Crossing with the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail

Kathryn Ferguson is a dancer, choreographer, and independent filmmaker. She studied modern and ethnic dance and music in the U.S., Morocco, and Cairo, and teaches dance at her studio in Tucson, Arizona. She has produced and directed two feature length award-winning documentaries, The Unholy Tarahumara and Rita of the Sky, and worked in media for PBS KUAT-TV for four years. Since the year 2004, she has volunteered with Samaritans to work on the desert to prevent deaths. Norma A. Price graduated from the University of Tennessee school of Medicine in Memphis, Tennessee, where she also completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Hematology. Subsequent Oncology fellowships at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, and Emory University Hospital and Clinic in Atlanta, completed her medical training. She remains committed to the work of Samaritans and other humanitarian and activist groups that focus on border issues. Ted Parks became involved with the Samaritan movement in the fall of 2005. He worked in the restaurant industry for twenty years including eight years as the owner of a restaurant in Tucson, Arizona. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has appeared in numerous film and television roles. A founding member of The Theatre of N.O.T.E. he attended the University of California, Irvine and has produced, directed or acted in well over fifty plays. He has written or co-written three plays, numerous short stories and a novel.

"Crossing with the Virgin" collects 39 stories heard from migrants about the treacherous and even deadly treks they have made across the desert into America. This work raises important questions about underlying assumptions and basic operations of border enforcement, helping readers to see past political positions to view migrants as human beings. Black-and-white photos. 3 maps.