November 13-15, 2026

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Mujeres y Mole: A Chingona Retreat with Chef Silvana

This is your birthright.

At the center of this retreat is mole as a matriarchal foodway passed through generations of women as ceremony, labor, survival, and love. Mole carries the imprint of abuelas who have taught us how how to listen, how to wait, how to feel when something is ready.

Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza carries this lineage as Doña Silvana, a woman taught by matriarchs who entrusted her with these knowledges and instructed her to share them forward. These teachings were not taken. They were given. They were offered with responsibility and with the understanding that they would be passed to the next generation of mujeres who carry this foodway in their bones.

This retreat exists because those matriarchs said yes.

Participants will cook side by side with Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza in her newly opened taller, a teaching kitchen devoted to ancestral foodways, cultural continuity, and matriarchal transmission. Over the course of the weekend, participants will learn to prepare three distinct types of mole through direct, hands on practice. This learning is rooted in repetition, patience, and shared labor, just as it has always been taught.

These recipes are shared as lineage, not as performance or commodity. They are taught with the understanding that this knowledge belongs to women whose ancestors have carried mole through time, and that receiving it comes with responsibility to honor, protect, and carry it forward with integrity.

Mujeres y Mole is structured to balance cooking with rest. Heat with stillness. Learning with care. Rest is not an afterthought. It is part of the transmission. Colonial disruption fractured our ability to rest together. This retreat repairs that rupture.

Alongside the kitchen work, participants will be held with pláticas, sound healing, and gentle movement practices that support integration, grounding, and collective presence. These offerings are in service of the work, allowing the body to receive what the hands have learned.

This retreat is about making mole and being held while doing so. About remembering through the body. About honoring the women who came before by continuing what they trusted us to carry.

Mujeres y Mole is an intentionally exclusive, three-day gathering for women whose ancestral lineages are connected to the mole traditions of Mesoamerica. This retreat is held for Chicana, Xicana, Latina, Indigenous, and other mujeres who understand mole not as cuisine alone, but as inheritance, responsibility, and memory carried through women’s hands.

We invite participants to enter the space with respect for the cultural weight of this work, an understanding of their relationship to these traditions, and a willingness to engage with humility, care, and relational accountability.

More details coming soon. Space will be limited to a small cohort.

Learning Intentions

Participants will

Participants will engage their own ancestral lineages in relation to mole as a living Mesoamerican foodway, exploring what it means to receive, carry, and continue these traditions as birthright rather than commodity.
Participants will learn to prepare three distinct types of mole through hands on, side by side practice with Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, understanding these recipes as matriarchal transmissions shared with permission and responsibility.
Participants will deepen their understanding of mole as ceremonial labor, recognizing how time, repetition, patience, and collective effort shape both the food and the relationships formed in the kitchen.
Participants will experience cooking as a form of embodied remembrance, allowing the hands, senses, and nervous system to hold knowledge alongside the mind.
Participants will practice rest as an essential component of ancestral continuity, learning how pausing, receiving care, and being held in community support sustainable transmission of knowledge.
Participants will engage pláticas, sound healing, and gentle movement as integrative practices that support grounding, regulation, and embodied integration of what is learned through cooking.
Participants will cultivate relational accountability to these foodways, leaving with a clear understanding that receiving ancestral knowledge carries responsibility for how it is honored, protected, and shared moving forward.
Participants will leave with an embodied sense of how mole, rest, and matriarchal care function together as practices of resistance, healing, and cultural survival.

Accessibility, Reciprocity, and Shared Care

Mujeres y Mole is offered as a carefully held gathering grounded in care, respect, and relational accountability. The work, food, time, and labor required to hold this space with integrity are significant, and the cost reflects that reality.

To support access while honoring the true cost of the retreat, we will offer two partial scholarships and two full scholarships. Scholarship details and the application process will be shared once pricing is finalized.

This is a three day, two night gathering, with Thursday evening arrival included. All food is provided. Ingredients, preparation, and cooking are central to the retreat itself and are fully resourced by Casa Salcido. Participants are not asked to bring food or contribute ingredients.

Meals are prepared and held as a collective practice. While food is provided, participants are invited to engage in shared kitchen responsibility, including assisting with meal preparation, serving, dishwashing, and end of meal clean up. These practices are part of the retreat’s relational ethic and reflect the matriarchal traditions from which this work comes. Shared labor is not an add on. It is part of how we gather.

