I’m Fr Tom Florek, SJ, Jesuit and recently have accepted the invitation to join the CMFN team. Growing up in a multi-cultural family in Wisconsin prepared me to live in our interconnected world and to value diversity as a significant gift of my inheritance and in others. I came to know the wave of Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrant families while teaching at Bruce Guadalupe Community School in Milwaukee in the early 1970’s. A Fulbright scholarship for studies in Mexico helped me to understand the rich history, culture and social reality of our neighbors.

Years later as founder and director of the ICLM lay formation institute serving Mexican, Caribbean, Central and SA immigrants to the Midwest, we participated in the II National CMFN Consulta at Creighton University in 2007. The 150 migrant farmworker participants together with the CMFN membership taught me the historical force combined with an integrated faith of an otherwise invisible farmworkers serving the U.S. in their field and factory labor.

Teresita Kontos is a native from Sinaloa, Mexico, daughter of a farmer and a rural teacher, and wife and mother of two. She previously served as Vice President of CMFN where she demonstrated her leadership skills and commitment to her projects. Now as President of CMFN, she is expanding the reach of her ministry of Pastoral Campesina which advocates for the migrant and rural immigrant farmworkers in the Yuma, Arizona area.

In my role as the leader of Pastoral Campesina and President of CMFN, I have the privilege of working with priests and volunteers to support the families of our farmworkers and being inspired by their stories and dreams of a better future.

Jose Lopez was born in Jaripo, Michoacán, Mexico. Jose worked in the fields of California for 30 years from 1971 to 2001. He is currently director of Youth Ministry and Migrant Ministry in the Diocese of Stockton. He represents Region Eleven in the Catholic Migrant Farmworkers network (CMFN) organization where he is currently Vice President and active member from 1997 of LA RED, the national Catholic Network of Hispanic youth Ministry since its foundation.

Hi! My name is Father Richard Notter. I’m an 83 year old priest who was ordained in 1963 for the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio. I am of German and English ancestry, and am fluent in Spanish. I first became involved with the Hispanic community when, as a seminarian, I assisted a priest from Mexico in ministering for the summer to migrant farmworkers. I have lived in Mexico and visited much of it.

I was one of the founding board members of the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network and was its first part-time director. I am back on the board again. However my main ministry now is as chaplain with people also on the move – circus and traveling shows, which is another of the Vatican’s pastoral ministries to migrant and itinerant people. I am also Vice Chairman of its Retirement Project which operates a campground for retired circus and carnival people.

Born in Saltillo Coahuila and raised in the City of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, México. I was invited to work in the Mexican American Cultural Center to serve immigrants, rural workers and intercultural communities so I migrated from Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico to San Antonio Texas, December 12, 1998. I got to know about CMFN at MACC and was invited to join their Board of Directors. Developed a bilingual Manual for Pastoral Leadership Formation for Migrant Farmworkers and Immigrants, including Church pastoral leaders.

As work between MACC and CMFN was interrupted, I joined the Congar Institute. I became certified by USCCB as presenter for “Intercultural Competencies”. I continued to serve the farmworker community in relationship with the Glenmary Community. I was also invited to join in the planning of the V National Hispanic Encounter. My present commitments are my hope. Serve with CMFN’s mission on farmworker pastoral leadership and on the urgent immigration reform for rural workers.

David R. Corrales holds a Bachelor of Arts in General Business from Marymount University, and a Master of Arts in Integral Economic Development Management from the Catholic University of America.

David currently works as the Grants Specialist of the USCCB’s Collection for the Church in Latin America, managing a grant making process to build the capacity of Catholic initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to this position, he was the Program Coordinator of the USCCB Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church, where he managed projects in support of national ministries to migrants, refugees and people on the move in the United States. He has previously worked as Grants Administrator for the USCCB Collections for Africa and Latin America, consultant for the Executive Secretariat of Integral Development at the Organization of America States (OAS), and Operations Manager for Neo Niche Strategies. He is originally from Nicaragua, is married and has two children.

