About

Where History
Meets Hope

A Landmark Destination

A woman smiles as she passes food through metal bars to a person on the other side, where several people stand. The scene is outdoors with sunlight casting shadows on the bars.

A Monument to Peace and Friendship Across Borders

Welcome. We stand at the edge of two nations—and at the heart of a movement spanning the continent. International Friendship Park is more than a historic site –– it is a living monument to unity, peace, and the enduring power of human connection.

Our Why

For over 175 years, this site on the ancestral lands of the Kumeyaay nation has held profound meaning for the peoples of the United States and Mexico. A historic monument commemorates the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and its promise of “peace and friendship” between the two neighboring countries.

Today, the Park is divided by walls. And yet it remains a symbol of the human spirit’s longing for unity over division.

Celebrated across generations, this iconic site continues to inspire … and will someday be known worldwide as International Friendship Park — El Parque Internacional de la Amistad. 

The Vision

We envision a site where people can enter safely from both north and south, a shared space for learning, connecting, and making friends across the border.

International Friendship Park will be a landmark destination for families whose branches span the border and celebrated worldwide for the kind of cross-border collaboration needed to meet the world’s challenges.

Our longtime friend Jim Brown shares his inspiring vision for International Friendship Park in this video produced by the San Diego-Tijuana World Design Capital, 2024.

Our Three Collective Goals

In pursuit of this vision, we are constantly:

A group of people stand on a beach holding a large pink banner that reads "Migration is Natural." Some wear hats and costumes, and the ocean is visible in the background under a cloudy sky.

Mobilizing a Movement

Friends Across Borders is a coalition of leaders, organizations, and individuals committed to demonstrating the simple truth that the peoples of North America are not enemies, but friends. In August 2025, the coalition’s inaugural action celebrated a “Day of International Friendship” at over 40 sites across North America, where people recited aloud the “Friendship Pledge.”

Learn more about Friends Across Borders >

Aerial view of people in pink clothing standing on both sides of a tall border fence, casting long shadows, with some reaching through the fence toward each other.

Cultivating a Community

The Friends are dedicated to cultivating the important things that support friendship and bring people together — a welcome site for visiting groups, and cultural events connecting people across the border. Friendship Garden (el Jardín de Amistad) sustains an expansive network of indigenous plants, producing food for local feeding programs and “growing” workshops for people of all ages. La Comunidad brings the meaning of Friendship Park alive.

Learn more about our Cross-Border Community >

A group of eight adults, a child in a stroller, and a dog pose and smile in front of a border marker that reads "Límite de la República Mexicana" beside a tall fence.

Forging New Friendships

Friends On the Road is a traveling cross-border artistic, cultural and historical immersion platform. It hosts a perpetual churn of thought-provoking presentations and creative shows highlighting the experience of the U.S.-Mexico border from the perspective of artists, activists, environmentalists and historians. Friends On the Road brings the spirit of Friendship Park to new audiences near and far.

Learn more about Friends On the Road >

Stories

There are so many stories to be told by the people of this place —  native peoples evicted from their ancestral lands, lives straddling two cultures, immigrant families separated by walls and policies, and more. The Park once offered a safe place to meet. Someday friends and families will gather here again.

These stories show why a new and truly international Park is so important.

An older woman with glasses, wearing a black shirt and a purple patterned scarf, stands outdoors near greenery. She holds a small red pouch and has a gourd necklace.
  • Kumeyaay Native Story

Kumeyaay Native Story

The Kumeyaay indigenous peoples have lived on United States-Mexico borderlands for over 12,000 years. The border wall runs through their burial grounds. A nation member in Campo, California compared the blasting away of the old border fence to make way for new wall segments as disrespectful as going to Arlington National Cemetery and setting off explosives there.

A person comforts a distressed teenager, who is sitting with their hand covering their face. The scene takes place indoors near a window with wooden blinds.
  • Immigrant Family Story

Immigrant Family Story

Maria and her husband built a life in California after crossing from Mexico, raising two children — one of them, Diego, is a DACA recipient. He dreams of becoming a teacher but can’t leave the U.S. without risking everything. Maria’s immigration status has expired, so she can’t visit her dying mother in Mexico. Their family lives in limbo, between two countries and two impossible choices.

A young woman with long dark hair and a plaid shirt smiles while standing in front of a wooden wall with mesh panels.
  • Fronteriza Story

Fronteriza Story

Isabel lives between cultures—Spanish at home, English at school. Her Mexican mother calls her “mija,” her American father says “sweetie.” She translates dinner conversations, family recipes, and emotions across two worlds. Isabel does not consider herself one culture or the other. She is very proud to be both, American and Mexican —a bridge, a borderlander, living in both worlds.