Sleeping arrangements are shared in community. Casa Salcido is a lived in home, and the way we inhabit the space reflects values of consent, respect, and togetherness. Bedding, linens, and all necessary supplies are provided. Sleeping spaces are arranged with attention to comfort and care.

The cost of this retreat reflects the real labor and resources required to hold this work responsibly. This includes food and ingredients, kitchen and cooking labor, water, propane, cleaning supplies, waste disposal, preparation of the home, mid retreat cleaning, use of the taller, and facilitator honorariums. We share this openly so participants understand what it takes to sustain a gathering rooted in cultural responsibility and collective care.

At the close of the retreat, participants are invited to gather their linens and gently tidy their sleeping space so the home may be closed together. These actions are part of completing the circle of care and responsibility.

This retreat is held with the understanding that access is not about removing responsibility. It is about making expectations clear, honoring labor, and sharing the work in ways that reflect lineage, respect, and reciprocity.

Sleeping Arrangements

All sleeping arrangements for this retreat are shared. We gather in community, and the way we sleep reflects that spirit of togetherness, care, and reciprocity. Casa Salcido has four bedrooms available, along with several additional spaces that can be made comfortable for rest.

All bedding, linens, pillows, and warm coverings will be provided. What matters most is that everyone has a place to land, to rest, and to be held by the space. We will work together to make sure sleeping arrangements honor comfort, consent, and community care.

About the Agenda

Mujeres y Mole is a three day ceremonial working retreat. The structure of our time together reflects the reality of the work we are doing. Making mole requires time, heat, attention, and collective effort. It cannot be rushed, improvised, or loosely held. For this reason, our agenda is more structured than other Chingona Retreats, while remaining rooted in care, rest, and relational accountability.

The retreat includes Thursday evening arrival, with dinner and introductions held at Casa Salcido. This evening allows participants to settle into the space, connect with one another, and prepare for the focused work ahead.

Friday begins promptly at 8:00 am. Friday and Saturday are devoted primarily to hands on cooking in the taller. These are full working days shaped by the rhythm and demands of the mole itself. Participants will be actively engaged in preparation, tending, stirring, tasting, and responding to the needs of the sauces as they develop. This work is purposeful and embodied. It calls on will, focus, and shared responsibility.

This retreat moves through fire rather than water. Fire requires tending. It asks for presence. It transforms through sustained attention and action. The agenda is designed to support this intensity without pushing bodies beyond what they can hold.

Throughout the working days, intentional breaks are built in for rest, nourishment, and integration. These pauses are essential to sustaining the labor and honoring the body. Rest, food, quiet, and spaciousness are part of the transmission.

Offerings such as sound healing, gentle yoga, and rest periods are woven into the schedule to support nervous system regulation and embodied integration. These practices are in service of the work, helping participants remain grounded and resourced as the cooking unfolds.

Participants will also have the option to book additional body based care during the retreat. A local sobradera will be available for massage sessions by appointment, offering traditional hands on care to support tired bodies and integration. Participants may also schedule private yoga or sound healing sessions with the facilitators, depending on availability. These offerings are optional and intended to support rest, recovery, and personal care alongside the collective work.

Saturday evening marks a shift from labor to sharing. Participants will collectively assemble a full ceremonial dinner featuring the moles prepared throughout the retreat. This meal honors the work done, the matriarchs who entrusted these teachings, and the collective effort of the group.

While the agenda is structured, it is not rigid or extractive. It is designed to hold clarity so the work can be done well and with integrity. Participants are encouraged to listen to their bodies, communicate needs for rest or support, and remain accountable to the collective rhythm of the kitchen.

The retreat will formally close at the scheduled time on Sunday. Participants are welcome to take their time transitioning out of the space, resting, or sitting quietly before departure.

Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza

Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza (Chef/She/Doña) is an award-winning chef, visionary, and cultural warrior whose work has redefined Mexican cuisine in the United States. Born into a family of bakers with an 800-year legacy, she blends ancestral traditions with fearless creativity and a lifelong commitment to justice. After studying at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, she traveled across Mexico learning from traditional cooks, a journey that shaped her mission to reclaim and elevate Mexican gastronomy as art, history, and resistance. Founder of the renowned Barrio Café in Phoenix and its sister projects, Chef Silvana has earned nine James Beard nominations while centering food as activism. She created Taller de Cocina Mexicana in Playas de Rosarito, a free culinary program teaching youth ancestral and contemporary cooking as pathways to empowerment. Her book, La Hija de La Chingada: Chronicles of a Mexican Chef, is available in Spanish and English. Through flavor, art, and radical love, she continues to protect culture and nourish her communities today.

