Join us for a special Peace Mass this month, Thursday, Oct. 28th at 8pm ET, marking the completion of the Caravan. Click here for more information.
OCT. 19 PRESS EVENT AT THE U.S. CAPITOL
On October 19th outside the U.S. Capitol building, the Caravan of Mothers of Disappeared Migrants were joined by Reps. Hank Johnson and Raul Grijalva for a press event.
- Find the press release for the Oct. 19 press event at the U.S. Capitol here.
- See photos from the Oct. 19 press event at this link.
- Click here to see video from the livestream.
The Caravan of Mothers of Disappeared Migrants (Caravana de Madres de Personas Migrantes Desaparecidas) will be on a speaking tour to U.S. cities and universities from October 12-24, 2021. (Full calendar follows at the end.) This historic journey is being co-sponsored by Migrant Roots Media, Pax Christi USA, and Puentes de Esperanza in coordination with el Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano. The Caravan begins today in South Texas where more migrants have died than in any other area (report here). The mothers will do a search for their missing relatives in the desert.
The Mothers’ Caravan will be in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Oct. 18 (and the morning of October 19) to share their stories with policy-makers and advocate for changes in U.S. foreign policy which contribute to the root causes of forced migration.
Background: During the last 16 years, hundreds of mothers and other family members have traveled through Mexico in order to search, denounce, and visibilize cases of forced disappearances. To date, more than 350 migrants have been located and, for the most part, reunited with their families; this number includes migrant women, victims of trafficking. This year, for the first time, representatives of this movement will be arriving in the United States to continue their search, denunciation, and visibilization struggle.
The Caravan has three objectives: to search, to denounce, and to visibilize:
- To actively search for missing migrants, living or not.
- To demand changes in U.S. foreign policy to drastically decrease the root causes that push people to migrate.
- To educate and have exchanges with the people of the United States about the issue of forced disappearances, root causes and the struggles that are carried out by social movements in different countries.
ROUTE: The members of the Caravan will begin their journey in Texas with a search for bodies in the desert. They will then fly to Durham, North Carolina, where they will begin heading north by land.*
- TUESDAY 12-13 – Houston, TX / Falfurrias, TX
Search for bodies in the desert - FRIDAY 15 – Durham, North Carolina
- SATURDAY 16 – Winston-Salem, NC
- MONDAY 18 – Washington, D.C.
- TUESDAY 19 – New York City (afternoon)
- WEDNESDAY 20 – New York (Event at Fordham; open to the public; click here to watch the video of this event)
- THURSDAY 21 – Boston (Event sponsored by Harvard via Zoom; click here to register)
- FRIDAY 22 – Philadelphia (Event at Villanova University; click here for info)
- SATURDAY 23 – Philadelphia (Community event hosted by New Sanctuary Movement)
- SUNDAY 24 – Washington, D.C. Closing event
* Please click here or check back for more specific information for each event as it becomes available.
SPECIAL VIRTUAL EVENT ON OCTOBER 20: For the larger Pax Christi USA community not able to attend one of the in-person events, the Caravan of Mothers will be hosting “Until We Find Them: The Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants and Root Causes of Migration”. The virtual event will be on Wednesday, October 20th, 2021, from 8:00-9:30pm ET/5:00-6:30pm PT.
Mothers from this caravan, as well as the global movement, will join us on Zoom to share about their monumental journey. We hope to see you on October 20th for a chance to hear stories, take action and learn about the Caravana.