Coffee with a Cop gets Latin flavor with a visit from Mexican Mobile Consulate

By Dan Kelly, Reading Eagle
Original article HERE

Reading police Chief Andres Dominguez said he was expecting another run of the mill Coffee with a Cop, an event during which police and residents meet and greet each other.

Instead, on Saturday, Dominguez and a half dozen officers and staffers found themselves setting up their information table in the middle of a bustling Mexican Mobile Consulate, which was set up in the large meeting room on the first floor of the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center, 501 Washington St.

“Hey, they ask us to go and we go,” Dominguez said, looking at the dozens of Mexican nationals who came to renew their national identification cards, get passports, help with legal matters and even attend sessions on home-buying and other services.

Carlos Torres, Mexican consul for media and promotion, was coordinating the event for the consulate, which has its brick and mortar location in The Bourse Building on Independence Mall East in Philadelphia.

Torres said the mobile consulate travels to cities through eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and eight counties in southern New Jersey, which are part of the Philadelphia consulate’s territory.

Perhaps the most important service provided by the mobile consulate is the Matricula Consular, an official state document issued by Mexico that allows nationals to open bank accounts, apply for jobs, get housing and other necessities.

“The mobile consulate allows us to take all of the services provided in Philadelphia and bring them out here to the people,” Torrest said.

Meanwhile, Enid Narvaez, program coordinator of the Reading Police Youth Academy, was arranging brochures on a table as Dominguez and other officers mingled with the Mexicans.

Narvaez said there are currently 40 youths enrolled in the youth police academy. Dominguez said the academy is like any other activity where youths join and then leave if they find its not their cup of tea.

“The ones who have stayed are pretty dedicated to the program,” Dominguez said.