特派团办公室

在新墨西哥州一间方济会修士会所的安静会议室里, I sat in a prayer circle with other Lasallian educators.  组织者让我朗诵奥斯卡·罗梅罗大主教的一首诗, “预言一个不属于我们自己的未来,，部分内容如下:

这就是我们的宗旨:

我们播下的种子总有一天会成长.

我们浇灌已经种下的种子，

知道自己拥有未来的希望.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

…

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between

建筑大师和工人.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.

我们是一个不属于我们自己的未来的先知.

读到这首诗后，我立即把它添加到我的日常冥想中，因为它似乎是我最喜欢的寓言的自然延伸.

有一个撒种的出去撒种。撒种的时候, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, 天上的飞鸟也把它吃尽了.  And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, 它因为缺乏水分而枯萎了. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.  又有落在好地上的，长起来，结实百倍.

St. 路加福音8:5 -8

正如我后来对其他老师说的那样, 正是在这两节课的学习中，我意识到我作为喇沙修士教育者的使命是什么, 事实上, 神圣的职责.

During the July of 2005, through the efforts of St. 我曾就读于圣母学院及天主教喇沙修士社会行动学院, 以及SMC的其他教授, 在德克萨斯州举行的喇沙修士社会正义研究所全球经济正义会议, 华雷斯城(墨西哥)和梅塞拉公园, 新墨西哥.  为期一周的研讨会的前半部分是在墨西哥进行的浸入式项目，在那里我们与墨西哥和中美洲移民以及德克萨斯州和墨西哥边境两侧的非营利组织进行了交谈.  The latter half of the week was spent in 新墨西哥 where we attended several workshops regarding the economic realities of globalization for citizens of both Mexico and the United States; evening sessions focused upon the teaching of St. 施洗约翰德拉萨和我们作为教育工作者在喇沙修士机构的作用.

As I focused on Archbishop Romero’s words and the Scripture, I began likening my teaching to that of the Sower.  While the seeds of lessons I plant may immediately bloom, 晚些时候发芽, 或者干脆不扎根, 我相信我的教学方法和哲学为学生提供了必要的学习基础, 成长, 和适应.  这是我的荣幸，任教于喇沙修士机构，这样的工作与学生的价值，我可以继续在圣. La Salle.

——Dana R. 埃雷拉,Ph值.D. 人类学副教授

Juarez, MX is considered the murder capital of the world; drug
暴力已经失控. 每天都有关于暴力事件的报道
that is terrorizing the lives of the residents at this border town;
美国人被警告远离华雷斯. 但是生活还在继续
there are children to educate and parents who need help to support
他们的孩子.  谁在帮助他们?? 这是一个关于如何
remarkable woman and a group of Lasallians are making a difference
in the lives of children in a small colonia outside of Juarez.

克里斯蒂娜的孩子

If you had visited Anapra in 1999, you would have found an
impoverished desert community just outside of Juárez, Mexico where
many residents lived in makeshift homes often constructed from
木托盘，硬纸板，轮胎和沥青纸. 日日夜夜，
children played in the dirt streets; there were no playgrounds,
recreation centers, libraries, or athletic fields.

That same year on one of those streets you may have noticed that
而不是在街上玩耍，住在克里斯蒂娜附近的孩子
埃斯特拉达开始在放学后顺道拜访她.  你会
seen them clustered around plastic tables in 克里斯蒂娜’s yard reading
做家庭作业.  克里斯蒂娜也在那里，提供帮助
鼓励.  如果你一直看着这一切，你会的
found yourself wondering how 克里斯蒂娜 was handling the ever-
increasing number of children crowding into her yard and her home.
Today if you visited Anapra, as we did as participants in the Lasallian
Social Justice Institute, you would see children working in one of the

three educational buildings; the older students are tutoring the
年轻的. There is now a small library and computers available
对学生来说. 克里斯蒂娜 and other adults also teach the children
about their culture – through dance, costume, and music.  克里斯蒂娜
additionally serves as mentor and surrogate mother to many of the
社区的孩子.

If you had not been in Anapra since 1999, you might be shocked to
see that 克里斯蒂娜 now works with over 250 children and that her
students are graduating from high school and going to the university.
There are now ten youth in post-secondary education, training to be
护士、心理学家和教师. 你会意识到我
impressive accomplishment this is, given the demographics and past
阿纳普拉教育成就的历史. 你会认出
that, against all odds, 克里斯蒂娜 is creating an educational miracle in
Anapra.
 
