"Todo Para Todos, Nada Para Nosotros (Everything for Everyone, Nothing for Ourselves)"- Zapatista Principal

Ollin Cafetzin’s spirit seeks to nourish collective mindsets and non-oppressive attitudes amongst employees and customers.

  • Reclaiming indigenous antojitos, beverages, and languages of the Americas

  • Supporting local projects to prioritize our community's wellness to ensure sustainable practices

  • Constructing relationship building among different pueblos

A few words, from the Owner

My ancestral roots in Coatepec Costales and upbringings in Yakama, Washington, inspired the vision for Ollin Cafetzin.  As a niña, my parents exposed my ears to their Nahuatl language and felt a responsibility to carry it on. The name of the coffee shop, Ollin Cafetzin, translates to Movement Coffee in Nahuatl. A language that is heavily spoken by more than 90 percent of the population that make up my parents' village in Guerrero, Mexico. 

In efforts to preserve indigenous pueblos, I respectfully share and celebrate traditional ways of feeding the body-mind while adding my Chicana flavor. Our beverages and antojitos will reflect Mesoamerican sabores and sourced from different pueblos across the Americas. 

Cafetzin's first-stages of existence began in 2020, recognizing the importance of crafting alternative spaces where people of color could have critical conversations about the world around them, our collective decided to create Ollin Caftezin.

Coffee shops have historically served as a space where activists gather to plant seeds of revolution, and we seek to continue this tradition. We are deeply inspired by the social movements that have shaped our history and it is important for us to lead with values and principles of resistance stem from different social struggles. Through this political project of creating Ollin Cafetzin, we do not seek to benefit ourselves but benefit everyone in our community.

The story of Ollin Cafetzin began in 2020 when a group of individuals came together with a shared social dream of creating a space for people of color to have critical conversations, and they established the idea of creating the community-driven space known as Ollin Cafetzin.

We offer a rich cultural experience by combining coffee sourced from Indigenous collectives in Latin America with an extensive collection of ethnic studies books. Our mission is to reclaim comunidad through cafetzin, conexión y educación, as we provide a space where our vecinos can find representation and reflection in our offerings.

Our unique coffee shop and ethnic studies library is collectively run by a team of social workers, teachers, and youth organizers. The founding team envisions Ollin Cafetzin to serve as a space where activists can gather to plant seeds of revolution.