Where the Border Meets the Heart

What if stillness could awaken us to loving action? In October’s We Conspire series, learn how India Aubry turned grief and outrage into a movement for migrant dignity and belonging. She helped found Voices from the Border after a mystical moment of clarity, transforming heartbreak into solidarity. 

India Aubry spent three days in a daze following the 2016 election. Living on the United States-Mexico border, she had a hard time fathoming how someone who talked the way he did about immigrants could be elected by a nation of immigrants. She feared this president and his rhetoric would do irreparable harm. She was angry and afraid.  

She remembers pulling into a Home Depot parking lot one evening in Tucson, Arizona, right after the election. The quiet night took her in. The beauty of the stars opened her heart and senses. She entered into a state of inner stillness. She was swept from her daze into something of an altered state. What unfolded next, she says, can only be described as a “mystical experience.”  

“The only way I can describe it is that I got a download from the stars,” Aubry says. “All of a sudden, I just had this surge of energy. It felt almost electrical, like I wanted to run around the parking lot. And I had this clear vision about what it was I was supposed to do.” 

The next day, she met with a couple of her close women friends and told them what had happened. She had no nonprofit experience. But she felt that they were supposed to start something. She felt that they needed to transform their anger into something meaningful, rather than become bitter and reactive. Aubry, referencing Richard Rohr’s book, The Tears of Things, calls this the “alchemy of anger.”  

Soon after, Voices from the Border was born.  

The turning point of Voices came in June 2018, when Aubry and her co-founders, including her dear friend Kathi — who had inspired her move to the 800-person border town of Patagonia — visited the nearby Nogales, Sonora, port of entry (POE) in Mexico. There, over a hundred Central American asylum seekers were camped out on the POE floor. Equipped with supplies from Walmart for refugees, they met Pancho Olachea Martin, who had lived in America for 30 years before being deported to Nogales. For a while, he was homeless, living in a cemetery. Then he transformed his pain, earning a nursing degree in his 50s, and converting a van into an ambulance to serve the underserved at the border.  

“He didn’t get resentful, and he didn’t give up,” Aubry says. “Instead, he used that pain as fuel to make a difference.” 

His gentleness, compassion for, and knowledge of the nuances and complexities at the border led to an organic partnership, which helped Voices evolve its core mission: to offer housing, medical care, and support to asylum seekers and deportees in Nogales, Sonora, while prioritizing the most vulnerable — women, children, and those with medical needs. Pancho and Kathi eventually fell in love and married. 

“Now Kathi lives in Mexico,” Aubry beams as she reflects on their story. “And they are the ones who oversee all of our migrant services.”   

Voices is not only serving the underserved on the border. On the U.S. side, it has embraced creative activism to counter immigration narratives wrapped in hateful rhetoric. The Welcome Quilt Project, which has gained national attention, invites communities to sew loving messages of welcome to immigrants into quilts which are then displayed in public places. For example, following the 2024 presidential debates, quilts were displayed around Springfield, Ohio, to counter the rhetoric demonizing immigrants. Accompanying these exhibits are empathy-and-belonging curriculums to foster understanding. Recently, Aubry’s team has commissioned an original play to share migrants’ stories, aiming to inspire empathy and curiosity about migrants’ lived experiences.  

“If you want to change somebody’s mind about something, you first have to get into their heart,” Aubry says of creative activism. “It’s building awareness, which hopefully leads to greater empathy and understanding.”  

Aubry continues, “The border is not limited to a geographical location… Immigrants are everywhere. Look in your own community, and you’ll find something.” 

Born from a mystical moment after the 2016 election, Voices is now adapting to challenges on the border as more extreme immigration policies are implemented in the second Trump administration.  

When the policies stranded people at the border during the first Trump administration, Voices created a de facto shelter system. With asylum pathways now being closed, Voices has shifted to refugee resettlement, helping deportees and stranded migrants establish lives in Nogales, Sonora, whether through assisting with housing, school enrollment, work permits, or medical care.  

“My outrage and my despair led to a sense of agency when I was able to channel it into something actionable,” she shares. “Trust your anger,” she suggests. “Trust your passion. Trust your grief. Trust your broken heart to lead you to a place to make a difference.” 

Reflect with Us  
India Aubry’s story invites us to consider how stillness and heartbreak can open us to a deeper call — one that transforms pain into compassion and despair into courageous love. When we pause long enough to listen beneath our outrage, we may find the stirrings of divine purpose waiting to take form through us. 
 
Where in your own life might grief or anger be asking to be transformed into loving action? 
Share your reflection with us.  

We Conspire is a series from the Center for Action and Contemplation featuring wisdom and stories from the growing Christian contemplative movement. Sign up for the monthly email series and receive a free invitation to practice each month.