Second Protest At Mexican Consul In Chicago Over Bicentennial "El Grito" Ouster Of Mexican Civic Society

Iris Ramos, 7, holds "Consul Go Home" poster

(L-R): Evelia Rodríguez interviewed by Zonia Lopez from Nfoque Latino WJTI 1460 AM radio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

(left): Yvette Anna Soto, protest organizer interviewed by Chicago Tribune reporter

Gerardo Colchado from Greenbay, Wisconsin joins the protest. Photos by H.N.G.

The Mexican Civic Society Board decides to have the Mexican Independence Parade on September 11 at Columbus Drive, despite Mexican Consul Arriaga's decision to exclude organization from officially participating in El Grito event

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 13, 2010

Chicago, IL - On Friday, for the second time a group composed of Latinos and members of the Mexican community marched and protested in front of the Mexican Consulate, 204 S. Ashland Ave. in Chicago. Yvette Anna Soto, the key organizer said, the group will continue to protest until the Mexican Civic Society of Illinois (MCS) is allowed to participate as Co-presenters of El Grito as Consul Manuel Rodríguez Arriaga had promised before last June.
The group is expected to protest in front of the Consulate every week until the day of El Grito, the next protest will be held on Friday, August 20, at 10:30 a.m., Soto confirmed.
Gerardo Colchado, 25, of Greenbay, Wisconsin happened to take his wife to get some legal documents at the Consulate, when he heard of the protest outside and decided to join in. The Consul should allow the MCS to participate, especially in a very important celebration as the Bicentennial, Colchado said. He grabbed a Mexican flag and stood in front of the Consulate as a protest to Arriaga's decision to exclude MCS from El Grito.
Other Mexican citizens, who were at the Consulate for services also joined the protest outside to send a strong message to Consul Arriaga that it's unfair and a discriminatory act to hand select who participates and not in the celebration, according to protesters.
Consul Arriaga has failed to meet with the protesters or even come out of the Consulate on August 3 and ask protesters why they were there protesting as required by Mexican law. An act by Arriaga that the protesters are not taking to lightly and alleged he has violated Mexican law and failed to work with the community at large.
Agustin Emilio Pradillo Cuevas, Social Communication Department Chief at the Mexican Consulate said, that last year the Mexican federal government suspended all funds for the bicentennial festivities for all Consulates. In Chicago, the Consulate formed a special commission from members of the community to organize and to help raise funds by seeking sponsorships for the Grito event. The Consulate is also involved in helping to acquire funds for the event and the funds will be deposited and managed by the Chicago Community Trust Fund. The Consulate will provide more information about the commission and event by early September. The commission could not be named or confirmed, if the Holiday Festive Committee (Comite Fiestas Patrias - CFP) was one of the same. Pradillo indicated they were different groups.
On late Thursday, Miguel Zuno, MCS Parade Chairman announced that the MCS Board decided to do their traditional Mexican Independence Parade on Columbus Drive on September 11, and the parade is scheduled to start at noon. Zuno said, the MCS had received an outpour of support from neighborhood businesses, corporations, the Hispanic and Mexican community in the Chicago area. For organizations, groups and corporations who would like to particpate and sponsor in this year's parade, they should contact info@SociedadCivicaMexicana.org, Zuno said. Deadline for parade registration to participate is September 3rd, according to MCS.
Evelia Rodríguez, MCS Media and Public Relations said, the Board decided to continue the parade this year after it was canceled, so we wouldn't lose our tradition in getting the city permit and being part of the Mexican Independence community celebration. In 2008 and 2009, the parade and El Grito were both done by MCS, Rodríguez said. 
In June, the MCS had canceled the parade and other activities in protest to Consul Arriaga's unexpected decision to exclude the 40-year-old non-profit organization from the Bicentennial Mexican Independence and El Grito celebration. El Grito is done after September 15 at midnight on September 16.
On September 16, 1810 is the day of the "Grito de Dolores" or Miguel Hidalgo's call to take up arms against the Spanish colonial government. The start of the Mexican Revolution is celebrated November 20, 1910, when Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Pascual Orozco led the first insurrectionist attack.
For the last three years the Mexican Consul had been reaching out to non-profits, museums, cultural arts institutes, universities and other entities, but failed to include a large portion of the Mexican community including MCS. MCS organizers say that they were part of the Bicenntennial Mexico's Independence celebration and Arriaga had included them, until early 2009 when they discovered Arriaga had excluded them from participating.
Within two consecuitive years, MCS had worked with the CFP before it was discovered they were left out of the Bicentennial planning and steering committee. The CFP committee was created in 2004 by the Mexican Consulate and today is controlled by Consul Arriaga.
Pradilla from the Consulate would not confirm, if CFP was also participating in the Bicentennial and would not identify the members of the commission spearheading El Grito event. He did mention they were members of various federations (organizations) in the Chicago area.
Arriaga has been in the center of controversy, since he arrived in Chicago. Especially, when organizations and members of the Mexican community have accused him of failing to work with Chicago Mexican community organizations. Arriaga would not comment on the current allegations and the Bicentennial controversy to exclude MCS from El Grito.
In 2008, 21 community organizations representing the Mexican community sent a letter to President Felipe Calderón complaining about Consul Arriaga, who took office in April 2007.
The complaint alleged Arriaga was arrogant, disputes, disrespected people, and ignored the needs of the Mexican community in Chicago. Arriaga lacked to understand his responsibilities that come with the job. They even wrote Calderón that Arriaga verbally attacks and offends leaders of the Mexican community based organizations looking to divide the community, reported El Diario Hoy from the Chicago Tribune.
Numerous members of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME) even supported the allegations made by the 21 community organizations. IME members alleged Arriaga was not fullfilling his duties by working with the community and had neglected to attend community events in Wisconsin when invited.
Arriaga supposedly represents the Mexican government in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Arriaga failed to comment or respond to the allegations made by the organizations in 2008.
Arriaga, President Calderón and the Mexican government has yet to comment concerning the current bicentennial community celebration exclusion of MCS.

