The Latino Community Fund Georgia received a prestigious award from the Consulate General of Mexico for its health advocacy work throughout the pandemic at last Wednesday’s celebration of Mexico’s bicentennial of (realized) independence.
The fund took home the Ohtli award, an honor distributed by the Mexican government to expatriates that have “blazed a trail,” abroad, providing exemplary service to the country or its diaspora. It’s given out not only in Atlanta, but by many of the 50-plus Mexican consulates across the United States. The name means “path” or “road” in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec people that populated what is now Mexico in pre-Columbian times.
Consul General Javier Diaz de Leon, who would later lead the crowd in the gloriously raucous Grito de Dolores, the cry of independence celebrated in Mexico and around the world on the eve of Sept. 16, took a moment during the festivities to outline how the fund had stepped up amid the pandemic.
The Latino Community Fund, which provides support for more than 30 nonprofit groups, took over operations at the consulate’s health window last year, overcoming staffing limitations thorough the power of volunteer coordination.
At the consulate alone, 3,000 families received food donations, more than 6,000 COVID-19 tests were carried out and 4,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were , with 174 education sessions being held in person and virtually.
In accepting the award, LCF Georgia founder and Executive Director Gigi Pedraza attributed the work not only to her nine-member team but also to the partner organizations the fund supports with investments, program development and capacity building.
She said Mr. Diaz, who is now the dean of the Atlanta Consular Corps after having served here for five years, made it easy for the fund to take over the health window, simply because he wanted to make things better for the Mexican and broader Latino community.
“I always ask [volunteers] why you want to do this, and everybody says, ‘Because I want to make it better.’ And that is exactly the same answer that comes the other way around,” she said. “The consul said, ‘Anything you need, we need to make this better.’”
The fund estimates that more than 152,000 families have received food through partner organizations this year, while more than 10,000 COVID vaccines went into arms under its watch.
The event was held at Gas South District Convention Center in Gwinnett County, which the consul general praised as a fitting location given the growing influence of Latinos there. Gwinnett has more Mexicans and Latinos than any other Georgia county.
“This is the place where the change is happening, and this is the place where Latinos are having a stronger voice, every single day, every single year,” Mr. Diaz de Leon said. “They spoke last November, and they keep speaking. They keep asking for a better future.”
The Atlanta Gladiators hockey team served as the presenting sponsor of the event, which was attended by Georgia legislators and members of the diplomatic corps. After presentations of both countries’ flags and national anthems, a call-and-response grito reenactment resounded with shouts of “Viva!”before the large group disbanded for networking and tacos.
While Mexico celebrated 211 years since friar Miguel Hidalgo delivered a speech on the church steps of Dolores that helped spark the Mexican war of independence from Spain, 2021 marked 200 years since the war was won and independence was consolidated.
The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Diplomacy Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Diplomacy newsletters.