Itacira Da Silva is a 27-year-old Black transgender woman, owner of bakery Lobo Mau Doceteria. Born in Recife, she grew up in Camaragibe, a city in the northeast of Brazil, in a conservative, religious, and very humble environment. Graduated from Micro Rainbow Brasil’s 10th entrepreneurship training in 2023, Itacira consolidated her potential as a transgender confectioner woman, creating a business plan that marked the history of the project. Get to know her journey before and after this experience.
Tough upbringing
Itacira had a poor childhood. Her mother raised 3 children alone, and she took care of her younger siblings, cooking for the family from an early age. Supplies were running out by the end of the month, which encouraged her creativity in the kitchen. When she was very young, she loved watching her godmother work at home for a catering service, but her start with cakes was terrible: “One day there was no wheat flour at home, so I decided to make rice flour by blending raw rice and sifting it. I used beetroot for flavor because that’s what we had. It was unbearable!”. She has always been passionate about music, which liberated her spirit as an LGBTQI+ person in that oppressive environment.
In her youth, her relationship with her mother became difficult, and the urgency to earn money and leave home knocked on her door, leading her to work in a supermarket and live with friends. It was an incredible phase where she started doing drag performances and came into contact with her feminine identity. At the same time, she studied violin and wanted to invest more in music and leave her job. But how? What could she do to generate income?
Cooking to make a living
Itacira’s bakery Lobo Mau was born with an Instagram profile. Ideas for the new business sprouted as quickly as the sales of brownies and brigadeiros (a traditional chocolate candy in Brazil) at the supermarket and on the street, under the watchful and interested eye of her manager. “I felt like a smuggler, lol”. But then the pandemic hit, and she had to stop production, working for a while as a cashier. She then resigned to try to venture with a newly acquainted person on the internet, doing a “musical tour through the Northeast,” but quickly realized the girl’s dubious interest and decided to abandon ship before it sank.
After that, she made important investments with the termination payment from her contract, but the money was running out. She couldn’t live her dream in the music career. That’s when a neighbor invited her to participate in an occupation organized by the Urban Movement of Homeless Workers (MUST), an experience that forever marked her journey. Hoping to get land and rebuild her life, she cooked over a wood fire for the people in occupation, living without electricity and running water, under a tarpaulin of a shack and facing numerous police attacks. She left with nothing, just a certainty that still inspires her today…
Investing in her business
The pragmatism resulting from this experience made her realize that she needed income and stability above all. She moved to a house in a favela in Olinda, where she lived with a friend who had a small business. The conditions were unsanitary and dangerous, but she returned to studying music and selling sweets on the street with her friend at strategic points in downtown Recife, gaining a taste for sales and not just production.
It was a success, there was never any surplus production, which caught the attention of the local traffickers. Her house was invaded, and equipment and supplies for making sweets, basic food items, and some electronics were taken, forcing her to return to her mother’s house. She quickly got a formal job at a graphic design company, but soon realized that type of work was no longer for her.
That’s when she invested time to reorganize the branding of her company, and LoboMau resurfaced with full force, returning to selling on the street but now with Instagram ads, videos, and marketing strategies. With the growth of the brand, she started receiving orders for brigadeiros for parties and decided to move to Recife, where her market niche was. She then invested in delivery and resumed selling her original brownies and other sweets. The quality of the products and the outstanding customer service took LoboMau to the level of a top restaurant on iFood in just 4 months. Gradually gaining experience to confront her fear of baking cakes, the star of all parties.
As the brand established itself and the demand for decorated cakes increased, she needed to expand and hire someone. But how to take that step? How to pay a fair salary without breaking the company?
Micro Rainbow Brazil
Her friend Allan, a former Micro Rainbow Brazil’s beneficiary with whom she shared the house that was invaded in Olinda, encouraged her to enroll in the program. The 10th training allowed her to meet peers with similar backgrounds, recognize herself as a transgender woman, and understand that her journey in the confectionery was unique.
This discovery brought the necessary serenity for a more strategic thinking about her company. Besides finally becoming an employer, with wide support from her followers and customers, she also (re)conquered a long-lost position: that of being a daughter. The connection with her greatest reference of strength and autonomy, broken by transphobia, was finally reestablished: “It was as if we had recovered lost time. Our connection was not only from then on: it was retroactive.”
With the company thriving, finances balanced, and her mother’s encouragement, she began to feel fulfilled and happy. The business plan she developed in Micro Rainbow’s training, meticulous in every detail, was fundamental for her security, as she began to project goals for the next steps as an entrepreneur and not just for the next day. By hiring a transgender friend, she was able to focus more on high-quality confectionery, significantly increasing her revenue and investing in better equipment: “Micro Rainbow Brazil was the second occupation for me after MUST.”
Becoming a successful entrepreneur
After the 10th training, she joined the Pride Project’s 1st Entrepreneurship training, organized by our partner organisation Diversità Consultoria, a unique opportunity to create the Canvas model of her business in a class where most students were transgender and transvestite individuals. With an impeccable Canvas, she was awarded a seed capital of R$3,000.00 (three thousand reais), which allowed her to invest in Plant Life training (vegan confectionery, without sugar, without dyes) to meet the growing demand for inclusive confectionery. She also purchased a microwave oven, reducing waste of inputs and enabling last-minute orders (up to 5 hours in advance), something that almost no confectioner accepts.
After doing the trainings at Micro Rainbow Brasil and Diversità, she doubled her revenue, and her company is now completely sustainable, with an officially registered trademark. She is close to reaching the ideal salary, but she already aspires to live alone, have a separate production space from her home, and expand hiring and visibility for her company.
Today, that girl who made an “unbearable” rice cake due to ingredient scarcity is a reference in vintage cakes decorated with buttercream in Recife, now with vegan options. The recognition of her competence and representativity has finally arrived, and she has been invited to speak about entrepreneurship for transgender and transvestite people. Through her dedication, sensitivity, cooperation, and excellence as a student, she was also hired as a monitor and teacher for Micro Rainbow Brasil’s 11th training, performing a stellar job with the project team.
Recently, she participated in the largest confectionery fair in Latin America, meeting her first YouTuber teachers, who are very famous in confectionery and who she already admired when selling sweets on the street. In these spaces, she has been gaining more and more admirers who are increasingly enchanted by her work, helping her breakthrough the bubble and take on her role as a transgender confectioner.
There is no doubt that the unique talents of people like Itacira only need inclusive spaces and investment to flourish more and more, creating sustainable businesses with pioneering and representativity. The plan now? A partnership for her company. Soar, Itacira! And long live LoboMau Doceteria!
