Recent weeks of hot, still Seattle weather haven’t made for great flag flying. But the red, white, and green of Mexico has risen above Capitol Hill.

CHS stopped by the newly opened Consulate of Mexico in Seattle in the overhauled Harvard Exit building to check out the national colors and the official diplomatic seal. We got a ripple here and there when a slight breeze would rise but as far flapping flag action, it was quiet at Harvard and Roy. Meanwhile, groups of people waiting before or after their business at the consulate have made the corner a busy place and put the old benches across the street on the southwest corner to good use.

The new consulate celebrated earlier in July with a ceremony and singing of the Mexican national anthem. A week earlier, the facility opened for service to sometimes up to 200 people a day on visas, birth certificates, and other ephemera of bureaucracy.

CHS reported here on the move of the consulate to the overhauled historic theater building as officials and general consul Roberto Dondisch sought to create “a sense of home” in the Pacific Northwest for the region’s many Mexican communities. The restored and upgraded building has space for more — you can cowork there along with the diplomats.

🇲🇽 Georgia nos deleita con el Himno Nacional de México durante la ceremonia del primer izamiento de la Bandera Nacional. 🇲🇽 Posted by Consulado de México en Seattle on Monday, July 16, 2018

In addition to its day to day services, the consulate will also be busy in August with cultural celebrations. Its El Festival MEX AM Northwest is slated to take place at the Seattle Center with a showcase of Mexican “business, music, film, food, visual and digital arts, and talks.” The celebration begins Friday, August 24th at the Paramount Theatre with a free performance of México en el Corazón.

The celebrations come amid continuing political battles over immigration and detention of immigrant families. In New York last week, white nationalist group Identity Evropa targeted the city’s Mexican consulate with a protest and a call to “Build the Wall.” The Mexican government condemned the actions as racist and xenophobic. “The Secretariat reiterates that the consular network will continue to watch for incidents of this nature that do not affect Mexican people in that country,” a translation of an official statement on the protest reads. “In this work, it will be supported by its civil society allies who have fought discrimination on a permanent basis.”

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