Buen viaje

It seems everyone has a blog now, and since my trip to El Paso may have people wondering how/what I'm doing, I thought this would be the perfect time to create my own.

Some basic information - I'll be staying and working at Annunciation House, a sort of homeless shelter for the undocumented workers of the area. They promote immigrant rights, serving a demographic that get a lot of press, but not a lot of sustainable aid. To elaborate, their website says,

"Their stories are stories of poverty, stories of malnutrition, and of hungry children, stories of cardboard houses, stories of no work, stories of bombed villages, stories of fear, stories of torture and death.

"They come to us from Mexico, Central America, and countries beyond, fleeing death squads, drug cartels, illiteracy, and unemployment. They come to escape the violence of the wars that tear their limbs, their families, and their countries apart. They come to escape the institutionalized violence of globalization that manifests itself in crushing poverty, unemployment, and hunger. They come to escape the nationalized violence that comes from governments seeking to repress those working for literacy, better jobs, and better health care for their people. They come to escape the personal violence of abusive families, to escape the pain that comes from being unwanted, unloved, unwelcome- from being lonely. Each guest has a story, and each story is different. But all have been pushed into the stream of migration by the extreme circumstances of their lives. They find themselves under one roof for a singular moment in time. This is Annunciation House."



So, the issue of immigration and basic human rights is one that I'm interested in and find myself passionate about. Many of you know about my studies of the femicides in Ciudad Juárez, and if you've talked to me for any length of time about it, you know that I'm extremely dedicated to working toward change. For me, the time I'm spending in El Paso is a step to somehow finding a way to make that change. That all sounds pretty ambitious, I know, but I'm trying not to go into this with any expectations of what life will be like or what kind of people I'll meet.

So I'll try and post once a week, but I'm not sure how often I'll have Internet access. I'll see you all in August.