BIIN and Santa Teresa Catholic Church have a long history of cooperation, as both are deeply committed to serving immigrants across the Brazos Valley. In BIIN’s early years, when it was just a fledgling grassroots organization, Santa Teresa provided a place for BIIN’s first IRA clinics to be held.  Since then, BIIN and Santa Teresa have collaborated on many other immigrant-related initiatives, including legal workshops and vaccination clinics.

The two organizations recently paired up again to host a team from the Guatemalan Consulate in Houston, who traveled to Bryan to offer a “mobile consulate” for Guatemalan nationals living in central Texas.  In the course of two days, August 27 and 28, almost 300 Guatemalan citizens obtained consular services –  the issuance or renewal of essential documents such as birth certificates, passports, and consular identification cards – through an event held in the education wing of Santa Teresa Catholic Church in Bryan. 

Why was there such demand for a mobile consulate in Brazos County?  Many immigrants from Guatemala (and other parts of Latin America) who live in central Texas work in low-wage jobs, often holding more than one position in order to eke out a living.  It is hard for them to take time off from work, especially when they work for more than one employer, and when their positions are precarious. It can also be difficult to cover the expenses or deal with the logistics of travel (when adults and children need to show up together).  In addition, many people do not have the digital skills or devices needed to get information or complete forms in advance. In discussions among Guatemaltecos at the mobile consulate, many mentioned concerns about the cost, the time and the frustrations of traveling to Houston, only to return empty-handed due to long lines or misunderstandings about the documents needed. 

However, everyone wants to have their documents in order; no one wants to be stuck or penalized for lacking proper documentation. Being able to access these essential services closer to home, on the weekend, and in the presence of bilingual volunteers who can help with some technological hurdles made the mobile consulate an appealing prospect for many folks.  Within a few days of the announcement of this event in early August, available appointments were filling up fast.

While consular staff were the ones providing the official services, holding an event such as this far from the consulate’s own facility required a great deal of support and assistance from Santa Teresa, BIIN and their crews of volunteers.   

Volunteers recruited through BIIN and Santa Teresa, along with Santa Teresa Parish Social Ministry leader Angelita Garcia-Alonzo, BIIN board chair Nancy Plankey-Videla and BIIN staff, put in countless hours preparing for the event:  publicizing it through local Spanish-language media and social media, responding to calls from people seeking information, helping them sign up for appointments, relaying frequently asked questions to consular staff, securing the facilities and some of the equipment needed for the event, recruiting volunteers to help during the event, planning for hospitality, and welcoming the consular team when they arrived the night before.  Special thanks to BIIN staffer Adriana Stowe and the team of volunteers who called and scheduled over 400 appointments for Guatemalan nationals in the weeks leading up to the event.  As that number suggests, there was a great deal of heavy lifting done by the local sponsors and their volunteers, even before the mobile consulate opened its doors. 

From 7:30 am until 5 pm on Saturday August 27, and again from 7:30 am until 2:30 pm on Sunday August 28, volunteers provided essential support to the consular team, serving in many roles:  welcoming and orienting people who had scheduled appointments; helping them find, complete, print, copy and assemble documents needed; directing traffic both in and outside of the building; delivering food and drink donations for consular staff and volunteers; keeping spaces clean and functional, and helping in other ways as needed. 

Nearly all members of the Guatemalan consular team, led by Vice Consul Maria Eugenia Alvarez Ruiz, remarked at one point or another that the presence and cooperation of this extraordinary team of volunteers made a huge difference to their ability to process so many people’s requests efficiently in the course of two days.  Thanks to this team effort, by the end of the event, some 275 Guatemalan nationals living in central Texas were able to get the documentation they needed, without having to miss work or to travel so far from home. That’s a huge win for everyone!

Here we share some scenes from the two-day event, following step by step the process that consular staff set up for people with appointments.  If you missed the event, these photos will give you a sense of all it entailed, and perhaps inspire you to join us next time. If you were part of this shared effort, we hope you’ll find plentiful evidence of the impact that you and others had. Again, our deepest thanks to all who stepped up to help!