When a young person emigrates, hope emigrates. When a woman emigrates, life emigrates. When a family emigrates, the social fabric emigrates. When children emigrate, the roots of human tenderness emigrate. When an indigenous person emigrates, history emigrates.

— Fr. Pedro Pantoja

Migrants are not just statistics. They are people with names, wounds, and dreams — and they arrive at Casa Monarca’s door every day.

Casa Monarca, Ayuda Humanitaria al Migrante A.B.P. is located in Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey, Mexico. It was founded in 2015 when a small group of volunteers from Santa Catarina joined Fr. Luis Eduardo Zavala to bring food and water to migrants traveling along the railway tracks — people passing through with nothing, on their way to an uncertain future.

What began as a simple act of presence grew into something much larger. By 2017, Casa Monarca was officially established as an organization, and by 2019 it became a formal partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR/ACNUR). In 2022, Casa Monarca opened a shelter with an operational capacity for 120 people.

Today, more than 11,000 refugees and migrants from over 20 countries have been accompanied through local integration processes, and more than 4,900 people have found shelter within Casa Monarca’s walls. Inspired by the Gospel call to welcome the stranger (Matthew 25) and by Pope Francis’ invitation to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate migrants and refugees, Casa Monarca strives to be a place where families can rest, recover, and rebuild their lives with dignity and hope.

Our work goes far beyond emergency assistance. We believe true integration begins with four essential pillars: health, education, housing, and work. In practice, this means providing a roof and a hot meal for a family that has lost everything; psychologists and psychiatrists who listen, accompany, and help restore what trauma has taken; a backpack and school supplies so a child displaced by violence can enter a

classroom with dignity; and social workers who guide families through accessing healthcare, stable housing, and dignified employment — the concrete steps that transform a shelter stay into a genuine new beginning.

Yet the needs continue to grow while humanitarian funding continues to shrink. Your prayers, solidarity, and generosity allow Casa Monarca to continue accompanying vulnerable families with compassion, dignity, and hope.

In each person we welcome, we encounter Christ. In each wound, we recognize our shared humanity.