Body of Christ – Miguel Garcia, St. Patrick and Our Lady of Guadalupe, MilwaukeeRead Time 9 min

At a retreat sponsored by the Chicago-based young adult apostolate Iskali, Miguel Garcia fell to his knees and offered every gift he had to the Lord. God took him at his word: now Garcia is an Iskali missionary, helping to reshape the future of the Hispanic Catholic Church, one community at a time.

• Born in Mexico, Garcia and his family came to the United States when he was 7 years old. He was raised in the Milwaukee area along with his two sisters.
• Educated in Catholic schools through high school, he majored in information technology and minored in film studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
• An avid photographer and filmmaker, he created the series “40 Days, 40 Testimonies,” which has reached more than 100,000 views on Iskali’s social media.
• In January, he started as an Iskali missionary for St. Patrick and Our Lady of Guadalupe on the near South Side of Milwaukee.

What is Iskali?

Iskali is a community of Catholic young adults dedicated to sharing the faith with others. Iskali focuses on working with young adults, aged 18 to 35, specifically the Catholic Hispanic community. Our founder, Vicente Del Real, saw (research on the steep decline in the practice of the Catholic faith in Hispanic youth) and realized that we needed to fix this issue. He saw the need for young adult communities, so he created Iskali (from the Náhuatl language of the ancient Aztecs, meaning growth and new beginnings). Our motto is “a community of communities.”

How do you build these communities? How do you make church a place that feels welcoming for Hispanic youth?

Iskali builds communities rooted in intentional and intimate relationships. All Iskali communities are 10 to 15 young adults committed to walk together sharing life and the faith. Overall, we’re a big community — we have our own retreat center in Illinois — but in each parish that has an Iskali missionary, our Iskali community meets once a week. The young adults come and they talk about their day, they talk about their week, they talk about the Gospel, they do activities.

Can you talk about the importance of this “new beginning” in Hispanic Catholic culture?

Our older generations have been so strong about their faith, but we are in spiritual warfare — with music and the culture, the social media culture and everything that is pulling the young adults away from the Church. We do see the shift that a lot of young people are turning to (Protestant) Christianity and megachurches because of the way they’re interacting with them. My whole mission is trying to innovate the young adult movement so they can come back and have an open space, and feel the community aspect.

Can you share some of your own faith journey?

At a really young age, I developed a relationship with God. Because of Catholic school, I was really aware of my religion and who Jesus was. But in high school, I felt like I kind of lost that connection with God in the sense of intimacy, but I still knew him — I like telling people like I knew “textbook Jesus.” I was just learning (catechism) like it was history class. After high school, I attended UWM, and right there is where I lost touch with my religious belief.

How did you find your way back to faith?

After I got out of college, I took a year off to work a job at a restaurant and just live. But in that year, I lost myself. I was going out, going to the clubs, going to concerts, but quickly it became really boring. I felt like, what am I missing? Then I started going to Mass with my little sister, and I had that feeling of — maybe it’s God, maybe it’s the Church, maybe I need to go back. I remember the first time I went back, I felt like, “This is a little lonely.” I saw everybody with their families. My parents work Sundays, so they couldn’t attend Mass, so I just felt alone. I kept going every Sunday, but I was telling God, “Do you want me to stay? Give me a community. I cannot do this alone.” And I got invited to a community of young adults from another parish. It was Iskali.

Do you have any hobbies?

I definitely enjoy waking up early and then going to the gym, getting a good workout. I also enjoy anything created — I feel like God is calling me to the media side of the Catholic Church. I enjoy taking pictures, and at the end of the year I’m talking about maybe doing a wedding for some friends.

What do you love about being a missionary? What has surprised you about this journey, particularly in your experience within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee?

Just having those one-on-one intentional meetings with people and seeing how they enter and then they leave with a smile. Sometimes they tell me really strong stuff and they’ll say, “Thank you. I needed somebody to tell.”

What are your goals as a missionary to young Hispanic Catholics on Milwaukee’s south side?

I started going to St. Robert’s for their adoration night (Cor Jesu) on Wednesdays. And that is so beautiful. I want to do something similar with St. Patrick’s, aimed toward the Hispanic young adults; I want to create something similar around the same feeling, with a worship night and a social after. I’m working on creative ways to see how I can get the young adults from the South Side to come back to the Church — because as Vicente always tells us, we are the future.