Miriam Maldonado Escobar

A sweeping view of Latin America and the Caribbean in only 17 minutes

A new video produced by World Mission’s Latin America and Caribbean office takes viewers through a sweep of the region, checking in with mission co-workers and PC(USA) partners to help Presbyterians learn more about their work and their love for the region and its people.

Build bridges, not walls

Just two blocks north of our home in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, is a 40-block-long linear park that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. My family and I enjoy walking there in the evening and relish the spectacular sunsets that don’t respect borders. In this time of pandemic, we are glad to see families and friends walking dogs and getting exercise along the 14-foot-wide park.

Sunday at the border

On a cool Arizona Sunday evening, mission co-workers Miriam Maldonado Escobar and the Rev. Mark Adams gathered with group of Christians on the border between Agua Prieta, Mexico, and Douglas, Arizona, for a prayer pilgrimage in solidarity with the “Not Another Foot” movement to call for an end of the massive border wall spanning the entire Southern border of the United States.

Healing our borders

A Catholic priest, a charismatic layperson and a Presbyterian pastor met with the patrol officer in charge of the Douglas border patrol station to discuss possible responses to the increased number of people dying while migrating in Sulphur Springs Valley, the valley in which Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, sit. The “prevention through deterrence” border policy instituted by the Clinton administration, the economic boom of the 1990s and the devastation of the Mexican economy had turned our sleepy and isolated valley into the primary crossing point for unauthorized migration into the U.S. As a nation, we chose deserts and mountains as deadly deterrents to migration. Our policy is intentionally lethal.

Transcending barriers

Coffee is a major agricultural product of Mexico, the beverage of choice among millions of people in the U.S., and a link in a mission partnership that transforms people in both countries.