阿纳普拉教育项目

Though 克里斯蒂娜 was working a miracle, she could not do so without
financial support, and that is why we created the Anapra Education
项目. We are educators, students, staff members, and graduates,
primarily from Saint Mary’s College, who were influenced by the
Lasallian Social Justice Institute in El Paso/Juarez where we first
熟悉了克里斯蒂娜·埃斯特拉达的作品.   在访问
Anapra, we were confronted with the stark poverty there, yet
heartened by 克里斯蒂娜’s work to educate every child in the
贫困的殖民地. 受到克里斯蒂娜的承诺和服务的启发
to her community, we dedicated ourselves to raising funds to provide
scholarships to pay for the children’s education there.
Over the past five years, with the donation of one generous benefactor
and many smaller, yet signficant donations, we have raised over

25万美元帮助克里斯蒂娜的孩子们. 我们的工作开始是因为我们
were introduced to the Lasallian mission in the dusty colonia of
Anapra, MX; we continue because we want to keep the lessons
learned there about poverty, injustice, and hope alive by Living
Lasallian.

作为教师，我们经常把我们的目标说成是学生的转变. 这是, we don’t simply want to communicate facts to young women and men; we want to foster the kind of educational environment that allows for radical changes in their perception of the world—a world that they thought they knew. 这些都是众所周知的“啊哈”时刻. As I look back on my own intellectual and spiritual 成长th, 我觉得自己很幸运，有几次这样的经历，数据和知识突然变成了智慧和洞察力. One of the most poignant occurred in the summer of 2005. I had just completed my first year as a faculty member at Saint Mary’s, 我被邀请加入一群美国教育工作者的行列，对喇沙修士的使命有了更多的了解.S.在美墨边境进行为期一周的教育，并沉浸在移民和社会正义问题中. I learned a great deal in the course of the week about politics, 对经济学, 关于天主教社会训导. 我还在边境两边遇到了一些很棒的人，他们的脸我现在还能看到. 然而，我已经认识一些移民，知道他们的故事. I also knew something about the complicated legal, 社会, 以及我们这个世界面临的经济现实. 我所不知道的——或者更好的, 从来没有理解过——边界的现实是什么, what it is like to live on the boundary of Worlds.

我们旅行的头几天是在墨西哥边境度过的, 在华雷斯城, 睡在一个避难所，这个避难所是为了让移民获得力量而存在的, 然后他们才开始冒险穿越德克萨斯州南部和新墨西哥州的沙漠. It was a stark and uncomfortable reality of poverty and heat, 但与我称之为家的密西西比三角洲地区并没有太大的不同. 事实上, the shelter was still within the city limits of Juarez, which resembles cities in the United States in many ways, 与社区, megamarts, 和高速公路. It was only when we left the ciudad that the world changed. 华雷斯的郊区是殖民地, shanty towns of squatters who live at the ends of civilization. 我们有机会和其中一个叫做阿纳普拉的殖民地的人们呆了一段时间. 混凝土块和金属壁板, along with an assortment of scattered trash from our world, 构成了那里人们的家园. 电线散落在尘土飞扬的街道上，人们从附近的电线杆上吸取电力. 没有下水道，没有市政设施. 这是一种艰苦奋斗的生活, though there were rays of hope in a local priest and a local teacher, 是谁为社区服务了这么多. 虽然看到这样的贫穷很痛苦，但开车回家的路却更加艰难. 我们爬进我们的货车, 感谢在墨西哥北部闷热的天气里有舒适的空调, 我们开着车穿过尘土飞扬的几英里，回到通往城市的公路上. 在泥土和混凝土的交界处, 我抬头看向我的左边, 去看一座美丽的石头和玻璃建筑, shining in the afternoon sun no more than a hundred yards away. 我问司机那是什么建筑. His response – It was part of the University of Texas at El Paso. 这句“啊哈”深深击中了我. 我突然明白了，他们世界的现实，边境生活的现实. 这不仅仅是因为阿纳普拉的人民生活在赤贫和挣扎之中. 这是悲哀的，也是可怕的. 但令人难以想象的是，他们生活在如此贫穷的情况下，实际上是生活在如此富裕的阴影下——无论财富多么接近, 他们永远不能碰它. 它比他们高得多, 诱人的, 羞辱, 嘲弄着——我敢肯定——完全没有意识到下面山谷里的人.

卡尔·马克思曾经说过，没有人知道自己住在一个小木屋里，直到他的邻居在隔壁建了一座城堡. 在我和喇沙修士社会正义研究所一起去边境之前, 我不知道这是什么意思. 现在我无法以其他方式看待这个世界.

扎克Flanagin

神学副教授 & 宗教研究

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