  In this work, using the fact that in 3-3-1 models the same leptonic bilinear
contributes to the masses of both charged leptons and neutrinos, we develop an
effective operator mechanism to generate mass for all leptons. The effective
operators have dimension five for the case of charged leptons and dimension
seven for neutrinos. By adding extra scalar multiplets and imposing the
discrete symmetry $Z_9\otimes Z_2$ we are able to generate realistic textures
for the leptonic mixing matrix. This mechanism requires new physics at the TeV
scale.