Related article:

Update: Mexican Consul In Chicago Violated Law, Major Latino Community Protest Set For Friday http://bit.ly/c4K4Zk

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Mexican Consul In Chicago Violated Law, Major Latino Community Protest Set For Friday

Consul didn't meet with protesters on August 3, as required by Mexican law, according to protest organizers

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 10, 2010

Chicago, IL - On Friday, a group of Hispanic community protesters will again march and protest in front of the Mexican Consulate in Chicago, according to a press release by Yvette Anna Soto one of the key organizers. Soto says, the protest will begin a 10:30 a.m. on Friday at the Mexican Consulate, 204 S. Ashland Ave. in Chicago. Organizers will continue to protest until the Mexican Civic Society (MCS) is allowed to participate as Co-presenters of El Grito as Consul Manuel Rodríguez Arriaga had promised before last June.
The protest organizers alleged that Consul Arriaga failed to meet with them or even come out of the Consulate on August 3 and ask protesters why they were there protesting as required by Mexican law. Arriaga did sent out a representative, but the Consul is required to do it himself.
Instead Arriaga called Chicago police to remove the protesters, but police were unable too, as they were exercising their rights and in a peaceful manner.
For the last three years the Mexican Consul had been reaching out to non-profits, museums, cultural arts institutes, universities and other entities, but failed to include a large portion of the Mexican community including MCS. MCS organizers say that they were part of the Bicenntennial Mexico's Independence celebration and Arriaga had included them, until early 2009 when they discovered Arriaga had excluded them from participating.
This year they were apparently left out of the Comite Fiesta Patrias (CFP - Holiday Festive Committee) planning and steering committee for the Bicentennial celebration. The CFP committee was created in 2004 by the Mexican Consulate and today is controlled by Consul Arriaga.
In June, the MCS held a press conference to announced their decision to cancel the Mexican Independence Day parade in September.
Last week, Evelia Rodríguez, Media and Public Relations of the Mexican Civic Society says, the MCS annual cost to hold both the parade and El Grito is about $138,000. The elaborate and elegant Azteca banquet to select the MCS queen was also canceled.
Since, Consul Arriaga has taken away El Grito from us and decided to exclude us from the bicentennial celebration, we can't offer sponsorship for both the annual parade and El Grito to corporations and local businesses, according to Rodríguez.
Scholarships to help students finance part of their college costs provided from the MCS fundraising events will be effected as well.
The parade is usually done on a Saturday, a week before September 16, and El Grito is done after September 15 at midnight on September 16.
In 2008, 21 community organizations representing the Mexican community sent a letter to President Felipe Calderón complaining about Consul Arriaga, who took office in April 2007.
The complaint alleged Arriaga was arrogant, disputes, disrespected people, and ignored the needs of the Mexican community in Chicago. Arriaga lacked to understand his responsibilities that come with the job. They even wrote Calderón that Arriaga verbally attacks and offends leaders of the Mexican community based organizations looking to divide the community, reported El Diario Hoy from the Chicago Tribune.
Numerous members of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME) even supported the allegations made by the 21 community organizations. IME members alleged Arriaga was not fullfilling his duties by working with the community and had neglected to attend community events in Wisconsin when invited.
Arriaga supposedly represents the Mexican government in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Arriaga failed to comment or respond to the allegations made by the organizations in 2008.
Arriaga or President Calderón and the Mexican government has yet to comment concerning the current bicentennial community celebration crisis that Arriaga is accused of dividing the Mexican community he was hired to serve as a whole.
The Mexican Consulate in Chicago has had a history of controversy under the direction of Consul Arriaga, who won't comment on current allegations raised by the Mexican community from Illinois and Wisconsin.

