MERCY

Thank you so much for your interest in helping migrants. This page has the dual purpose of raising money for the La Casa de la Divina Misericordia y Todas las Naciones migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico and encouraging you to visit the borderlands. Here’s a little background on how I myself got connected down there:

In the summer of 2019 my band Che Apalache was teaching and performing at Common Ground on the Hill, a one-of-a-kind camp in Maryland. That’s where I met my friend Randy J. Mayer, a UCC pastor in Southern Arizona who invites people down to the borderlands to witness the harsh realities migrants face. Check out this video to better understand the nature of his work:

Randy invited Che Apalache down to the border in 2019 shortly after we met him, and I made a video of our trip on my cell phone:

That short journey was an eye-opener for me. On a desert walk in an area frequented by migrants, we encountered a little white cross with sunglasses on it where the remains of a 16 year old migrant boy were found. That experience shook me to the core, and in the following months I wrote “Mercy for Migrants,” which I was able to record with Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn and Trey Boudreaux in the spring of 2021. A couple months later I was able to go back to the borderlands with my friend and director, Rode Díaz to shoot this music video:

We spent several weeks at the La Casa de la Divina Misericordia y Todas las Naciones migrant shelter, where I taught music and English to the residents. The children in the above music video were residents at the shelter at that time but have since made it to the US, where there asylum cases are being processed. The director of the shelter, Sister Alma Angélica Macías Mejía is one of the most incredible human beings I ever met. Randy is a close friend of hers, and he oversees all donations made to Cruzando Fronteras, assuring they are directly transferred to the shelter.

Your donations will help to keep teachers and psychologists on staff, to provide potable water and food for the residents, to purchase supplies, and to maintain and potentially expand the facility, which provides temporary shelter for migrants seeking asylum in the United States, desperate souls fleeing horrid violence, poverty and hunger. To make a donation, please click the ‘Donate’ button below which will navigate you to the Cruzando Fronteras website. Once there, click the green “Give Online” button:

If you are interested in visiting the borderlands and better understanding the whole of the situation, I highly suggest attending Common Ground on the Border in January of each year. Click here for more info.