Leadership

Our leaders are compassionate members of the community working to create a future park where the public in both Mexico and the United States will have open access to this historic meeting place. They have dedicated themselves to the work of advocacy and forming a bright, hopeful future for friendship across borders.

Staff & Team

  • Rosa María Hernández

    Rosa María Hernández is Executive Director of Friends of International Friendship Park, stepping into leadership of the advocacy organization championing the historic U.S./Mexico border meeting site at a pivotal moment in its next chapter. She brings over 20 years of experience across the nonprofit, corporate, and community sectors, combining operational rigor with a lived commitment to cross-border connection.

    More >

    Before joining the Friends of IFP, Rosa María served as Vice President of Programs, Development Executive, and Community Impact Expert, work that drove millions in revenue growth and earned national recognition. She is pursuing her Master's at the University of San Diego and is a graduate of HOPE's Leadership Institute, LEAD San Diego, and USC's Multicultural Women in Negotiation and Leadership Program. She is also a graduate of MANA de San Diego's Latina Success Leadership Program, a founding sister of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. at SDSU, and holds certifications in AI implementation, negotiation, and conflict resolution.

    Rosa María is the proud daughter of immigrants from Tijuana, and one of five daughters. Her roots include longstanding advocacy for Latina empowerment, for those like herself living with Type 1 diabetes, and for stronger policies supporting mothers and families. She lives in San Diego with her husband, Joe, and their children, Joseph, Leilani Vida, and Maui Paz.

  • John Fanestil

    John Fanestil is Executive Director Emeritus. An ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, his career has spanned work in the church and nonprofit sectors, the through-line being his commitment to the peoples and places of the US-Mexico border region. John has spoken to hundreds of groups and dozens of media outlets from around the world about the past, present, and future of Friendship Park.

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    A native of San Diego, John has spent decades working as a community organizer along and across the border. In 2011, John worked with friends on both sides of the border to establish The Border Church, a weekly celebration of cross-border communion that continues to the present day. 

    John is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, the Claremont School of Theology, and the University of Southern California, where he earned his Ph.D. in History. He is also a writer, blending history, religion, memoir, and social commentary (www.johnfanestil.com). In his most recent book, American Heresy (Fortress Press, 2023), he explores “the roots and reach of white Christian nationalism.”

  • Dan Watman

    Dan Watman is the Founder and Coordinator of the Borderless Friendship Garden of Native Plants inside Friendship Park. He lives in Tijuana and teaches languages through the program called the Escuela Amistad.

  • Alexandra Calvaruso

    Alexandra Calvaruso is the Director of Operations & Communications for Friends of International Friendship Park. With a background in nonprofit marketing and creative strategy, she leads communications, operations, and the digital presence of the organization. Alexandra lives in San Diego with her family and is dedicated to amplifying the park’s mission and strengthening cross-border connection.

     
     

  • Rosa 2

    Rosa María Hernández

  • A man with gray hair and glasses, wearing a clerical collar and a light shirt, stands on a sandy beach with the ocean and cloudy sky in the background. He is smiling and carrying a backpack.

    John Fanestil

  • A man with dark hair and a beard, wearing a white t-shirt, smiles brightly while crouching outdoors on dirt, with green grass and bags visible in the background. Sunlight casts shadows across the scene.

    Dan Watman

  • A smiling woman with long, wavy hair sits by a window holding a mug. She wears a light shirt over a tank top and ripped jeans, with bracelets and rings, and sunlight streams in from outside.

    Alexandra Calvaruso

Board of Directors

  • Barb Casserly

    With over 30 years in business and nonprofit fundraising, Barb Casserly retired in 2021. While at the American Red Cross she deployed to New York in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and traveled with donors while at an International NGO.

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    Casserly has served her community in Orange County as a member of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, Faith Based Action Committee and founded a Foundation to raise awareness of the need for a Theatre. She currently serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and PRIDE Committees in Mission Viejo where she resides with her husband.

  • Diane Keeling, Ph.D.

    Diane Keeling was raised as a settler on the unceded Indigenous ancestral homelands of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and is a graduate of Colton High School class of 2000. She earned her BA in rhetoric from Ripon College, MA in rhetoric and media from Colorado State University, and PhD in rhetoric and women & gender studies from CU Boulder.