In brief:

In Wisconsin, complaints have been raised by Mexican citizens that members of the Mexican Consul in Chicago who visit cities in the state apparently express the same arrogant and disrespectful attitude as Consul Arriaga towards Mexican citizens seeking the Matricula and other services. The Consul and his staff are public servants hired or appointed to provide government services to its Mexican citizens, who in return pay for those services.
In both Wisconsin and Chicago, the Mexican Consulate failed for months to notify Mexican citizens residing in the tri-state area that a business operating out of Chicago "Legalización de Autos El Mexicano" was selling false legalization documents ranging in prices between $3,000 to $7,000, which included registration of vehicle and Mexican license plates to import vehicles into Mexico. Once people reached the border or made it into Mexico, Mexican authorities discovered the documents were false and detained the document holders and confiscated vehicles.
In May, the Consulate finally issued a press release warning people these types of businesses operating in the U.S. were illegal. The Consulate indicated they had been working along with the Illinois Attorney General's Office investigation, but despite knowning since December of 2009 of the fraud, Consul Arriaga and his staff allowed Mexican citizens to continue to purchase false documents.
In April, the Illinois Attorney General Office filed a lawsuit to keep Legalización de Auto El Mexicano from operating for scamming at least 50 people of more then $79,000, not counting Waukegan and the Wisconsin operation, but by then the business had closed at 3121 W. 26th St. in Chicago, 913 Grand Ave. in Waukegan and 1239 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Legalización de Autos business chain ended up closing due to exposure of its alleged illegal activities by Hispanic News Network U.S.A., who in December 2009 first broke the story and kept thousands of Mexican citizens from being scammed. 
In 2008, Global Search de México, S.A. de C.V. which operated Licencias Mexicanas (Mexican Licenses) in California was in Wisconsin and Chicago selling these type of illegal licenses. The fraudulant licenses were sold from the states of Veracruz, Aguascalientes, Hildago and Oaxaca for a price between $160.00 and $180.00.
Once again, the Mexican Consulate in Chicago failed to notify its Mexican citizens of the scam, eventhough they had received numerous complaints from Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Consul Arriaga and his staff were forced to finally release a statement warning people of the scam. But by then, Licencias Mexicanas had scammed people in the U.S. for more than $6 million dollars and no one was ever prosecuted or convicted in the U.S. or in Mexico.
Licencias Mexicanas Internet information on their prior web page stated a combine of more than 40,000 licenses from the previously mentioned Mexican states have been sold in the United States of America averaging a gross total of more than 6 million dollars in taxable earnings so far, since it was established.
The Mexican licenses had been sold in the following states Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico Nevada, New Jersey, and Texas.

Related article:

Mexican Consul Calls Chicago Police To Disperse Latinos Protesting Arriaga's Decision To Oust Mexican Civic Society http://bit.ly/9FAPy9

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Mexican Consul Calls Chicago Police To Disperse Latinos Protesting Arriaga's Decision To Oust Mexican Civic Society From Official Bicentennial Celebration

Manuel Rodríguez Arriaga
Mexican Consul General in Chicago

Protest photos courtesy of Yvette Anna Soto

If the situation worsens and Arriaga doesn't comply with President Calderon's call to unite the community during the Bicentennial celebration, he won't be the Consul in Chicago for long, according to SRE sources in Mexico.

