Posted on: Friday, December 10, 2004
Mexican consular services offered
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Mexican Consul General from San Francisco will be in Hawai'i this weekend as part of a two-day tour that is part political networking and part public service for the state's Mexican community.
Alfonso de Maria y Campos and 12 other consular staffers will be in Hawai'i today and tomorrow to meet with local business leaders and elected officials and to provide basic consular services, including identification cards, passports and legal advice.
Campos said he hopes to encourage all segments of the state's Mexican community, an undisclosed number of whom entered the U.S. illegally, to connect with their community and get the necessary documentation that will allow them to live within the law and take advantage of basic human services.
"Some people need the paper documents," said Campos, in a telephone interview from San Francisco. "The idea is to reach the (Mexican) society to provide basic services."
The trip is Campos' first as Consul General in San Francisco, whose responsibility includes Mexican nationals in Hawai'i.
Campos said he hopes to meet with Mayor-elect Mufi Hanneman to discuss the status of Mexican nationals in the local community to see what help he can give them. He is scheduled to meet with members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and other local business leaders to make contacts in hopes of fostering business relationships between Mexico and Hawai'i.
The 2000 Census counted 87,699 Hispanics among the state's 1.21 million residents, an increase of 7.7 percent from 1990. The majority — more than 30,000 — are Puerto Ricans who can trace their heritage to large groups of immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s to work on the sugar plantations.
Mexicans make up the next single-largest group of Hispanics in Hawai'i — 19,820. Many of them arrived here starting in the 1980s.
The census numbers do not take into account undocumented workers.
Campos can be reached at (514) 354-1700.
Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
