Please join the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS), Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality (RICE) Center, and the Law & Society Association (LSA) for a film screening and discussion exploring the Sanctuary Movement that took root in the United States in the 1980s. The movement, born in a time when the U.S. rejected the asylum claims of those fleeing U.S. funded wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, was, and continues to be a concrete form of resistance. This year, we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention during a time of unprecedented challenges to refugee protection worldwide. We come together at this moment to draw inspiration from the Sanctuary Movement, and the courage and conscience of those who have participated in it. We will hear remarks from documentary filmmaker Theo Rigby, and screen excerpts from two of his films on the subject:
- Sanctuary: Faith and Resistance (in production) traces the history of the Sanctuary movement from the 1980s, when courageous refugees and people of faith build power through moral courage and strategic resistance.
- Si Pudiera Quedarme (2024), demonstrates sanctuary in contemporary times, telling the story of two Latinx mothers who took refuge in local churches to avoid deportation.
Professors Karen Musalo and Ming Hsu Chen will provide historical and contemporary context for discussion, and will be joined by Central American activist and director of the SHARE Foundation, Jose Artiga, and Drew Paton, Associate Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church. Reception to follow with light refreshments provided.
Speakers:
- Theo Rigby is an award-winning director, cinematographer, educator, and Founder of iNation Media based in San Francisco. He has been creating stories focusing on the immigrant experience in the U.S. for over 15 years.
- Jose Artiga is the Executive Director of the SHARE Foundation and is a long-time human, environmental and immigrant rights advocate in the United States and Central America. He was one of the first Salvadoran immigrants to seek sanctuary in the United States, at the University Lutheran Chapel of the University of California Berkeley, one of six founding congregations to announce public sanctuary in 1982.
- Professor Karen Musalo is Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic. She began her legal career in the 1980s representing many Central Americans who were assisted and sheltered by the Sanctuary Movement.
- Professor Ming Hsu Chen is the Faculty-Director of the Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality (RICE) Program and Harry and Lillian Hastings Research Chair at UC Law SF. She uses law and social science in her teaching and research on race, immigration, citizenship, and equality.
- Rev. Drew Paton is the Associate Pastor of Justice & Outreach for the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. He has been active in faith-based immigrant rights work and the Sanctuary Movement for more than a decade.