Deacon Salvador (Sal) Carranza is originally from Michoacán, Mexico. He immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 13 to the city of Rupert, Idaho. The Lord first called Sal to ministry as part of the local church choir. After this, our Lord called him to serve in other ministries including Crusillo, Marriage Preparation, Youth and Young Adult Ministry, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry, and now as the director of the Office of Youth and Young Adults Evangelization. It was during his time as a Youth and Young Adult Minister that he felt invited to discern the vocation of the permanent diaconate. For the greater glory of God Sal was ordained to the permanent diaconate in October 2018. Among his greatest blessings are his wife and three children who remind him on a daily basis of God’s amazing love for us.

My name is Carlos Luna Fernandez. I’m a permanent deacon from the Yaima Washington Diocese. I was born in Michoacan Mexico and came to the United States as immigrant at 17 years old. I worked in the fields for 20 years and I identify with the farmworkers. Now I’m helping in the Christian Evangelization program in the migrant camps. My hope is that our migrant brothers do not lose their faith and come to know even more God in their lives.

Sr. Joanna Okereke, HHCJ from Nigeria, is a member of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus.

Sr. Joanna is the Assistant Director, of the Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees, and Travelers/ USCCB. She serves as an Ex Officio Board Member of CMFN.

She is charged with the pastoral care of migrants, refugees, and people on the move communities. Her ability to develop and strengthen the implementation of goals and objectives of the USCCB, providing leadership, spiritual support, motivating/encouraging team-building and implementing the US Bishops’ strategic plan and pastoral efforts is very significant in her responsibilities, spiritual growth, and social involvement in the community.

She hopes that with effective leadership, clear sense of purpose, certainty of direction and the ability to provide support, the activities of the CMFN would succeed, fulfill purpose and achieve our dreams.

Madeline Watkins, MTS is the Program Coordinator for the USCCB Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers (PCMRT). In this capacity, she collaborates with local, diocesan and national leaders to ensure the voices and pastoral needs of migrant farmworkers and ministers reach the ears of the US Bishops. Originally from Texas and the proud granddaughter of Tejano migrant farmworkers herself, Madeline is humbled and honored to serve as an Ex Officio Board Member of CMFN. She has great gratitude for the mission and work of CMFN to ensure migrant farmworkers know the love and goodness of Christ through the Church’s close accompaniment.

Maria Veronica Rodriguez is an Associate Director at Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo with the Office of Hispanics/Migrant Affairs. While she was getting her bachelor’s degree at Western Michigan University, she began to volunteer with the Diocese of Kalamazoo’s Office of Hispanic Ministry and Christian Service. She fell in love with the work of Hispanic ministry that after trying a few jobs in her field, she decided to accept the position of assistant for Hispanic ministry at the Diocese. As a migrant worker herself from the age of 14, who would travel from Texas to Michigan, she felt that by working in ministry, it was a way to give back to the community that made her who she is now and to be able to have the opportunity to inspire others in pursuing a higher education or finishing high school. It has been a wonderful and challenging road, but she wouldn’t change any part of it because if you have God by your side, nothing is impossible!

Nelly was born into a migrant family in South Texas. Greatly impacted by the Pastoral presence while living in a migrant camp Ohio, she felt called to missionary work which led her to many wonderful endeavors such as helping the migrant pastor in Minnesota in initiating a migrant pastoral program to assist families as well as later accepting an invitation to be the coordinator for Hispanic ministry and faith formation in Los Angeles, California from 1994-2003. Today, she journeys with families in the loving care of their aging and infirmed loved ones as the IT director in the San Juan Nursing Home, in the Brownsville Diocese. Nelly also volunteers in her parish’s bereavement ministry and with the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network organization, which helps bring her faith to life. Nelly is also a wife and mother of an amazing teenager.