They walk a rustic, sandy footpath toward countless unknowns, flanked by mesquite trees, their branches intertwining overhead. In the searing, dry days of summer these branches can offer life-saving shade from the brutal Sonoran Desert sun for those on this passage paved in uncertainty. Here, near the Mexico/United States border, the Arivaca Creek Trail is the route many families take in an effort to escape the violence, climate change disasters, economic disparity and unfathomable horrors of the places they used to call home.
But on this day the path draws a different type of traveler. They are not migrants, but seekers: pilgrims walking in the footsteps of those who’ve attempted this arduous journey in search of protection and a better life. As they walk, they pass a cross in the sand, the final resting place for someone who will never realize the dream for which they risked everything.
For Kennedy Cortes, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration communications team, this experience is personal. “I didn’t know this until a month or two ago that my family members who migrated came in through Nogales. I just thought, I had to go.”
At the trailhead the pilgrims see and touch some of the artifacts left behind by migrants who have attempted the journey. Each sacred relic tells a story. A jug of water. A can of sardines. A baby bottle. A Bible. Cologne. Carpet-covered slippers to leave no trace. Family photos. And small gifts for families who will receive them, testament to a grateful and gentle culture. To arrive empty-handed, even after all they’ve been through, would be culturally unthinkable.
These are the things they carry. And these are things they leave behind when the journey, and all too often life, comes to its cruel end.
The immersion participants walked a portion of the Arivaca Creek Trail and viewed the “holy relics” of items found along that trail.
A Pilgrimage to Deeper Understanding
This small group of pilgrims hails from the Upper Midwest, all with professional and spiritual connections to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA) in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
“I just wanted to see for myself, and I had wanted to for a long time,” explained Carol Knox, an FSPA Prayer Partner.
“You can find whatever you want to know on the internet,” explained Julie Connelly, Program Coordinator at the Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse. “But what is really happening and what can we do?”
They sought answers through an immersion program through the Kino Border Initiative, a faith-based humanitarian organization dedicated to nurturing migration with dignity. With operations on each side of the Mexico border in Nogales, Kino Border Initiative provides for critical needs of migrants including food, temporary shelter, first aid, clothing, and psychological and social work support, as well as education outreach and advocacy.
Immersion participants included Diane Withers, an FSPA affiliate; Kennedy Cortes, an employee; Carol Knox, a prayer partner; and Andi Lewis, Jane Comeau and Julie Connelly, employees
Pilgrims of the Kino Border Initiative immersion program share a common goal: to accompany, humanize, and complicate the issue of immigration. To get there, the immersion program exposes participants to divergent perspectives, including dialoguing with ranchers who live along the border as well as advocates for meaningful and humane policy change. They also learn about the impact that the border wall has on families, communities and the Sonoran Desert, the most biodiverse desert in the world.
Erick Meza, Sierra Club Borderlands Coordinator, offered the immersion participants, pictured inset, the harsh realities of the wall and its environmental impact. Erick runs Blog for Borderlands to bring awareness to the border communities and the rest of the nation.
As an essential part of the immersion experience, participants spend time with some of the people who utilize the services provided by Kino Border Initiative, families caught in the crossfire of impossible choices, where even being in touch with loved ones can be perilous—leaving many people without any support.
“Just listening to the women who we spoke to who were seeking protection, their experiences and stories, and just how unfair it is for them and their families,” Cortes said. “They’re not just characters. They’re humans.”
“One woman we met hasn’t had any communication with her family for a year,” said Connelly. “So they don’t know if she’s alive or not.”
In spite of the trauma, the bonds of family remain palpable. “I was really impressed with the beauty of the love of family,” said Diane Withers, an FSPA affiliate. “When one woman got a job, two or three others volunteered to babysit their children. There are beautiful parts to their culture that need to be brought forth.”
Immersion participants spent time with Laura* who, while in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, waiting for her CBP One application appointment, is learning the art of crochet and jewelry making while also catering meals using her grandmother’s Venezuelan recipes. *Name changed for privacy
No Easy Answers Home or Away
In a time when anti-immigrant propaganda spreads at the click of a keyboard, Kino Border Initiative helps people better understand the complexities of the immigration story. Families who wish to migrate to the U.S. face a tremendous number of barriers, not the least of which is a complex application process requiring applicants to apply for asylum and submit a photo of themselves through a phone app every day. That’s once per day for every member of their family wishing to enter, until they secure a meeting with a judge. Kino Border Initiative says only 100 appointments a day are available at the Nogales port of entry, so on average, the process takes 10 months or more. No Wi-Fi? Dead cell phone battery? Miss a day and the process starts all over again. In the meantime, applicants must be able to afford living expenses near the port of entry and—if they do secure meetings with a judge—they need a lawyer. Every step of the way presents intentional barriers, tantamount to prevention through deterrence.
Returning home is often not an option. What parent would choose to place their children in danger of the same violence they fled? After cartels have claimed their properties or even burned down their homes, many have nothing to return home to. With no easy answers at home or away, the system as it exists offers no humane choices. Crossing between ports of entry can seem like the only viable option.
Border art is all along the U.S.-Mexican border in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. At left, a mural facing the border wall (toward the U.S.) features a young boy surrounded by what immersion participants understand as his educational dreams. At right, paper-mâché sculptures of faces hang in front of the border wall.
The Comforts and Discomforts of Home
Returning to the comforts of home after a cultural immersion experience can be intense, particularly when the goal, when achieved, complicates issues.
“I was so tired and overwhelmed. There are no words that can explain, we can share it but it doesn’t have the same intensity … there is a little bit of guilt and shame,” Connelly said.
“I was aware of the fact that people are able to stay in the shelter for 10 days, and at the end of this I’m going home to my comfortable house and my family and friends and they are maybe moving out of that shelter and into another one or a short-term apartment, but their lives are so much up in the air,” said Andi Lewis, Marketing Coordinator for Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in Hiawatha, Iowa. “My heart and half of my brain are still down at the border.”
“It has really hit me that this transformative experience lives in my soul and words feel so inadequate when I’m confronted with the question, ‘How was your trip?'” said Jane Comeau with the FSPA Communications Team. “Words feel inadequate, and I have to be OK with that because it’s in my soul and it’s going to be in my actions.”
Learn more about Kino Border Initiative
Kino Border Initiative offers a variety of educational programs including immersion experiences ranging from 3 to 6 days. Participants have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the broader context of the border and immigration.
Learn more about the Experience of the Six Women Who Visited the Border
If you’d like to learn more about the experience of the six women who visited the border, join Andi Lewis for Stories from the Border: One Traveler’s Tales from a Place of Migration (offered both online and in person) on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 6–7 p.m. Click here to learn more or to register.
Support Kino Border Initiative
For those who wish to support the Kino Border Initiative and those they serve, the organization has a wish list for donations on Amazon. It includes items families seeking protection need most, such as footwear, undergarments, diapers and toiletries.
Read Powerful, Personal Accounts from the U.S.-Mexico border
Voices of the Border: Testimonios of Migration, Deportation, and Asylum, edited by Maria Engracia Robles Robles, a Missionary Sister of the Eucharist and education coordinator at the Kino Border Initiative. Purchase the book here.
—Charish Badzinski
The image at the top of the page is a piece of art in the KBI migrant aid center that was created by a local artist, Wences, and depicts the Last Supper. The people in the painting are all migrants who have passed through the comedor at KBI.