Hospitality: Networking With Migrants
We are Naty and LuisFer [1] and we invite you to the Caravan for Hospitality for a journey in Latin America. We write you this testimony from the city of Cúcuta in the border region between Venezuela and Colombia. This border is a meeting place among peoples who share history, wealth, diversity, and conflicts—millions connect here in many different ways.
At the border region, we were inspired to visit some countries in this part of the world. The Cultural Caravan for Hospitality on the Borderis a social and artistic scheme that emerged in 2016 as an invitation to act amid the reality of discrimination and fear of people fleeing Colombia and seeking refuge in the towns of Venezuela. The Caravan is an upshot of the passion and commitment of a group of teachers, artists and students of the Catholic University of Táchira and people collaborating with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Venezuela.
[1] Natalia and Luis Fernando, a Colombian couple who accompany the Jesuit Network for Migrants (RJM) in the promotion of the culture of hospitality. Natalia Salazar is a social communicator and journalist, Luis Fernando Gómez is a sociologist and specialist in International Humanitarian Law and Culture of Peace. Together with María Teresa Urueña and Javier Cortegoso, they form the operational team of RJM in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Our first account of the Caravan was in Mexico together with the IBERO University of Mexico and Clowns Without Borders (from the United States, Mexico and Brazil). We visited several shelters along the forcibly displaced's migratory route. We aimed to bring a message of hospitality in the places of refuge and the neighbourhoods of local communities terrified by the constant passage of people of different nationalities. Talking to people, singing a song, sharing a greeting, and building relationships of trust and closeness from the encounter were the simple gestures that united us as humanity [1].
In the "El Samaritano" shelter in Bojay near Mexico City, we met Pedro, a Central American migrant. We particularly remember Pedro's peculiar facial gesture evocative of the pain of a forcibly displaced person's having to hastily leave everything behind while, at the same time, wearing the smile of someone who happily hopes to find something better in life. Like hundreds of thousands of other young people, Pedro travels dangerous roads, risking his life to fulfil a "dream" that possibly means waking up from the nightmare of not having secure means to offer his family a dignified life.
The second phase of the Caravan took us to different places in Brazil [1], where we experienced the love of many people who have long been opening their doors and hearts to forcibly displaced people of different nationalities. Many Venezuelans have arrived in Boa Vista in Roraima State to seek protection. There, we had the privilege of being received in the home of Maria José, who showed us the practice of hospitality in her own house; her example reminded us that "the Kingdom is built here and now". With her, we confirmed it unnecessary to have great wealth to offer a home, a safe and affectionate space, to people in need.
The third phase of the Caravan allowed us to witness the welcome, protection, promotion and integration of migrants through experiences in Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia and each of the territories on this land route to Colombia [2]. Each encounter, story, and name were entwined, woven to affirm that a network of empathy and understanding challenges the world to look beyond differences. People from many nations who travel this road claim, "I am a refugee"; meanwhile, Jesuit communities, schools and colleges, universities, neighbourhoods... choose to open their doors, unmindful of personal discomfort, to build humanity. Hospitality thus becomes the bridge that unites us, reminding us that we each have a place and a mission in this world.
[1] 2019 /
Caravana por la Hospitalidad. Brasil
[2] 2022 / Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Perú y
Ecuador.
It seems no coincidence that after travelling the Continent, we found ourselves in Venezuela and recognised hospitality anew in a society that has always experienced migration and lovingly welcomes those seeking refuge. Venezuelan society helped us identify with one another as Latin Americans from the point of view of both diversity and complementarity. In the last phase of this Caravan in South America, we experienced the gift--the presence--of hospitality [1] as we passed through Venezuela.
Gradually, we became aware that this Cultural Caravan for Hospitality exemplifies a path that allowed us to meet migrants and local communities. And it invited us to recognise the dynamic shift from hostility to hospitality at many levels of our lives: as a couple, as a family, as a region, as a network, as humanity. In other words, as Pope Francis encourages us to feel, "it is not just about migrants".
Like Pedro, the first face of migration who welcomed us in the shelter of the Good Samaritan in Mexico, we felt a mixture of pain and joy, of frustration and hope after our journey. The wounds of many displaced people forced to leave everything behind and whatever else represents home have become hope testimonies. And the stories of hospitality weave networks that engender reconciliation through personal encounters and human fraternity.
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