Chicago Mexican Consul Arnal Palomera Established 24 Hour Toll Free Emergency Number For Nationals

(L-R) Gilberto Gonzalez, Mexican Consul Eduardo Arnal Palomera, Zonia Lopez and H. Nelson Goodson.

Photo: Juan Carlos Ruiz

Consul Arnal Palomera granted interview with Nfoque Latino Spanish Radio at WJTI 1460 AM.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 17, 2011

Milwaukee - On Friday in an exclusive interview, the newly designated Mexican Consul Eduardo Arnal Palomera for the Mexican Consulate in Chicago visited the City of Milwaukee. Arnal Palomera during a pre-recorded Nfoque Latino Spanish Radio program at WJTI 1460 AM said, that his mission was to visit every County in the tri-state area within the jurisdiction of the Consulate. Milwaukee County became the fifth County that he has visited.
Consul Arnal Palomera began his five day tour on June 14 and ended on Friday. In the last five days, he has stopped in Rockford, Illinois, and in Wisconsin, which included the cities of Pewaukee, Madison, Waukesha and Milwaukee. He met with local officials that included mayors, police chiefs, judges and businessmen to open channels of communication between them.
Arnal Palomera plans to visit 128 Counties the Consulate is assigned to service where Mexican nationals reside in the tri-state area inorder to get firsthand information about their needs and how the Consulate can provide services.
Arnal Palomera will become the first youngest Mexican Consul in history to visit each County the Chicago Mexican Consulate provides service too. He assured, that he will remain accessible to Mexican nationals and will work with Mexican community organizations and groups. Arnal Palomera considers himself as a friendly people's Consul.
He will make sure Consulate services will be provided accordingly and with respect because the staff at the Consulate works for the people they're providing services too. The Mexican Consulate operations and expenses totalled at least $5 million annually and generate more than $6 million in services to nationals, Arnal Palomera explained. There are about 1.5 million Mexican and Mexican-Americans residing in Chicago and more than 3.8 million within the Consulate's service area.
Mexico has invested in the U.S. more than $152 billion by buying American goods and part of his job in Chicago is to help increase the economic growth between both countries, says Arnal Palomera.
If Consulate workers fail to comply with his policies to provide better services that are expected from them, they should start looking for another job, Arnal Palomera said. He has been assigned to the Consulate for the next six years.
Each Consulate employee will be required to wear name tags to make it easier to locate and identify a worker when a complaint is registered by a person. All staff workers will dress casual to provide a welcoming setting for those seeking services. Arnal Palomera said, he will personally answer any suggestions or complaints put into a suggestion box at the Consulate. People have been really surprised to hear from him when he calls them about an issue, according to Arnal Palomera.
Consul Arnal Palomera was straight forward about his ability to provide transparency, better services, and becoming accessible to the community and nationals seeking services in Chicago, Illinois, including Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin and Northern Indiana. The Consulate also provides mobil services in the region.
One of the first programs that was implemented when Consul Arnal Palomera took over the Chicago Mexican Consulate a month ago was to established a 24 hour Emergency Hotline in both English and Spanish. The toll free Hotline number is 1-888-755-5511 and it will be answered by bilingual staff workers. The service is for Mexican nationals seeking help from the Consulate for legal advice, about their rights and for the Consulate to provide assistance to family members needing advice while being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), local Sheriff's and police.
After the Nfoque Latino interview, Arnal Palomera in his last tour stop met with Mexican community members at South Division High School for several hours and informed them about his willingness to work with the community at large.
The full interview with Consul Arnal Palomera will be aired on Monday, June 20, at 11:00 a.m. to noon at WJTI 1460 AM Nfoque Latino Spanish Radio program with Zonia Lopez, Gilberto Gonzalez and H. Nelson Goodson.

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Spanish WJTI 1460 AM Radio Station In Milwaukee Boosts Wattage Output

La Nueva Ritmo radio signal to reach more than 1,400,000 people in coverage area by the end of October

By H. Nelson Goodson
October 18, 2009

Milwaukee -Last Friday, the Spanish WJTI 1460 AM radio station began to boost their wattage output and by the end of October their radio signal will reach more than 1,400,000 people throughout the metro area and surrounding counties. WJTI is best known as La Nueva Ritmo and airs its radio programming in Spanish from the South side of the city, where the predominately Latino community resides.

For the last two years, WJTI has been operating in low wattage and has struggled to reach their potential, until recently. The station is owned and operated by John Torres, CEO of El Sol Broadcasting, and the corporate office is located in the Esperanza Unida International Building, 611 W. National Ave.
Currently, WJTI is operating between 100 to 300 watts and this week will transmit to almost 500 watts, and within the next two weeks the station is expected to reach more than 1,000 watts of power. The station will transmit from six towers located in the 1900 block of S. 98 St. in West Allis, WI. "We are sharing the towers with WGLB 1560 AM, which is a Gospel radio station. Joel Kinlow the owner of WGLB, who I've known for 20 years has been very instrumental in helping La Nueva Ritmo to finally reach our potential," Torres said on Sunday.
In March, WBKU 1470 AM from West Bend filed a petition with the FCC to deny La Nueva Ritmo WJTI from expanding their transmission. But in September after reviewing WJTI application to gain watts, the FCC denied WBKU petition and approved WJTI watt increase.

La Nueva Ritmo began operating in October 2007 and has focused in providing a variety of Spanish music by playing the latest hits. With the FCC approval to increase wattage output, Torres said, "its been a hard road and I'm happy to take this road in order to be more effective and to help provide a voice for the community." There's about 10,000 radio stations throughout the nation, and 7 % are owned by minorities, and 3 % are owned by Latinos, according to Torres.
"La Nueva Ritmo will reach more than 1,400,000 people from throughout the metro Milwaukee area, including, Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth counties," Gilberto Gonzalez, Program Director/Sales of WJTI said Sunday. Gonzalez has been in the radio business for almost 30 years, and has been with WJTI for the last 18 months.

La Nueva Ritmo will most likely rise to the top in AM Spanish broadcasting for their specialty in providing a variety of music, which includes Duranguense, Cumbias, Tejanas, Salsa, and other styles of popular music. WJTI also airs a variety of radio programs with local popular radio personalities 24/6, and on Sundays the station runs in automation, which plays pre-select songs all day.
In the Milwaukee area there are two other stations that provide Spanish programming, La GranD WDDW 104.7 FM radio owned and operated by Bustos Media, Inc. a California based corporation has a different style of providing programming. WDDW airs a national syndicated type of programming and the music is predominately of Mexican origin like Duranguense and has less variety of music, making it distinctively different than La Nueva Ritmo WJTI.
On Sundays only from noon to 3:00 p.m., the Orgullo Latino program is hosted by radio personality Wally Ramos in 91.7 FM WMSE and specializes in Salsa and mostly Puerto Rican, and Caribbean style of music.