When I started my internship at Casa Marianella I did not know what to expect. My professional background is in cooking and working in restaurants, that was my first career. But at the ripe old age of 35 I decided to finish my degree in Mexican American Studies, with the hopes of continuing on to [...]
To love a country as if you’ve lost one: 1968, my mother leaves Cuba for America, a scene I imagine as if standing in her place—one foot inside a plane destined for a country she knew only as a name, a color on a map, or glossy photos from drugstore magazines, her other foot anchored [...]
My name is Julian Root, and I am 32 years old. I grew up in and around Philadelphia, and was raised Jewish by a mother with eastern European roots (mostly Lithuanian and Romanian). After my parents separated when I was 11, I lived with my Catholic father, who was a self-declared 'mutt' of heritage. His [...]
It's been a busy, busy couple months for Casa Marianella. News began to spread far and wide that Casa was over double it's capacity as the border crisis continued to see record numbers of migrants being sent to detention - over 144,000 migrants apprehended or denied entry into the U.S. in June — the largest [...]
We're sharing 10 powerful excerpts and quotes from immigrant writers of all different backgrounds and faiths, in hopes that it will help inspire more change in the way we perceive and interact with our immigrants brothers and sisters. "you have to understand, that no one would put their children in a boat unless the sea [...]
Today we wanted to share Posada Esperanza's Program Director Report with you all. Patti McCabe is our wonderful Program Director at Posada Esperanza, and we are so thankful for the incredible care and hard work she puts into her job, along with our staff and volunteers at Posada. Posada was founded as a home for [...]
At Casa Marianella, we offer many services, ranging from legal support to housing to ESL courses to help our residents get comfortable speaking in English in their new community. Our ESL classes are in the evenings from Monday to Thursday and are open to the greater Austin community. We asked our wonderful ESL students what [...]
What a year it has been for Casa Marianella. There have been highs and there have been lows for our community, but we have made it into 2019 with our heads held high and so much hope for the future of our nonprofit and the immigrants we serve. Without your support, we would not be [...]
We're incredibly grateful for our friends at the Inti Raymi Fund, for generously raising and donating $25,000 for Casa Marianella. We spoke with Anas Talalqa, Human Rights Advisor at the Inti Raymi Fund, to find out more about their mission and how they came to find out about Casa. Please tell us a little about the Inti [...]
2019 is around the corner. As we celebrate another year, we'd like to look back on a poem written by the very talented, prize winning Amineh Abou Kerech, who wrote 'Lament for Syria' at the age of 13, after being forced to flee her homeland. This poem reminds us that life is never promised, never [...]