Thomas Breen Photo
Sisterhood is powerful: New Haveners from Tlaxcala celebrate their Mexican roots at Tuesday's event.
Alejandro Chavez, waiting to renew his passport at the newly opened mobile consulate at the library.
Alejandro Chavez drove up from his home in the Bronx to New Haven to get his Mexican passport renewed — at a new library-hosted mobile consulate set up in honor of a visit from a leader from New Haven’s sister city from below the border.
That was the scene Tuesday morning in the basement conference room and hallway of downtown’s New Haven Free Public Library at 133 Elm St.
Over two dozen New Haveners — many with roots or connections to the central Mexican state that is home to New Haven’s sister city of San Francisco Tetlanohcan — filled the corridor for a press conference celebrating the inaugural “Tlaxcala Friendship Day.”
As part of the celebration, Mayor Justin Elicker and New Haven Free Public Library Deputy Director Luis Chavez-Brumell welcomed Lorena Cuellar Cisneros, governor of the state of Tlaxcala, which includes San Francisco Tetlanohcan.
They also cut the ribbon on a new “mobile consulate” where anyone from Mexico can renew their passports, apply for consular IDs, get their birth certificates, and receive other types of help available at a typical consulate.
The “mobile consulate” will be at the downtown library branch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday of this week.
Mayor Elicker and Tlaxcala Governor Lorena Cuellar Cisneros cutting the ribbon for the consulate on Tuesday.
ULA's John Lugo (right) at Tuesday's event.
Marco Castillo, who worked with the city and Unidad Latina en Accion’s John Lugo to help arrange the governor’s visit and set up the mobile consulate, said that he hopes that the mobile consulate will pop up at the library once a month going forward.
“New Haven has a relatively larger population from Mexico,” and from Tlaxcala in particular, Elicker said. Castillo estimated that roughly 7,000 New Haveners are from or descend from families who have moved from Tlaxcala.
In a bid to establish an “ongoing, cooperative working relationship with the state of Tlaxcala,” Elicker said, April 19 will henceforth be known in New Haven as “Txlacala Friendship Day.”
“We are open for everyone,” Chavez-Brumell said about New Haven in general, and about the city’s library in particular.
Mayor Elicker (center) and Governor Cisneros (right) with Library Deputy Director Chavez-Brumell.
Cisneros thanked the mayor and Chavez-Brumell and the dozens of New Haveners for welcoming her to the city and for setting up the mobile consulate “so that the world can see our relationship and know more about the “richness of Tlaxcala and its culture.”
Chavez stood at the front of the line to get his Mexican passport renewed at the newly opened mobile consulate.
He hails from Mexico City, not Tlaxcala. And he lives in the Bronx, not New Haven, even though he has family in the Elm City.
He was enthusiastic and grateful for the mobile consulate set up in the city’s library. He said he had tried to renew his passport at a consulate closer to home in New York, but couldn’t get an appointment.
When he found out about the New Haven mobile consulate, he drove up and got in line, and was able to get an appointment on the spot.
Click here, here and here to read previous Independent stories about Tlaxcala and New Haven.
Scenes from the new mobile consulate.
Having recently spent 2 weeks in Mexico, I want to celebrate both Mexico and its people for its beautiful land, its preservation of its numerous historic sites and artifacts, the amazing works of art and craftsmanship found everywhere and the kindness of its people. I do not claim any kind of expertise, but I do hope Americans leave their English speaking enclaves to see Mexico in its huge variety of natural wonders. We are so lucky to have those who chose to come here to live and share their gifts.