Consulado Movil: Lending a helping hand to Hispanics
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“I saw on the Internet where they do the Consulado Movil,” Torres said, “and I knew they had come to other locations in Tennessee, but we had never had one. So I just tried it.
“It was really just a whim,” Torres added. “I thought if I e-mailed them, they might come.”
The initial response wasn’t all that positive, according to Torres.
“At first they responded and said that they couldn’t come, that their schedule was full,” Torres recalled. “But the lady called me back in January and said yes, they were coming and went ahead and set the date. And then she sent me all the information.”
The next move was to get the information about the visit out to the Hispanic population. A daunting task, but Torres got to work, with the help of several friends, including Rafaela Rodriguez, who Torres said was a major part of the success of the project, and began getting the word out.
“We posted flyers,” Torres said. “Put it in the Spanish newspaper. I sent information to the Spanish radio station, but I don’t know if they announced it. And then word of mouth.
“We posted flyers in all the Spanish businesses. We had an ESL parent meeting and I went over there and distributed flyers. I posted flyers in my place of business and in businesses around town. And if we saw someone we knew we just gave them a flyer, and it just went from there.”
The campaign was obviously successful.
“We had some gentlemen here early this morning at 5 o’clock from Memphis, Tennessee,” Torres said. “We’ve got some from Columbia, Shelbyville, Tullahoma, Manchester, McMinnville, Smithville, Woodbury.”
The program was held at the Warren County Middle gym beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday, June 4, and Torres said there were already people in line at 5 a.m. that morning. Torres said Rodriguez, who works with the county ESL program, was instrumental in helping to secure the Middle School gym for the event, and altogether 17 volunteers came out to help with the program.
The primary aim of the program was to provide important documents to the local Hispanic population. The main document provided at the Consulado Movil is special photo I.D.
“They’re doing the Matricula Consular,” Torres said. “It’s a government issued I.D. from the government of Mexico. A lot of times if they don’t have this document they can have problems entering Mexico. They have to pay more money, things like that.”
The Matricula Consular allows easier ingress to Mexico for Hispanics who travel between the two countries.
But the consulate was also helping with other paperwork.
“Also, for people who have immigration interviews they’re taking applications for passports,” Torres said.
According to Torres, a passport is a major help to Hispanics who are trying to become permanent residents.
“If they have an immigration appointment for an interview for permanent residence, when they take the passport it will be stamped at the interview and then they will officially be a permanent residence. If they don’t have the passport, they have to wait up to six months for their card to arrive.”
Deputy Consul Marisela Quijano, from the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta, said the program turned out to be quite a success.
“Right now I think we have like 500 people just waiting for the Matricula Consular,” Quijano said. “So for those people it has been successful to come into McMinnville, especially considering this is the first time that we are coming to this area.”
Torres said she will be working to have the program in McMinnville again in the future. Though it was hard work, Torres said the reaction of those attending the event made it all worthwhile.
“They’ve been very appreciative,” Torres said. “This is just a small part of something I can do. Any little part I can do, either through my regular work or something like this, I’m going to try to do it. They need an advocate. Many people here have advocates, but so often, they don’t.”