408 Milagros Pe ̃na
This narrative of Annunciation House’s history is similar to that of several other NGOs
that organized around border issues. And although neither Annunciation House nor
Casa Peregrina began as shelters for women, both have come to serve women in various
ways. Casa Peregrina (on the Juarez side) eventually became a shelter for women, mostly ́
because the pattern of migration grew to include single women, single mothers with
children, as well as families with children.
My interviews with representatives of the women’s organizations in the El
Paso/Juarez border area highlighted the importance of Annunciation House and Casa ́
Peregrina as part of the grassroots organizational network that Latinas and their families
rely on in the region. They become particularly important in moments of crises such as
when primary breadwinners lose jobs and find themselves and their families homeless.
Many of these organizations are affiliated with a number of Catholic and Protestant
church groups who support a wide range of border human rights issues, and many of
the individual workers are motivated in terms of living a spirituality committed to the
border’s poor. As recounted by Garcia,
Annunciation House was about looking inwardly and saying how can we live our lives
with greater meaning, with more purpose....We approached it from a faith based
perspective, as we went through that year [1978], and as we reflected on scripture,
we could not get away from the realization of the special relationship that exists
between God and oppressed people, God and those who are poor, God and those
who are marginalized, excluded, etc.Similarly, Patricia Monreal Molina of Organizacion Popular Independiente (OPI) of ́
Juarez, another of the NGOs in this network, noted a connection in the profiles of ́
the people who came to create OPI as people coming to community work out of parish
activities. In fact, several of the founders of OPI started organizing via the Base Christian
Communities (BCCs) that exist on the edge of Juarez. BCCs emerged in many Catholic ́
communities initially as a response to priest shortages. In Latin America, they are known
for allowing the laity to assume broader roles than traditional Catholic parishes. Base
community members are encouraged to take greater responsibility for advancing a
decentralized and participatory format in community leadership. Their nonhierarchi-
cal structure is attractive to women’s activism, and it is not surprising that some women
activists who join faith-based NGOs (such as Patricia Monreal Molina of OPI) started
their activism in BCCs. BCCs have been a force behind a range of movements (Eckstein
1999: 8), and the political reality along the border provides an expanded social context
for women’s activism. Consequently, when women’s faith-based organizations like El
Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza of El Paso come along, they find receptive audiences of
like-minded lay and religious women to share the group’s vision.
BORDER WOMEN’S FAITH-BASED COALITIONS IN EL PASO/JUAREZ ́
Founded in 1993, El Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza was among the first truly women’s
faith-based non-government organizations to emerge in the region. Its members cut
across ethnic lines. Ida Berresheim, a Catholic sister and one of the cofounders of El
Centro, recalled that the lay and religious women who got involved in El Centro early
on worked with refugees and homeless people. After a period of open discussion and
evaluation, El Centro’s organizers, many of whom were educators and health workers,