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Sr. Liliane Alam: A Franciscan Missionary to the Border An Interview with Carmen Mele, former Diocesan Director of Peace and Justice in El Paso, as appeared in the Winter 2004 issue of Voz en el Desierto (Download pdf)
Sr. Liliane Alam is the Executive Director of Las Americas, El Paso’s immigration advocacy center. She was born into a Christian family in Lebanon and is a member of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. She has served as an university teacher and a congregational leader. She says that she decided to come to El Paso in ten minutes upon hearing of the need here. CM: Why did you join religious life? Are your reasons for being a religious sister the same today as when you entered the convent? LA: At home I had everything to be happy and was able to get whatever I needed. As a teenager, I spent my time between studies, family life, and travels. There was nothing to worry about, but in my heart something was missing. I was always looking for something different, for something more. At 20, it was clear for me that my way of life is the religious life. My search didn’t take a long time. I knew the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary from school, and I had all the spiritual support and direction from the Jesuits where I was attending my studies. The reason for my remaining an FMM is that we live in a fragmented world where my congregation’s internationality is a path and sign of communion. This meeting of cultures lived in community is already the good news. Ecumenical collaboration and dialogue with all persons sincerely seeking truth and justice characterize our way of mission throughout the world. CM: How do you define the mission of Las Americas? Has it always had the same mission? Is that mission still evolving? LA: The mission of Las Americas is “to protect the human rights of refugees and other immigrants, to challenge the policies and practices which oppress them, and to strive for systemic change towards social justice”. In the early 1980s, volunteers at El Paso refugee shelters witnessed refugees being deported back to the oppressive and dangerous conditions from which they had fled. These refugees had no access to legal representation. In response to this dire need, volunteers and community leaders formed Las Americas. Our services have expanded to include a wide variety of legal needs expressed by refugees and other immigrants. For example in 1996, we initiated the Justice for Women and Children Project which represents every detained immigrant child in El Paso and provides representation to women detained by the INS in our service area. In 1997, Las Americas began work on the Battered Immigrant Women Project in response to lack of information and confusion about the rights of battered immigrant women. In 1999, Las Americas initiated the Poder de la Mujer project to address the needs of immigrant women and their families in the El Paso area by providing outreach, education and training in immigrant communities. CM: Poor people everywhere—Latin America, Africa, Asia—are on the move. They seek opportunity in different places. Are their aspirations and actions legitimate? LA: More than 35 million people around the world have been uprooted from their homes and communities by war, and other conflict. Throughout the world people are forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution, natural disaster, and famine. At present there are almost 15 million refugees and 25 million internally displaced persons worldwide. These uprooted people are of every race and religion. The majority of them are women and children. It is also important to note that many of these countries from which migrants are fleeing are exploited by the Western and more developed countries. These people seek opportunity in different places because there is no easy way of living in their own countries. They make the decision to leave their countries in order to make a better life for themselves. Here in the United States, we forget all of the different times that we have gone into other countries, used up or destroyed their resources and then have left the people there to fend for themselves. We need to understand that we, as a country, owe a lot to these people, and if it means giving them the right to live here, then it should be just that. CM: Are the policies that developed countries use to control immigration legitimate as well? LA: Immigration laws in “developed” countries set out to continue the “manifest destiny” mindset of a long time ago. Majority groups within those countries worry that they will be overrun so they use their power to keep out new groups. Developed countries continually live in fear. This fear prevents many helpless people from traveling all over the world in an effort to find security and fulfill their dreams. CM: Las Americas has a CCHDsponsored project called “Poder de la Mujer.” What are the objectives of this program? LA: Poder serves as a community organizing/empowerment project for the immigrant community of El Paso. The group aims to empower immigrants, particularly women, by providing education and training on community organizing and issues important to the immigrant community. In particular, Poder works in low-income areas of El Paso including the colonias. Poder coordinates bi-weekly meetings that bring together immigrants from the community. Poder boasts over 200 volunteers of women and their children, as well a core group of 40 promotoras (leaders). CM: What other programs would you like to develop at Las Americas? LA: For the past three years the focus of El Poder de la Mujer their work has been on education about domestic violence and transmitted diseases as well as the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In January it will begin an environmental project concentrating on creating a healthy environment in which to rear children. Two main components of the program will be: 1) participating in health profession workshops in order to become aware of the environment hazards, and 2) training farm workers and community leaders to become health education promoters who will educate their communities on how to eliminate environmental hazards and dangerous practices. CM: As a Lebanese, what do you believe are the basic problems of the Middle East and how might they be resolved? LA: The basic challenge for the Middle East is to create a Palestinian state. Since 1948, Palestinian refugees have moved from one country to the other seeking a better life and future for their children. Now they have lived for three and four generations in refugee camps. They have no future, no vision, no freedom. They are not welcomed anywhere. The conflict, which has lasted for 55 years, can be resolved at any time. It requires that political leaders sit around the table and make peace. It further requires willingness for justice and peace from both Israelis and Palestinians, and a readiness for a fundamental change in the relations between the two peoples. As Christians we can say: “up to now, I have done nothing”. Let us begin. |
