MANCHESTER, NH – Johnny Marin was more than happy to get up early on a Saturday and make his way to City Hall to get his passport renewed.
It saved him time and money.
“[My passport is] set to expire in January and so this saves me time and a trip to Boston,” said Marin, who was born in Peru and has lived in Manchester for about a year now. He came to the United States when he was about 6 years old, with his family.
“We came to the U.S. to escape hardship and to find opportunities for my parents, to have a better life for themselves and for me,” Marin said.
That plan is working.
Marin is getting his master’s degree in clinical health from Plymouth State University and currently works as a substance use counselor.
Marin was one of about 25 people who showed up Saturday who were able to skip the trip to Boston to receive services in Manchester. Stella Chirinos, the Consulate General of Peru in Boston, and her staff set up a mini office at City Hall to process passport and visa applications, notarize documents and conduct civil registrations. The event was open to any of the 15,000 Peruvian nationals living across the four New England states who were contacted via email to notify them of the Manchester-based mobile office hours.
Although they try to get into smaller New England communities outside of Boston a few times a year, including a recent session in Portland, Maine, this is the first time the mobile consulate has had office hours in Manchester – something that was arranged thanks to Mayor Jay Ruais, who has a special connection to the South American country.
His wife, Veronica Ruais.
Born in Lima, Peru, Veronica Ruais is a student at Southern NH University studying business with an emphasis in finance, and was the first person in line Saturday. Like Marin, she also was there to get her passport renewed, a necessary task that otherwise is hard to fit into her busy schedule – between work and school and coordinating her calendar with the mayor’s equally challenging schedule.
Mayor Ruais said he plans to do more to bring services to the city that make life a little easier for residents who have come here from other countries – he referred to the first-ever Dominican Republic elections held on May 19 that allowed residents of Manchester who are also citizens of the Dominican Republic, to vote in their national election from City Hall, an event organized in conjunction with the Junta Electoral Dominican.
“Yes, we want to do more of this, offer these kinds of services,” Ruais said. “Earlier this year we had a voting day for the Dominican Republic. This is what a growing city has to do and should be doing, especially in a city where about 13% of the population is Hispanic.”
Stella Chirinos, Mayor Jay Ruais, Veronica Ruais and Johnny Marin in the aldermanic Chambers turned mobile Peruvian Consulate. Photo/carol Robidoux
And while those people coming here from outside New Hampshire, like Vermont or Maine, to seek services can save time and money by doing so, the mayor hopes they will invest it back into Manchester – spending the night at one of the city’s great hotels, catching a show at the Palace and enjoying all the the city has to offer.
Beyond the practical need for services, Ruais said having such moments addresses another need: connecting with community.
“There’s nothing like the feeling of connecting through culture and community, from a social capital point of view,” Ruais said, recounting an experience he had while campaigning earlier this year.
He said he knocked on a door in his neighborhood seeking a vote and found a kindred spirit – the man who answered the door spoke with an accent and so he asked, in Spanish, where the man was from and he said Lima, Peru – the same place the mayor’s wife was born.
“And that encounter has led to a friendship – which means a lot, especially for my wife. That’s something we’re missing out on when we don’t have the chance to meet, face-to-face, with people in our own communities,” Ruais said.
Anyone interested in bringing services from other consulates to to City Hall should reach out to the mayor’s office.
