For those of you who have not heard, I have received my site placement for my year in Mexico. I will be working at a shelter for migrants in the city of Apizaco, a small town roughly two hours east of Mexico City in the state of Tlaxcala. The shelter is run by the Catholic Church La Sagrada Familia. It is a very short stay shelter (two days max) where migrants are able to rest, shower and get a meal or two before returning to their arduous journey. Most of the guests at the shelter are men (although women and children are welcome too). The shelter typically houses anywhere from three to fifty migrants. Most of these migrants are traveling from Central America to the United States and are riding buses or on top of the infamous train known as La Bestia (The Beast). Many of these migrants are fleeing gang violence, political corruption or poverty and are headed north in search of work, freedom and new opportunities. Unfortunately, the journey is anything but easy for these travelers. As they head north, they are often confronted by Mexicans gangs and cartels demanding money or other favors, and brutal police. Their vulnerability makes them prime targets for these perpetrators of injustice. Those that make it to the U.S. have the challenge of navigating border patrol, then living with the fear of deportation, and the possibly of having to deal with immigration courts and other agencies of the U.S. government. In his book Christians at the Border, M. Daniel Carroll R. shares that "Many immigrants seek a 'promised land' of a better existence, a 'land of milk and honey.' But the trek here is hard, and life once they get to the United States can be full of long hours of work with low pay and few benefits. Perhaps they have left one Egypt for another. Here the majority culture fears their numbers and their being different, although they want their labor."*
So what exactly will I be doing at the shelter for migrants?
I will help with the daily operations of the shelter: working in the kitchen, cleaning clothes and bedding, tending to the shelter's garden and helping raise some chickens. I will also accompany migrants, talk to them, listen to their stories, and participate in regular workshops with residents.
Summary: the people I will be working with this year are going through a lot of shit. I will hear heartbreaking stories. It will be very challenging. But, my time will be meaningful.
*Denver Seminary professor M. Daniel Carroll R. shares that this great migration is not so different than the migrations we witness in the Bible: Abram's migrations, the Israelites traveling to Egypt in search of food, the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, the exile in Babylon and Assyria and the return from exile. This argument is one of many ways that he helps his audience to form a new - more Biblical, more loving, more Christ-like - perspective on immigration.
