Posadas sin Fronteras, Roberto Martinez and “Our God is Undocumented”

This last Saturday, Dec 8, was the 19th annual Posada sin Fronteras at the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego.  We weren’t able to get down there this year, as we were helping plant and seed native plants as part of the reinhabitation efforts at Surfer’s Point in Ventura.  But you can read an account of the Posada here.  
In 1993, working with my colleague with the American Friends Service Committee the late Roberto Martinez (pictured above), we founded this amazing experiment in public liturgy and solidarity.  I am deeply gratified that it continues annually.  
So I want to take this moment to remember Roberto, a dear friend and pioneer activist who championed immigrant rights amidst the border war zone for a quarter century.  We profiled him in our book (published by Orbis Books earlier this year) Our God is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Rights, and also dedicated the book to Roberto and his wife Yolanda.  
I’m happy to report that this book was chosen as one of the 12 “Best Books of the First Half of 2012” by the Englewood Review of Books.  May we remember the immigrants in our midst–and in our own stories–during this season in which we celebrate the Christ who came among us as a refugee at the margins of history.