Chef Silvana will nourish the circle through meals prepared with ancestral intention, creativity, and deep cultural memory. Her food is ceremony, crafted to honor the wisdom of the tongue and the generative power of the womb. Through her artistry and presence, participants will experience nourishment as teaching, as healing, and as a form of love that sustains both body and spirit. Her meals invite guests to slow down, savor, and remember the lineage carried through flavor, texture, and care.A seasoned chef and baker with a rich background in the restaurant industry, she has worked in many fine dining establishments, including the Ritz Carlton in 2017. As of 2023, Jessenia has transitioned to the role of an educator. Currently shaping young minds at a Seattle, WA title one school, she has become a beacon of light and support for both students and staff, pushing the boundaries of culinary education and increasing opportunity for all students. Her journey reflects not only her personal success but a commitment to being a safe space for others.

Passionate about giving back to the migrant communities similar to those who helped raise her, Jessenia has realized a career milestone as a culinary instructor. Her goal is to empower Latinx and other students of color coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and showing them a mirror of possibility and potential. Jessenia’s story is one of triumph, resilience, and the embodiment of breaking barriers.

Dra. Serina Payan Hazelwood

Dra. Serina Payan Hazelwood (Dra/She/Ella) is a queer, Indigenous Chicana scholar, educator, and community gatherer. Steward of The Elsewheres, she creates spaces for learning rooted in ceremony, storywork, and embodied practice. She holds a PhD in Sustainability Education and an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Prescott College and is currently pursuing a second master’s in Regenerative Design. As an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator, Organizational Provider, and Supervisor in Training, her work bridges professional education with Indigenous and decolonial pedagogies. Living on Kumeyaay lands in Playas de Rosarito, she teaches from a core truth: violence to the land is violence to our bodies. Guided by the Nahui Ollin, her work re-animates Chingonisma as a body of knowledge that restores voice, memory, and communal power. Through The Elsewheres, Serina stewards spaces where people remember themselves, practice accountability, and build futures with land, body, and ancestors in right relation.

Serina will guide participants through somatic grounding, movement, and voice practices that reconnect the tongue, womb, and fascia as sites of remembering. She will offer teachings on Malinche as archetype, experiential work on embodied voice and Chingonisma, and a music circle that invites collective sound as medicine. Her facilitation centers ceremony, intimacy, and embodied truth.

Tuition

What is included

Three nights of lodging at Casa Salcido, a community-centered home of Chef Silvana and Doctora Serina. The home overlooks the Pacific in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California. Checking in on Thursday at 4 PM, Checking out Sunday at 1 PM
6 Meals prepared meals by you and Chef Silvana, featuring ancestral, seasonal, and culturally nutrient cuisine.
Tea, coffee, frescas, and healthy snacks throughout the retreat
Full participation in cooking mole with Chef Silvana
Bedding, linens, towels, and basic toiletries provided
Mid-retreat cleaning of shared spaces and bathrooms to support rest and comfort
Use of indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, patios, and quiet areas for rest, journaling, or reflection
A shared-cost model that honors the labor of food preparation, facilitation, utilities, water stewardship, and home care

Community Values

The cost of this retreat reflects a commitment to care and fairness. Your tuition supports equitable honoraria for our facilitators, honoring the depth of their wisdom and years of lived and learned experience. It also ensures thriving wages for our local community of workers who prepare food, tend the land, and care for the home, making it possible to host this gathering in a way that aligns with our values.

$1200 single occupancy per bed.

Payment plans available.

Scholarships available.

What is not included

Welcome to Chingona Retreats

Travel to and from Casa Salcido, including airfare, border crossing, or ground transportation
Transportation between the border or airport and Casa Salcido, though we are happy to help coordinate logistics and connect you with a trusted local driver
Travel insurance
Personal items beyond what is listed as provided
Optional excursions or activities outside the retreat container
Additional nights of lodging before or after the retreat, unless arranged in advance

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