Recent Stories
8 de Marzo: International Women’s Day in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
The following reflection was written by Victoria de Anda, Abara’s Administrative and Research Assistant, about the annual march in Ciudad Juárez and around the world in honor of International Women’s Day. Solidarity with the unspeakable experiences of women in Juarez cannot be separated from our pursuit of justice and peace in the borderlands. Friends! My…
5 questions we’ve been asked in 2025
1.) How is Abara’s team doing? Living personal and vocational life on the border is complicated sometimes, but in a deeper way, it’s simple. We love this community. We love our neighbors, we love our city, and we’re choosing resilient hope. As we often say, “the border is joy”—a place where sorrow and struggle exist alongside…
“The border is an open wound…”
Hi friends, my name is Victoria, or “Toya”! I recently joined the Abara staff and I am enjoying every second of it. I would like to share with you some of my history and why it makes sense for me to be at Abara. Gloria Anzaldua once wrote “La Frontera es una herida abierta.” (The border…
Hospitality for the Holy Family on Christmas Eve A Letter from Maria Varela, Holy Family Refugee Center
Merry Christmas Eve, Abara Community! Today you will hear from Maria Varela, a dear friend of ours and one of the lead volunteers at Holy Family Refugee Center. Holy Family is one of Abara’s 20+ partner shelters in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Maria’s words speak volumes. Kelly Latimore painted the image below the day…
A Letter from Brooklyn Stephens
Note: Today you will read from the heart of a dear friend of Abara, Brooklyn. She wrote her letter, about Border Encounters, from the lens of her personal Christian faith. Her words testify to the life-transforming effect that the “BE experience” can have. Click here to learn more about signing up for a Border Encounter, as…
On Border Response: Cartas de Rosa Mani Thomas + Araceli Iglesias
Friends, Today, to give you a look inside Abara’s Border Response program, we chose to include two letters instead of one. Abara is a binational organization, and our border response work occurs on both sides of the Rio Grande. We could not uplift one voice, or one language, without the other. Enjoy (disfruta!!) these letters…
Fronterizas Fuertes: Herlinda Chew
Immigration debates and discussions, as well as often painful dislocations happen almost every day on the U.S./Mexico border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. The epicenter of harsh state government interventions, like concertina wire and floating buoys (see last week’s Border Stories regarding SB 4), is here in our own backyard.. It’s Women’s History Month,…
A Letter from Sami DiPasquale, Executive Director
Dear friend, My name is Sami DiPasquale, and I serve as the Executive Director of Abara. I am grateful to share that our organization had it’s 5th birthday this fall. 🎂 If you would like to give in honor of Abara’s 5 years, you can do that here. It’s been a heavy year. In many ways it’s…
A spirit of welcome
The following was written by Anamaria Solis, who is currently one of our Loretto Justice Fellows and BSW Interns for this academic year. Today, on election day, we wanted to share a human story that reflected some of the powerful work of welcome that we are honored to share in. Immigration lies at the very…
Hospitality at every doorstep
The following story was written by Ruth Bovey, who served as an intern at Abara this past summer. On independence day this summer, I celebrated by setting out on the 1,504 mile journey from West Chicago, Illinois to El Paso, Texas. 22 hours of driving, 3 hours of waiting on a curb as an Oklahoma…
& it is so sweet that, for a second, you forget
As a Border Encounter participant, you step off the plane at the El Paso International Airport and could be greeted by scorching temperatures, howling winds, dust. Other times it’s a perfect day. When you arrive at our apartments, maybe you get to meet our neighbors. Maybe you go out to eat that first night –…
Let’s Go for a Walk!
Hi friends, my name is Miriam, and I’m from the mountains of North Carolina. I’m a rising senior at Davidson College where my major is Language and Migration Studies. I’ve been working as an intern at Abara for the past six weeks. I’d love to take you for a walk through a couple of the…
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