Mary Fontana has written a beautiful memoir of sorts, not of a person, but of a place – Annunciation House. The home she writes of in Strangers in the Province of Joy is situated at the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas and has provided temporary shelter and care for migrants, most often making their way north, from various places of origin south of this border. The small group of people who first inhabited the space and dreamed about what it might become did not initially have a vision for serving migrants. Their ideas were not too specific, only that they wanted to find tangible ways to live out the gospel.
In this conversation, Mary and I focus on the home and also the migrant population to the U.S. over the years and now. Highlighting how the legal paths to being present in the U.S. for migrants are not as easy or clear as some may think, how the border hasn’t always looked how it does now, and how Annunciation House is, and how we can also be, places of hospitality.
Mentioned in this episode:
Strangers in the Province of Joy: Practicing Radical Hospitality on the US – Mexico Border by Mary Fontana
Conversing Podcast with Mark Labberton, Ep. 204, Immigration Crisis with Alexia Salvatierra
Ep. 354 with MaryAnn McKibben Dana
The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar Martínez
You might also enjoy:
Ep. 308 with Isaac Villegas
Ep. 304 with Cristina Rathbone
Ep. 176 with Sarah Quezada
Thank you both for having and sharing this conversation!