Ten years have passed since a group of Hispanic men and women from the Quad Cities took the initiative to help the immigrants in this part of the country. And like that, with much enthusiasm and devotion toward others Casa Guanajuato was born.
“Everything started when a Government employee from Guanajuato visited the Quad Cities ten years ago then the idea emerged to unite the cities of Tarimoro and Moline has sister cities, because more than 90% of the Mexicans that live here were from Guanajuato”, remembers Teresa Camarillo, one of the founders of this institution.
In its beginnings the principle mission of Casa Guanajuato was educational. “We spread the history and culture of Mexico, our objective was to educate the community, we offered Spanish classes to Mexican and American children”, adds Mrs. Camarillo.
With time and with the growth of the Hispanic population in the Quad Cities Casa Guanajuato has also been growing and adding helpful services for the community. “At first we helped immigrants who would recently arrive and didn’t have any food, they didn’t know how to place their children in school, how to rent a home and many couldn’t even pay for their utilities, we would orient them in these things, we were a group of volunteers and we worked solely by donation”, tells us Estela Schneekloth, one of the more enthusiastic members of Casa Guanajuato.
“We were a group of volunteers very devoted to helping the community, through the years we met every Monday, we would leave our families and even our jobs but we never missed a meeting”, remembers Estela Schneekloth.
In the last seven years Casa Guanajuato takes charge of organizing the arrival of the Mobil Consulate to the Quad Cities that assits thousands of Mexicans in diverse procedures like the obtaining of passports and Consular Matricula (Consular Registration) amongst other documents.
The job of helping and orientation the community is combined also with the celebration of traditional Mexican festivals. Casa Guanajuato carries out each year the traditional Posadas and Day of the Dead.
After ten years Casa Guanajuato has accomplished the dream of dedicating more time to help the community, now its doors are open for eight hours a day and six days a week.
Not only are the volunteers but all this institution’s staff are willing and ready to help anyone who needs it with translation and interpretation, as well as filling out applications, we do claims, seek assistance in hospitals and being informed of all benefits that one can receive from different Federal Government and State agencies.
In a few words, Casa Guanajuato in the last ten years has become the voice for those who have no voice.
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