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    As a professor of rhetoric in the department of communication at the University of San Diego since 2013, Diane is the faculty producer of USD's There's More live storytelling and podcast, has served as chair of the College of Arts & Sciences Academic Assembly, and is a past president for the Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication.

    In 2019, Diane met new friends at International Friendship Park, Dan Watman and Maria Teresa Fernandez, while developing a collaborative research project on border rhetorics with Michelle Holling, professor of rhetoric at CSU San Marcos. Shortly after, she became involved in marchas and protests around the closing of the park. She joined the coalition steering committee in 2022 and is a founding member of the board of directors. She is spearheading with board member Kathryn Vomero Santos the creation of a community-based Friendship Park archive.

    Diane frequently incorporates lessons around coalition building in her courses that include opportunities for community engagement with Friends of Friendship Park, including the creation of protest signs, Friendship Park traveling exhibit signs, camping trips to Border Field State Park, a social media awareness campaign about the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis, and participation in La Posada Sin Fronteras. Her academic research includes rhetorics of coalition building, borders, and racial violence.

  • Eric Bowlby

    Eric Bowlby moved to San Diego in 1976. He served as Executive Chair of the SD Sierra Club from 1999 to 2000 until hired to run Sierra Club’s Canyons Campaign. In 8 years, Bowlby established over 45 neighborhood-based stewardship or “canyon friends” groups.

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    In 2008, Bowlby became the founding Executive Director of “SD Canyonlands” dedicated to canyons conservation. Canyonlands has grown to twenty-five staff. Bowlby led the public process to dedicate 13,200 acres of City-owned open space for permanent parkland. Bowlby served for ten years on the City Wetlands Advisory Board and twenty years on the City’s Canyons Advisory Committee.

  • James Brown, AIA

    James Brown, AIA, is an architect, contractor and developer, principal of San Diego-based Public Architecture, and co-owner of the arts collective Bread & Salt. From his position in the School of Architecture at San Diego State University, Jim is creating a design for "International Friendship Park" that will be unveiled as part of the San Diego/Tijuana World Design Capital program.

  • Kathryn Vomero Santos, Ph.D.

    Kathryn Vomero Santos is a scholar of literature and performance studies and an Associate Professor of English at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She is a co-founder of the Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva, a group of scholars, educators, artists, and activists who reimagine Shakespeare’s works to reflect the cultures, languages, and lived experiences of La Frontera. In collaboration with several members of the Friends of International Friendship Park coalition, she is leading a project to develop a living community archive that preserves and provides access to the many histories of this culturally significant site and those who have gathered here.

  • Michelle A. Holling, Ph.D.

    Michelle A. Holling, Ph.D. is a Chicana, North County resident, and friend of Friendship Park since 2019. As a professor of rhetoric, her research analyzes intersections of race, gender, and violence in public discourse and social and political issues affecting Chicana/os-Latina/os. She uses her role as a professor at CSU San Marcos to teach about Friendship Park. 

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    Her advocacy for Friendship Park also includes her involvement on the advocacy team, participation Marchas di Silencio, and demonstrations held in prior years. As a board member of Friends of Friendship Park, she brings prior experience leading professional organizations and service to another non-profit foundation.

  • Mona Kuczenski

    Mona Kuczenski is a retired principal of a local environmental planning firm, where she managed projects ranging from the Long Beach Sports Park to the San Diego Bay Sediment Remediation Project.

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    She has been a volunteer with Friends of Friendship Park for more than three years, including work on the Steering Committee, Advocacy Committee, and currently as President of the Founding Board of Directors. Mona is committed to helping fulfill the promise of an International Friendship Park that welcomes all people, celebrates the history of the border region, recognizes our common humanity, and builds an infrastructure of friendship between nations.

  • Maria Teresa Fernandez

    Maria Teresa Fernandez is a photographer who has spent over a quarter century documenting the changing landscape along the San Diego/Tijuana border, including at Friendship Park. MT has also hosted hundreds of families who have reunited with loved ones through the wall at Friendship Park.

  • Nadia Pineda

    Nadia Pineda is a finance and operations professional with a background in payroll, billing, and customer-focused service. Nadia is passionate about serving her community and deeply values International Friendship Park, which she considers a place of belonging, peace, and hope. Her admiration for the Friends of International Friendship Park stems from the impact the organization has had in the immigrant community in the region, and because it serves as a reminder of her own humanity.

