Annunciation House Newsletter - Winter 2003

25 Years on the Journey

by Kerry Doyle

In our very first newsletter, written in 1983, five years after the founding of Annunciation House, we ran the following paragraph as part of a story about our beginnings

Probably close to 100 years old, somewhat dilapidated and run down; located on the fringe of El Paso's biggest barrio as well as right off its downtown area; the two story, triangular-shaped, red-brick building has been home for the past five and a half years to over 300 homeless poor...Born out of a call to live and work among the poor, a small group of five young adults moved into the building for the first time on February 3, 1978. From the start, it was intended that Annunciation House was to be a place where the service to the poor would constitute a Christian response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

From this beginning, from this walk together into the unknown, came the work of Annunciation House. To date more than 75,000 guests from more than 40 countries have been served in our three houses of hospitality. We have also been home to hundreds of volunteers and thousands of other visitors from both sides of the border and around the world.

Annunciation House has always been much more than it appears. To the visitor it looks like a run-down and slightly overcrowded building. It is always in need of paint and repairs. Our pantry is full of shelf after shelf of canned goods, dominated by dented tins of yams and cranberry sauce. Our days are packed with to do lists that often don't get started much less finished because of the constant stream of guests, visitors and crises of every kind. Envelopes arrive with ten, five, even one dollar donations. Bills arrive in three figures. Volunteers come and go and there are weeks when it seems we would have to clone to fill the fourteen shifts on the schedule. In that sense, very little has changed in the past 25 years.

It was November one year ago that we sat around the kitchen table at Casa Teresa and discussed the 25th anniversary of Annunciation House. It had been looming in all of our minds but seemed to always get lost as we struggled with the day to day needs of the houses. We had a small staff of volunteers and houses that were heaving with guests. The holidays were upon us and the last thing we wanted to face was planning another celebration. But we tried.

We decided that we wanted to do a liturgy, and have a dinner. They both had to be centered on the people whom we serve and accessible to everyone, rich and poor alike. All would be invited to the same table. We wondered if we could use this anniversary to lift up not the work of the houses but rather the lives of the guests and the critical situation we were facing on both sides of the border.

One way to do this was to invite someone to El Paso who embodied the spirit and practice of accompaniment. Someone who was, in the words of Oscar Romero "a voice for the voiceless". Someone who would embrace and transform the reality on the border for those who joined in the celebration, the same way that our guests managed to embrace and transform our reality each day. We wanted someone who would feed the hearts and minds of our guests as well as our huge network of friends and former volunteers.

On February 1, 2003, Don Samuel Ruiz, Bishop Emeritus of Chiapas Mexico said mass to a crowd of more than 1000 in Sacred Heart church. Among the faces gathered there were members of the local community, from both Juarez and El Paso, former and current guests and volunteers and their families.

At the end of the mass, the crowed filed out of the church in a silent march to the border, filling the streets with their presence, carrying shoes in memory of those who were still making the journey to find a better life. Gathering at the fence to one side of the Santa Fe bridge, participants left their shoes, one by one, hanging on the chain link fence that runs along the border to the words of Ruben Garcia, "We know that tonight others will try to cross because they have children, because they have families, because they are hungry."

After the mass and procession, we gathered together for a simple meal of rice and beans and the presentation of the first Annunciation House "Voice of the Voiceless" award to Don Samuel.
More than 1300 were in attendance, some paying as much as $2,500 for a seat at the table others paying as little as 25 pesos. The event brought together a living history of the houses. People from all walks of life, from both sides of the border and from all around the country sat together eating the same food, under the same roof. It was a larger version of the same kind of communion we celebrate in our houses each day. It was a meal and a moment that will feed and sustain us as we continue on this journey.

Throughout the weekend, Don Samuel visited the houses and got to know the border community. He spoke at ease with the press, with our guests and volunteers and to prisoners in the INS detention center. He spoke out publicly and strongly against the pending war with Iraq, against militarization and our growing fear of the other.

During his visit Don Samuel reminded us that the presence of immigrants is necessary for the growth of our faith as a people. He asked for cooperation between the governments of the United States and Mexico to attend to the necessities that cause migration and to protect the undocumented who come to this country to improve their lives. "This way," said Don Samuel, "We can create a new world, a different world, a world where it is not a crime to be in another country, but rather that it is considered a form of communication"
Like everything about Annunciation House, the anniversary ended up being one huge miracle made up of many small ones. The depth of the support we received from our extended community in making this anniversary possible astounded all of us. Although perhaps, after 25 years, we should be used to it.

The anniversary, like the work of the houses happened through the invisible harmony of hearts and hands from our ever-present network of friends, families, guests and volunteers. It reminded us that who we are extends far beyond the crumbling walls of that red brick building on San Antonio street. In this sense, too, very little has changed in 25 years. Thank you for continuing to walk with us.