Girl power.

IT'S EASY TO MISS THE SMALL STOREFRONT CAFE IN EAST LOS Angeles. If you notice it, you might think Homegirl Cafe is just another small business trying to make it in this barrio known for its tough streets. But inside, the beautiful large bouquets of fresh flowers immediately tell you this is a special place.

Behind the counter, or more likely somewhere in the kitchen, you will find Patty Zarate, the cafe's manager and self-described "dishwasher, mother, and counselor" to the 11 young women who work here.

Zarate came to Los Angeles from Guadalajara, Mexico 25 years ago. "I spontaneously decided to visit Los Angeles on a trip to Baja California. After a while I called home and told them I was staying," she says. She now has spent half her life in Los Angeles, serving both food and those in need. Zarate has worked with Central American refugees, community-based programs, comunidades de base (small Christian base communities), and she cooked for the Jesuit community at Mision Dolores.

Before managing the Homegift Cafe, Zarate owned a seven-seat restaurant, which this single mother of three opened to send her first daughter to college. Zarate soon moved to a bigger space, but it was difficult to make ends meet.

At the same time, in the mid-'80s, the historic Mision Dolores faced an internal struggle: Jesuit Father Greg Boyle started to bring gang members to the church, but the parishioners did not want them in their parish. It was then that Zarate got involved with the "homeboys" because, she realized, "these are our own children." Her work with the boys, her love for food, and her proven ability to cook were, she thinks, what prompted Boyle to ask her to turn her cafe into the latest venture of his Homeboy Industries project: Home-gift Cafe. It was to be a place where young women struggling with the influence and consequences of street gangs in their lives could find a way out and a place to work. And so Homegirl Cafe was born.

HER PATH FOR THE PAST QUARTER OF A CENTURY REFLECTS her two passions: cooking and people. "I love to cook. It nourishes people, and I enjoy the visual aspect of food and its flavors, of course," she says. "But above all, food makes people happy. And God wants us to be happy."

A Catholic her entire life, Zarate goes to church every Sunday with her children for a sense of community. "I enjoy the services," she says, "but I go there not to look for God but because I love people. It is in the people that I find God."

Zarate is not a business person. She neither enjoys that aspect of the cafe, nor cares about becoming rich. She is there to "accompany the gifts as they do something different with and in their lives." In addition to teaching the young women a trade, she teaches them that they can succeed in life, overcome everyday obstacles, and accomplish their goals. Zarate's goal is to help them "see something new, that they can do and be what others have told them they cannot do or be."

ONE OF THESE YOUNG WOMEN IS SERENA FUENTES. A COURT ordered community service sentence led her to the cafe. Her whole family is related to gangs and drugs, which have claimed the lives of four of her relatives. "If you live in this neighborhood, you are in, around, of, or from gangs," Fuentes says. "What is the whole point of a life like that? Why do we choose to fight? What is it doing for us? Why kill? What is the purpose? It makes no sense." Fuentes chose not to be from a gang. "I didn't want to be like my morn," she says. At Homegirl Cafe she has now found new hope.

Zarate's love for the young women makes her work painful at times. "They are hurt gifts and are ready to fight back," Zarate explains. "But I stay with them, even when they get angry with me because they do not want--or rather know how--to take orders from a boss." Aware of their sensitive nature, Zarate is able to see beyond those moments of conflict. "My job is different from other Cafe managers. I go home and worry about the gifts," she says. "And I share those worries with my own children. They are my listeners."

Even if the young women go back to their gangs or to jail, "We are always ready to welcome them back," Zarate says. "This is the place of 22,000 chances. I have no problem with that." With forgiveness and love, Zarate opens their eyes to their own greatness.

In return, witnessing the young women struggle together each day with what life brings them, Zarate has learned that goals can be accomplished with support. Zarate and Homeboy Industries will fulfill one of their own goals in March, when a new and much bigger Homegifts Cafe opens its doors. The most important thing, she says: "We will be able to hire more girls and offer them some hope."

PATTY ZARATE

MANAGER, HOMEGIRL CAFE, LOS ANGELES

PERSONAL HERO: My mother. She raised the 11 of us.

FAVORITE BOOK: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

FAVORITE MOVIE: Tsotsi.

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE BIBLE: The Book of Psalms.

FAVORITE FOOD TO COOK: Mole.

FAVORITE FOOD TO EAT: Jalapeno pesto sandwich, with tomato, onions, a fried egg (well done, not sunny side up), and Parmesan cheese.

"I love to cook. It nourishes people, and I enjoy the visual aspect of food and its flavors, of course. But above all, food makes people happy. And God wants us to be happy."

--Patty Zarate

By SANTIAGO CORTES-SJOBERG, associate editor of Claretian Publications' Hispanic Ministry Resource Center.