On April 8th, Texas Impact began highlighting members of the Texas Border Collaboration Network (TBCN) and their organizations. TBCN members and organizations are dedicated to helping migrants and vulnerable populations along the U.S.-Mexico border. This week’s highlight is focused on Caly Fernández, Director of Puentes de Cristo in Hidalgo, Texas.
Originally from New York, Caly moved to South Texas with her family back in 1974 where she was connected to the border for the first time. Caly’s father, a physician, wanted to open a clinic along the border aimed at serving people in poverty. About 45 years later in 2019, Caly was still connected to helping people along the border. After 20 years with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), Caly retired and relocated to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) to continue working with the immigrant population and help reinforce the Presbyterian border network. In addition to working with DSHS, prior to becoming the Director of Puentes de Cristo, she served for three years as a chair of Mission Presbytery’s Immigration Task Force, where she held monthly conference calls and visited congregations to advocate for shelters
Caly’s organization, Puentes de Cristo, was established in 1981 as the first Presbyterian Border Ministry that both proclaimed the Gospel of Christ and responded to the needs of the poor along the U.S.-Mexico border. For many years, church groups throughout the U.S. would travel to Hidalgo to participate in mission projects along the border and in Mexico.
As the violence in Mexico worsened, mission trips to Mexico slowed and eventually stopped in 2011 when the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico severed ties with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). Since then, Puentes de Cristo has connected with the Presbytery of Tamaulipas and re-established cooperation and communication with Presbyterian Churches in Tamaulipas. Moreover, in 2019 Puentes de Cristo was re-established as a Border Ministry with the Presbyterian Border Region Outreach Ministries (PBRO).
This past year, Puentes de Cristo helped coordinate humanitarian aid in Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo – two cities where asylum seekers enrolled in the Migration Protection Protocols are returned. The organization is also assisting Pastor Jacobo Gonzales of Reynosa, Mexico to remodel the dormitory in Reynosa to provide worship services for the immigrant community and establish a resource center. Unfortunately, recent policies have prevented Caly and the rest of Puentes from establishing and advocating for shelters at Presbyterian churches in fear of retaliation from the current administration. She has also seen the effects of the policies spill over into Mexico as the National Presbyterian Church in Mexico has been instructed not to provide shelter to immigrants from Central America and other countries.
Caly states, “I wish lawmakers would come to the border and visit the tent city in Matamoros and see all the unnecessary inhumane treatment of asylum seekers. I visited detention centers while I was Chair to the Immigration Task Force and provided transportation for many released from detention centers. I have heard so many first hand accounts of the violence and suffering families are fleeing. I don’t understand why that is so hard for people to understand.”
Despite these setbacks, the work of the organization continues. Puentes de Cristo was awarded a grant to assist the undocumented population in Hidalgo County where they will help provide food and essential items to those affected by the current pandemic. There are also plans to establish a Border Institute at Puentes de Cristo to host workshops, provide leadership training, and maintain records of Hispanic ministries. Currently, the organization is focusing some of its efforts to addressing health care disparities in South Texas. Caly says they’re implementing a new healthy lifestyles program as part of a medical research project on diabetes and healthy lifestyles in the RGV.
Like many individuals advocating for immigrant rights it is often hard to find light in these times of uncertainty. But for Caly there are several things that give her hope. She says it’s, “The people I work with and meet doing good work and getting into good trouble. The resilience I see in the families on their journeys. Youth movements – young people like yourself are reinventing activism and democracy. Working at my passion and growing the ministry of Puentes.”