Most Reverend Gerald F. Kicanas
Bishop, Diocese of Tucson
Ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Bishop Kicanas served in various capacities in the Archdiocese’s seminary system for more than 25 years. He has served as rector of Mundelein Seminary in Chicago, a Lecturer at Loyola University, and served as an Auxiliary Bishop in Chicago from 1995 to 2001. Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Kicanas the 6th Bishop of the diocese of Tucson in 2003. Immigration, and the Church’s role in ministering to the migrant, is a topic about which Bishop Kicanas is very passionate. In 2003, he visited Altar, Mexico to see first hand the plight of the migrants who cross the desert of his diocese. He poignantly described this experience in an article for America magazine. ( Link to that article:) In 2005, he coauthored ‘You Welcomed Me, A Pastoral Letter on Migration.’ ( link to that pastoral letter)
No More Deaths
This organization was formed in 2003 when people of faith felt the need to stand up and act on behalf of the more than 2000 men, women, and children who have died trying to cross the desert since 1998. The organization provides direct humanitarian assistance to migrants on both sides of the border and is also active in working for comprehensive immigration reform. Most notably, two of their volunteers were arrested last summer while transporting distressed migrants to a Tucson hospital. The charges were dropped several weeks ago but the incident touched off a debate about the legality of providing humanitarian assistance to migrants as they cross the desert. For more information about this organization, visit their website (link to www.nomoredeaths.org)
John Carlos Frey
Mr. Frey is an accomplished filmmaker, actor, and director. His film The Gatekeeper (which he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in) received ten international awards. It is the story of a Border Patrol agent's struggle between conscience and self-loathing. Agent Adam Fields, a self hating, Mexican American field officer indulges his narrow-minded beliefs by taking his border guard position to the extreme. A native of Mexico who now lives in California, Mr. Frey felt so strongly about the subject matter raised by the film that he financed the entire project out of his own pocket. The Gatekeeper has been recognized internationally by such organizations as Amnesty International, The Anti Defamation League and, Human Rights Watch among many others. Mr. Frey has most recently been invited to screen The Gatekeeper at Notre Dame University, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA and USC to name a few. He has also directed to great success numerous live theatre presentations as well as being an accomplished actor in theatre, television, and film. Most recently, Mr. Frey has finished The Invisible Mexicans of Deer Canyon, a documentary that chronicles the stories and struggles of migrants who live in shantytowns in San Diego, under the shadow of the resorts where these people work.
Mr. Ruben Garcia
Founder and Executive Director, Annunciation House
A native of El Paso, Texas, Mr. Garcia is an alum of two Jesuit schools. He received a BA from Rockhurst University in Kansas City and then did graduate studies in pastoral ministry and religious education at the University of Seattle. After returning to the border, he was hired by the Diocese of El Paso to direct its Youth and Young Adult Ministry program. Inspired by his encounter with Mother Theresa during her visit to El Paso in 1976, Garcia founded Annunciation House.
Since 1978, Annunciation House has provided hospitality at the U.S.-Mexico border to migrants, the undocumented, refugees, asylum seekers, and battered women and their children. Its guests have arrived from El Paso and across the border in Ciudad Juárez, and as far away as Peru, Liberia, China and Iran. More than 80,000 tired, weary, frightened, and often rejected brothers and sisters have found a clean bed, shower, hot meal, and, most of all, a warm welcome from those serving Annunciation House.
Rev. Daniel Groody, CSC
Assistant Professor, Department of Theology
Director, Institute for Latino Studies
University of Notre Dame
Fr. Groody has spent many years working in Latin America, particularly along the U.S. - Mexican Border. He is the author of Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart; Spirit, Globalization, Spirituality and Justice: Navigating the Path to Peace, and editor of two other books on Poverty, Justice, Migration and Theology. He is also the executive producer of various documentary films and television productions, including Dying to Live: A Migrant's Journey and Strangers No Longer. He holds B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in the Great Books (Program of Liberal Studies), A Masters of Divinity and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology and Master of Divinity degrees from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union. He teaches courses in U.S. Latino Spirituality, globalization, Christian Spirituality and Social Justice and has lectured widely in the United States, as well as Latin America and Europe.
Mr. Brett Huneycutt
Brophy graduate Brett Huneycutt's studies and experience have focused on development in Latin America. With a Fulbright grant, he conducted econometric research and in-depth interviews about migration and the informal economy in El Salvador. He has organized seminars on the U.S.-Mexico border, an immersion experience to a Zapatista refugee camp in Chiapas, and dental clinics in two rural Salvadoran villages. In the summer of 2005, two friends and he began the Border Film Project, a photography project documenting the U.S.-Mexico border by giving disposable cameras to two groups -- illegal immigrants crossing the desert and American Minutemen volunteers trying to stop them.
Brett graduated from Brophy in 1999. That summer he went with Mr. Walsh and Deacon Stickney on the Brophy Immersion Experience to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Brett says of that experience, “It was my first time to the border. If it hadn’t been for that trip, I wouldn’t have done anything in Latin America.” He went on to study Economics at Boston College, where he graduated number one in his class. In June of this year, he completed an M. Phil. in Economics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. This fall he will begin work as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York City. He ultimately hopes to pursue a career related to economic development through business and economic policymaking.
For more information on the Border Film Project, currently on display at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, follow this link.
Rev. Steve Privett, SJ
President, University of San Francisco
Prior to his appointment as president of USF in 2000, Father Privett served as provost and academic vice president at Santa Clara University. Early in his career, Father Privett was an instructor at Jesuit High School in Sacramento and Principal of Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose. Throughout his career, Father Privett has demonstrated a commitment to “wholeperson education,” a traditional hallmark of Jesuit education. At Santa Clara, he helped establish the Eastside Project, a program that has received national recognition as a model program for community-based learning. As President of USF, Father Privett took his entire leadership team to Tijuana, Mexico where they spent one week listening to and learning from the Mexican people so that they might better understand the immigration issue.
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