Clara Duffy is a fronteriza agradecida, or a thankful child of the border, who has lived in El Paso and worked for Abara for 4 years. She brings a deep love for the border and for people and life on both sides. Her story has roots where she was born and raised in another part of the Texas/Mexico border, the Rio Grande Valley. Before working at Abara, she studied in Austin, Texas, and also spent a season in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, where she worked with Mission Isaiah 55, a binational mission that accompanies deaf youth and coordinates a community center in a marginalized neighborhood, as well as hosting work teams from the US.

Clara has a bachelor’s degree in Latin American and Iberian Languages ​​and Cultures with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship, as well as a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work. What she loves most about working at Abara is connecting with incredible social work students, teaching therapeutic art classes, working with teenagers, and planning special events like a shared communion for the border wall. Now that she has begun to focus on border education and outreach, Clara sees even more clearly the urgent need for narrative change around immigration. She loves to think of creative ways to include more people in Abara’s mission, to invite people to sit down to eat together and speak about ideas and experiences, always with an emphasis on unheard or underheard stories, and on the dignity and wisdom of the most vulnerable. Clara is a person who emanates peace and has an enormous heart, always ready to help others without thinking twice.

In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, biking, driving with the windows down, skateboarding, and wandering around Ciudad Juárez with her fiancé, Javi. “Reflecting on these deep, special years at Abara and Ciudad Nueva, I feel so grateful to God and to my community in El Paso/Juárez for impulsing and sustaining my work.” Clara shares.