is sold at the market.
“Mija, Yes You Can” has been helping women all over El Paso to expand their businesses and have a bigger audience. Not only are they giving women a space to promote their businesses, but also using the event to give back to the community with feminine hygiene products and scholarships.
“I hope that it brings awareness that El Paso is full of strong women owned businesses,” Lopez said.
The organization hopes to inspire women who are afraid to start their own business, to step out and be influenced by other strong leaders.
“I hope it pushes them to do what they want to do in life as well,” Lopez said.
Continue to celebrate National Women’s Month by supporting locally owned women’s businesses now and all year round.
Aside from the market everyone can support these local businesses and the women behind them.
For more information visit mijayesyoucan.org and @mijayesyoucan on Instagram.
Avery Escamilla-Wendell is the staff reporter and may be reached at [email protected] or on Instagram @by_avery_escamilla
