Migrant Clinicians Network welcomes Vivian Juárez Mondragón, the new Consul of Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas. Juárez Mondragón, a graduate of International Relations and a career diplomat with 17 years of consular experience, comes to the US-Mexico border after her work as Deputy Consul General of Mexico in New York and Miami and Deputy Consul in Albuquerque.

"I am very excited about our new Consul; she is a highly educated woman, empowered, and eager to do many good things,” said Mirtala Barrón, MCN’s Coordinator of Ventanilla de Salud (VdS) in Eagle Pass. “Even though we do not have a lot of resources, the Consul is determined to bring more projects for the Ventanilla de Salud, the Mexican Consulate, and the community,". Barrón said with great enthusiasm.
 

Ventanilla de Salud Eagle Pass in recent years

VdS is a network of community outreach health programs that operates from each Mexican Consulate in the United States. Eagle Pass has its own VdS and supports its community through several initiatives, along with multiple local agencies dedicated to health promotion. Among the initiatives undertaken by Vds over the last few years are the celebration of Mother's Day and Women, Children, and Book's Day. Likewise, on the last Wednesday of each month, a health fair is held in which participants not only come to celebrate but also to have the opportunity to receive, in a safe, familiar, and convenient environment, vaccination services for COVID-19 and influenza, as well as free preventive check-ups for glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol. During these fairs, and with MHP Salud's support, many participants receive assistance to enroll in CHIP, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps programs, benefiting both children and adults. Thanks to their longstanding relationship with UT Health San Antonio and the Frontera de Salud project, students, as part of their medical residency at the border, provide biannual screenings for triglycerides, cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, body mass, height, weight, and vision screenings recently included. Also, they offer virtual conferences on various health topics once a month. And without leaving sports behind, Vds Eagle Pass also offers Binational Sports Week to support with multiple activities the physical and mental well-being of those living on both sides of the border. This initiative's success has been recognized by the Institute of Mexicans Abroad.
 

Ventanilla de Salud Eagle Pass and MCN

In 2020, MCN became VdS Eagle Pass's fiscal agent. Since then, they have worked together to bring helpful information and resources on various health topics to the Mexican community in Maverick, Dimmit, Real, Edwards, Uvalde, Zavala, and Kinney counties.

"MCN is an organization that has always responded immediately to the needs that come our way. We are very pleased to have them as our fiscal agent," noted Barrón.

MCN has supported VdS Eagle Pass with technical assistance, event coordination, and training. Among the projects they work on jointly are:

• Binational Health Week. During this week, numerous events are held in response to the community's health needs.
   
• Charlas entre mujeres which once a month offer women the opportunity to meet virtually, connect, create support networks, and learn from the best experts on current health topics.
   
• Learning Collaboratives on relevant health topics, especially COVID-19, providing community health workers with up-to-date clinical information, tools, and resources, and a space for sharing best practices for community outreach activities.
   
• Health fairs and campaigns such as Ama tu riñón in which visitors receive free kidney screenings, one of many  services and resources in Spanish provided in a culturally and linguistically appropriate format.
   

Looking to the future

"There is a great future ahead of us," comments Barrón. "Our Consul has great professional experience and is active and dedicated to the community. She wants all Consulate's initiatives to be carried out within a binational framework and for all of our services, not just consular services, to be available to everyone.” To achieve this, the Consulate has focused part of its efforts on increasing its presence on social media. "We are moving quite a bit because we want the community to know that we are here to serve them," added Barrón.

Among the new projects, the Consulate is working to promote the Plaza Comunitaria. This educational initiative will offer Mexicans a space where they can complete their middle and high school education.

The Consulate also wants to create more opportunities to support the LGBTQ+ community of Eagle Pass through initiatives such as LGBTQ+ Pride Day, Rainbow Illumination, LGBTQ+ Week Abroad, among others.

Regarding health, work is underway to include free mammograms within the preventive exams offered to the community. 

"Over the past 15 years, the VdS Eagle Pass has forged a great network of allies to channel and refer our users to the free health services they desperately need. Every day we work to create new alliances and become more visible,” Barrón noted. “We want to actively go out into the community to participate in other health events and establish new connections with organizations that may offer services to our community in the future. We want to grow and reach further!"

Connect with VdS Eagle Pass on Facebook to learn about their events:
https://www.facebook.com/Ventanilla-de-Salud-Eagle-Pass-Tx-1598327940380211 

For further information, please contact Mirtala Barrón, Ventanilla de Salud Coordinator in Eagle Pass.
mbarron@migrantclinician.org 
Phone: (737)825-9819