Xaboo Mephaa

Xaboo Mephaa — “people who speak Tlapanec” in the Me’phaa language — is Lee’s Summit’s indigenous-Guerrero restaurant, serving pre-colonial dishes from the mountain village of Iliatenco brought to KC by Jorge and Michele Galvez, one of the only Tlapanec-rooted restaurants in the United States.¹

Description

Xaboo Mephaa takes its name directly from the Tlapanec (Me’phaa) language: xaboo mephaa translates as “people who speak Tlapanec,” the self-designation of an indigenous group of roughly 98,000 people in the mountain state of Guerrero, Mexico. The Me’phaa language is Oto-Manguean — tonal, with complex inflectional morphology — and distinct from Spanish or Nahuatl. Most elders in the Galvez family’s home village of Iliatenco, Guerrero speak only Me’phaa, not Spanish.¹²

The restaurant launched as a food truck in December 2021, driven by plans that co-owner Jorge Galvez developed with his brother starting in late 2019. The brick-and-mortar location at 1196 NE Douglas St followed, celebrating its one-year anniversary in November 2024 — placing the permanent opening around late 2023.¹³ Both the food truck and the restaurant continue to operate. The kitchen serves what the Galvezes describe as “the food that we normally will cook at home” — dishes rooted in pre-colonial culinary traditions that predate Spanish arrival in the Americas, alongside accessible Tex-Mex options for guests new to the cuisine.¹

The food is homestyle and specific: picaditas (masa rounds with toppings), gorditas, chicken pozole, tamales oaxaqueños, street-style tacos, and black refried beans define the menu. These are not pan-Mexican constructions but regional preparations tied to Guerrero’s particular agricultural and indigenous culture — natural corn, fresh local ingredients, cooking methods passed through generations without reference to Spanish colonial influence.¹

Ownership and history

Jorge Galvez and his wife Michele Galvez are co-owners and the driving force behind Xaboo Mephaa. Jorge is originally from Iliatenco, a small mountainous village in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero and the traditional homeland of the Me’phaa (Tlapanec) people. The family connection to the village is direct: the elders of Iliatenco predominantly speak Me’phaa rather than Spanish, and the culinary traditions the Galvezes bring to Lee’s Summit are transmitted through that living indigenous community.¹

The business concept emerged in late 2019 when Jorge’s brother approached him and Michele with a business plan. The food truck launched in December 2021 under the name Xaboo Mephaa — a deliberate act of naming that centers the indigenous identity rather than translating or softening it for a mainstream market. The choice of the Me’phaa phrase as the restaurant’s public name in Lee’s Summit, Missouri is itself a form of cultural assertion.¹

The brick-and-mortar restaurant at 1196 NE Douglas St opened in approximately late 2023, with a one-year anniversary celebrated in November 2024. The food truck continues to operate alongside the restaurant, extending the Galvez family’s reach.¹³

In November 2024, KCUR — Kansas City’s NPR affiliate — featured Xaboo Mephaa on its Up to Date program, providing regional media validation of both the restaurant’s distinction and its cultural significance.¹

The Tlapanec (Me’phaa) culinary context

The Tlapanec people are indigenous to the mountainous Montaña region of Guerrero state, centered around towns including Tlapa de Comonfort and villages like Iliatenco. Their language, Me’phaa (the colonial-era term “Tlapanec” is now disfavored; the people use Me’phaa for both the language and themselves), is one of the more linguistically isolated Oto-Manguean languages — not mutually intelligible with Zapotec, Mixtec, or Nahuatl.²

Me’phaa cuisine is essentially unknown in the United States market. The broader “Mexican” restaurant category in American cities is overwhelmingly dominated by northern-Mexican/Tex-Mex constructions or Oaxacan and Jalisco regional traditions. A restaurant explicitly grounded in Guerrero’s indigenous Me’phaa foodways — with a menu that includes pre-colonial preparations and an owner who names the business in the indigenous language — occupies an essentially singular position in the KC metro and is among a handful of such restaurants nationally.¹²

Links

• Official website: https://xaboomephaa.wixsite.com/website/home
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mephaaxaboo/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xaboomephaamexicanfood/
• KCUR feature: https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2024-11-19/xaboo-mephaa-brings-traditional-flavors-of-guerrero-mexico-to-lees-summit

Sources

Disputes

The exact brick-and-mortar opening date is inferred (one-year anniversary November 2024 implies ~November 2023 opening) rather than directly stated in sources — treat as approximately late 2023. The precise spelling of the restaurant name varies slightly across platforms (“Xaboo Mephaa” vs. “Xaboo Me’phaa”); the owner’s own website and the business name use “Xaboo Mephaa” without the apostrophe, which is used here. Jorge Galvez’s brother’s name and role are not publicly documented.

Footnotes

1. https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2024-11-19/xaboo-mephaa-brings-traditional-flavors-of-guerrero-mexico-to-lees-summit — KCUR Up to Date, November 19, 2024. Asserts: Jorge and Michele Galvez co-owners; from Iliatenco, Guerrero; elders speak only Me’phaa; food truck launched 2021; brick-and-mortar at 1196 NE Douglas St; one-year anniversary November 2024; picaditas and gorditas predate Spanish colonization; chicken pozole, tamales, street tacos; “Xaboo Mephaa” = “people who speak Tlapanec”; Jorge quote about guests feeling welcome like family. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlapanec_language and https://www.indigenousmexico.org/articles/the-defiant-tlapaneca-mephaa-of-guerrero — Multiple sources. Asserts: Me’phaa spoken by ~98,000 people in Guerrero; Oto-Manguean language family; tonal with complex morphology; “Tlapanec” is colonial-era term, people prefer Me’phaa; homeland in mountainous Montaña region of Guerrero; Iliatenco in that region. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. https://www.yelp.com/biz/xaboo-mephaa-lees-summit-2 — Yelp listing updated May 2026. Asserts: active and open, 1196 NE Douglas St Lee’s Summit MO 64086; current listings and reviews. ↩ ↩²