• An Orientation will introduce participants to enduring themes — including colonization, white racism & nationalism — that have given shape to the cultural context of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The orientation will be hosted by Rev. John Fanestil (Ph.D. in History, USC) and leaders from the Via International and Border Church communities.
• Three Immersive Site Visits will introduce participants to local leaders working for justice at three landmark locations in the California/Baja California borderlands:
  • Chicano Park, where the journeys of “chicanos” and “fronterizos” will be explored;
  • La Plaza El Chaparral, where participants will meet “migrants” and “asylum-seekers”;
  • Friendship Park, where “deportees” and “mixed-status families” will be foregrounded.

These are important sites of pilgrimage in the US-Mexico borderlands, each receiving thousands of visitors annually. What can we learn from the people who visit them?

• The Border Church / La Iglesia Fronteriza – Join this unique binational community of faith for a “virtual hike” (informal conversation), followed by a 30-minute celebration of communion with friends from both the United States and Mexico.

• A Closing Retreat will challenge participants to explore their place within “the migrant people of God,” to embrace their own journeys toward justice, and to identify ways that they can live out their own unique callings in their home contexts and communities.

To Learn more, browse this Sample HomeBase.

To explore leading your group on a pilgrimage, contact:

Rev. John Fanestil, Ph.D. | Executive Director | Via International | john@viainternational.org | 619-823-6223