This evening, November 12, the Canisius College Catholic Studies Program presents a showing of a new documentary After I Pick the Fruit from 7:00- 9:00 p.m. in Old Main, Room 303. The 90-minute film will be followed by a panel discussion.
Rochester film producer, Nancy Ghertner, directed this regional documentary which humanizes migrant worker women. Ghertner “follows the lives of five immigrant women farm workers over a ten-year period as they labor in the apple orchards and fields of western New York, migrate to Florida, raise their families, and try to hide from the immigration raids that were conducted in response to the events of September 11, 2001.”
Ms. Ghertner will introduce her film. The panel discussion commenting on the film includes Msgr. David Gallivan, pastor of Holy Cross R.C. Church, on Buffalo’s lower West side. Msgr. Gallivan, who spent many years ministering in Latin America, oversees a parish with a vital diocesean migrant ministry. He will be joined by Wayne Alt, a founder of the Peace Center and chairs the Latin America Solidarity Committee (LASC), which organizes monthly presentations on local projects around Latin America and the Caribbean and is active with Rural Migrant Ministries, a farmworker support group.
Discussion will offer some historic context surrounding migrant workers, primarily on the local level, and include response to the recent vocal anti-immigration movement with a sense of social justice that includes human rights for, and dignity of migrant workers and immigrants.
Among consideration will be the implications of a recent commitment of Canisius College to resist anti-immigrant activities exemplified by President John J. Hurley’s signing of the American Catholic Colleges and Universities(ACCU) Immigration Reform letter, and a similar document put forth by the American Jesuit Colleges and Universities(AJCU) President’s Statement (January 2013).
This free program is open to the public and sponsored by the Canisius College Catholic Studies Program with assistance from the Offices of Mission & Identity, Campus Ministry, and the Rev. J. Clayton Murray, S.J. Archives & Special Collections with support of the Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library.
For more information please contact: Nancy Rourke, Ph.D. director, Catholic Studies Program at Ext.2460 or rourkem@canisius.edu
Submitted by: Kathleen DeLaney, archivist, special collections librarian
