Voices of the Border

The conversation will be held in English and Spanish, with real-time translation from Spanish to English. American Sign Language interpretation will be available.

Open to Seattle U students, faculty, and staff only. Seattle U COVID-19 safety protocols will be in effect, including masks. Attendees must present their Safe Start Health Check confirmation.

Migrants, refugees, and deportees live through harrowing situations, yet their personal stories are often ignored. While politicians and commentators mischaracterize and demonize, herald border crises, and speculate about who people are and how they live, the actual memories of migrants are rarely shared. In the tradition of oral storytelling, Voices of the Border reproduces the stories migrants have told and in doing so offers a window onto both individual and shared experiences of crossing the US–Mexico border.

SU students, faculty, and staff can purchase the book in person at Elliott Bay Book Company with a 20% discount or order online for full price here.

This collection emerged from interviews conducted by the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), a Jesuit organization that provides humanitarian assistance and advocates for migrants. Based in Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora—twin border cities connected by shared histories, geographies, economies, and cultures—the editors and their colleagues documented migrants’ testimonios to amplify their voices. These personal narratives of lived experiences, presented in the original Spanish with English translations, bring us closer to these individuals’ strength, love, and courage in the face of hardship and injustice. Short introductions written by migrant advocates, humanitarian workers, religious leaders, and scholars provide additional context at the beginning of each chapter. These powerful stories help readers better understand migrants, as well as the consequences of public policy for this community of people.

Sponsored by Seattle University Common Text Program, Matteo Ricci Institute, International Studies, Modern Languages and Cultures, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Jesuit Education, and the Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture

About the editors Tobin Hansen is an instructor of anthropology at the University of Oregon. His research examines migration and deportation, race, masculinities, care, borders, prisons, and gangs. He is a volunteer at the Kino Border Initiative.

María Engracia Robles Robles is a Missionary Sister of the Eucharist and education coordinator at the Kino Border Initiative.

If you have questions about the event, please contact Dr. Audrey Hudgins, hudginsa@seattleu.edu.