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Mexican diplomat feels at home in Gainesville
Consul General urges immigrants to be proud of heritage, active in community
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Ramon Arteaga, owner of La Flor de Jalisco #2, speaks with Javier Diaz, Victor Pelaez-Millan and Enrique Montiel at his grocery store in Gainesville Tuesday evening. Diaz is the consul general of Mexico in Atlanta, and Victor Pelaez-Millan is the consul for political, economic and social affiars of Mexico in Atlanta. - photo by Erin O. Smith
Since being named Consul General of the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta last summer, Javier Diaz admits he wanted to know more about this place called Gainesville in which more than 41 percent of the city’s population is Hispanic — and of which 80 percent are Mexicans. Diaz got his wish Tuesday when Mayor Danny Dunagan, Councilman Zack Thompson, other city officials, employees and members of the Vision 2030 Committee welcomed the diplomat. City Manager Bryan Lackey offered Diaz a sense of how rapidly the Hispanic population has grown since the 1990 census, when just 8 percent of the city’s total population of almost 18,000 was Latino.