Mexican Consul Set for BHE Appearance

HOPE – The Consul of Mexico will be the special guest of Beryl Henry Elementary School in a Hispanic Heritage Month assembly and reception Sept. 27.

Counsul of Mexico Rodolfo Quilantan-Arenas, from Little Rock, will speak before a student assembly at 9 a.m. in a special appearance in conjunction with the development of a Latino Heritage Museum in Hope.

The assembly will be followed by a public reception from 9:30-10:30 a.m. for parents and the community to meet Quilantan-Arenas.

Quilantan-Arenas traveled to Hope in June to present Spanish-language textbooks to the HPS and the Hempstead County Library. The textbooks for grades K-6 involved reading, math and science study, and were intended to allow Hispanic parents to help their students in those subjects while fostering literacy in their native language.

A native of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, Quilantan-Arenas has been in the Mexican Foreign Service since 1985, serving in Antwerp, Belgium; Milan, Italy; Los Angeles, Calif.; Guayaquil, Ecuador; and Brownsville, Texas, prior to his appointment to Little Rock. He has also served as a legal affairs advisor to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Quilantan-Arenas holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the Autonomous University of Coahuila, and a Master of Law degree in American law from the University of New Mexico at Alburquerque. He also holds a master’s degree in military administration for national defense and security from the National Defense College in Mexico City.

Quilantan-Arenas has written on foreign politics, diplomacy and the protection of Mexican nationals; and, he is the author of two books, “The Death Penalty and Consular Protection” and “Mexico in the Culture.”