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 4, 2010

Chicago, Illinois - On Tuesday, more than 50 Latino community members and representatives of various community based organizations converged outside the Mexican Consulate in Chicago to protest. They are protesting Consul General Manuel Rodríguez Arriaga decision to keep several Hispanic groups and the Mexican Civic Society (MCS) from officially participating in the upcoming Bicentennial celebration of Mexico's 200 years of Independence.
The Mexican Civic Society for the last 40 years has officially sponosred the Mexican Independence Parade and festivities del "Grito." The non-profit organization is composed of hundreds of community volunteers of Mexican descent. The organization has provided cultural arts, events and activities to a large majority of Mexican-Americans, Mexican citizens and Chicago residents throughout the area.
Recently, Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent out a message calling for everyone to come together and help celebrate Mexico's Independence Bicentennial and the Centennial of the Revolution. Even, Chicago's Mexican Consul has posted in its website: http://www.consulmexchicago.com/. It seems Consul Arriaga has not read the message himself, because his personal decision to keep the Mexican Civic Society of Illinois from officially participating is contrary to President Calderon's call for all Mexicans to come together and celebrate the Bicentennial. (link http://bit.ly/dA1zFj ) 
Arriaga remained defiant and has not commented on the current cultural and bicentennial celebration crisis the Mexican Consulate in Chicago is facing. If the situation worsens and Arriaga doesn't comply with President Calderon's call to unite the community during the Bicentennial celebration he won't be the Consul in Chicago for long, according to SRE sources in Mexico.
Consul Arriaga ordered Consulate officials to call Chicago police to disperse the gathering of protesters outside the Consulate. Police arrived, but were unable to remove the protesters as they were exercising their rights to protest.
For the last three years the Mexican Consul had been reaching out to non-profits, museums, cultural arts institutes, universities and other entities, but failed to include a large portion of the Mexican community including MCS. MCS organizers say that they were part of the bicenntennial celebration and Arriaga had included them, until early 2009 when they discovered Arriaga had excluded them from participating.
This year they were apparently left out of the planning and steering committee for the Bicentennial celebration. In June, the MCS held a press conference to announced their decision to cancel the Mexican Independence Day parade in September.
On Wednesday, Evelia Rodríguez, Media and Public Relations of the Mexican Civic Society says, the MCS annual cost to hold both the parade and El Grito is about $138,000. Since, Consul Arriaga has taken away El Grito from us and decided to exclude us from the bicentennial celebration, we can't offer sponsorship for both the annual parade and El Grito to corporations and local businesses.
We decided to cancel the parade and haven't collected any sponsorship, especially if we can't offically offer both to sponsors.
The parade is usually done on a Saturday, a week before September 16, and El Grito is done after September 15 at midnight on September 16.
In 2008, 21 community organizations representing the Mexican community sent a letter to President Felipe Calderón complaining about Consul Arriaga, who took office in April 2007.
The complaint alleged Arriaga was arrogant, disputes, disrespected people, and ignored the needs of the Mexican community in Chicago. Arriaga lacked to understand his responsibilities that come with the job.
They even wrote Calderón that Arriaga verbally attacks and offends leaders of the Mexican community based organizations looking to divide the community, reported El Diario Hoy from the Chicago Tribune.
Numerous members of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME) even supported the allegations made by the 21 community organizations. IME members alleged Arriaga was not fullfilling his duties by working with the community and had neglected to attend community events in Wisconsin when invited.
Arriaga supposedly represents the Mexican government in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Arriaga failed to comment or respond to the allegations made by the organizations in 2008.
In brief: In 2004, the Mexican Consulate created the Fiesta Patrias Mexicanas (FPM) committee after MCS in 2003 removed their president for not providing financial records to the organization. MCS ended up in a court battle over the issue and a judge issued an order suspending all MCS activities.
Then in 2004, FPM organized El Grito at the Mexican Consulate parking lot and in 2005 and 2006 they were able to acquire Pritzker Pavillion at Millenium Park in downtown Chicago.
In 2007, MCS once again began to operate efficiently and reclaimed El Grito event as it had presented for more than 30 years to the Chicago community, but weren't able to come into an agreement with FPM to join efforts in organizing El Grito. By than, both groups decided to do their own event, according to Terra.com report.
Mexican Consulate sources are claiming that MCS were unable to hold the ceremonies of El Grito in 2006, 2007 and 2009, which the FPM took over the ceremonies.
This year, MCS says Arriaga led them to believe they would be included in the Bicentennial Celebration through several meetings, but later recanted and excluded them from officially participating in the event. The FPM committee disagreed with Arriaga's decision, but they had no alternative since the Consulate controls the activities of the committee and Consul Arriaga has the final say in the decision making. MCS was reluctantly excluded from the Bicentennial Celebration, according to FPM sources.
Another protest in front of the Mexican Consulate in Chicago, 204 S. Ashland Ave. is being planned for next week. MCS and community organizers say, they plan to make it larger and expect the particpation of folkloric dances and more.

Related article: Protest At Mexican Consulate In Chicago Ignited By Mexican Civic Society's Ouster From Bicentennial Grito Event http://bit.ly/9JCX0B

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