     
     
     

  • Selene Gutierrez

    Selene Gutierrez is a dedicated advocate for Latino communities and other underrepresented groups. As a DACA recipient with firsthand experience navigating the challenges of immigration in the U.S., she brings both personal insight and passionate leadership to issues surrounding immigration reform and equity. Selene is deeply involved in frontline community efforts, particularly in response to the ongoing border crisis.
     

  • Zoe Luiz

    Zoe is the Senior Manager of Communications at Catalyst of San Diego and Imperial Counties, a nonprofit membership network for funders in our region. In her role, she leads organization-wide strategy to ensure Catalyst’s voice is clear, consistent, and aligned with its values. Zoe was first introduced to Friends of International Friendship Park while receiving her master’s degree in Social Innovation at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies.

     

  • Smiling older woman with short white hair and black-rimmed glasses, wearing a black top, sitting indoors at a warmly lit restaurant.

    Barb Casserly

  • A woman with long blonde hair, wearing a striped black shirt and leopard print scarf, speaks passionately at a microphone stand outdoors, gesturing with both hands.

    Diane Keeling, Ph.D.

  • Smiling man wearing a light blue polo shirt and a beige cap stands outside in front of yellow flowering bushes and greenery on a sunny day.

    Eric Bowlby

  • A smiling bald man wearing glasses, a green quarter-zip sweater, and a white shirt stands outdoors with blurred trees and a building in the background.

    James Brown, AIA

  • A woman with curly brown hair and bright red lipstick smiles in front of a brick wall, wearing a black patterned jacket over a black top.

    Kathryn Vomero Santos, Ph.D.

  • A woman with long dark hair and brown eyes smiles warmly at the camera. She is indoors, and part of her hair falls across one side of her face.

    Michelle A. Holling, Ph.D.

  • A woman with short brown hair and glasses smiles at the camera, standing outdoors in front of blooming white flowers and green foliage. She is wearing a light gray fleece jacket over a collared shirt.

    Mona Kuczenski

  • An older woman with gray hair pulled back, wearing a white collared shirt, stands on a sandy beach near ocean waves with a wooden structure on the left. The sky is bright and clear.

    Maria Teresa Fernandez

  • A woman with light brown hair tied back, wearing clear-framed glasses, hoop earrings, and a black top, smiles at the camera. Sunlight and shadows from plants fall on the light-colored wall behind her.

    Nadia Pineda

  • A woman with wavy dark hair, hoop earrings, and a dark green top smiles outdoors with a softly blurred background.

    Selene Gutierrez

  • A woman with long dark hair and a nose ring smiles at the camera, standing in front of a peach wall with white diagonal stripes. She is wearing a black sleeveless top.

    Zoe Luiz

Founding Board Members

  • Pedro Rios

    Pedro is the Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S./Mexico Border Program. Pedro is a native of the San Diego/Tijuana border region, and a leading voice in the San Diego immigrant rights community.

  • Robert Vivar

    Robert Vivar is a dedicated advocate for social justice and community empowerment, with a profound focus on border and immigration issues.

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    He serves as the Immigration and Border Missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, where he fosters understanding and support for migrants and border communities. Robert is also the Global Education Coordinator for Via International, facilitating educational experiences that bridge cultural divides and promote global citizenship.

    As the Executive Director of the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center, Robert champions the rights and well-being of U.S. military veterans who have been deported, ensuring they receive support and advocacy. His work at the Border Church and with Friends of Friendship Park highlights his commitment to maintaining Friendship Park as a sacred space for binational community engagement, unity, of families and shared humanity.

    Robert’s life and work are guided by a vision of hope, inclusion, and justice for all, particularly those most marginalized by border policies and immigration challenges.

  • Adriana Jasso

    Adriana Jasso is the Program Coordinator for the U.S.-Mexico Border Program of the American Friends Service Committee in San Diego. Born in Mexico, Adriana came to join her family in the United States at the age of eight.

  • A man with short dark hair and a trimmed beard wears a black shirt with white embroidered patterns, sitting in front of a yellow bookshelf filled with books and framed pictures.

    Pedro Rios

  • A man wearing sunglasses and a black cap with the word "JUSTICE" on it takes a selfie outdoors. People and various items are visible in the background. The sky is overcast.

    Robert Vivar

  • A woman wearing a straw hat and sunglasses holds a broken wooden sign that reads "Celerino Alvarado" and "43." She stands in front of tall, rusted metal bars, likely part of a border fence, under a clear blue sky.

    Adriana Jasso