PUNTO DE PARTIDA
MIGRANT NARRATIVES PROJECT

Welcome to the official site of the Punto de Partida Migrant Narratives Project, a collaboration between Ciudad Nueva Community Outreach, Abara, and the Institute for Diversity in Civic Life.

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The Spanish phrase "punto de partida" encompasses many different concepts in English. It can be a place of entry. A place of departure. A place of origin.  A starting point. A launching pad. A blueprint. A guiding principle. The El Paso/Juarez borderland is an embodiment of all of these realities simultaneously. A space where journeys begin, end, and are reimagined.

Since the Mexican Revolution the El Paso/Juarez borderland has been a crossroads for migrants and faith communities have been an integral part of helping them find safe harbor, working together to extend hope, hospitality and solidarity.

In the spring and summer of 2021 Ciudad Nueva and Abara, El Paso based immigrant and asylum seeker serving nonprofits respectively, collected audio interviews and facilitated art workshops where participants reflected on immigration experiences, identity, hospitality, and solidarity that would become the Punto de Partida Migrant Narratives Project.

Featuring 20 audio interviews, more than 50 youth art pieces, and a tapestry commissioned from a migrant shelter sewing collaborative, the project is an intimate exploration of migrant experience on the U.S.-Mexico border.

From Central American mothers and unaccompanied minors awaiting U.S. immigration court dates or other next steps in Juarez to immigrant neighbors in downtown El Paso extending hospitality to newly arrived migrants in crisis, to first and second generation immigrants wrestling with identity, expectations, and dreams as they work together to build thriving and empowered communities, the Punto de Partida Migrant Narratives Project is an invitation to gather, listen, and reflect at the point of entry, point of departure, point of origin, which is the U.S.-Mexico borderland.