Ex-consul of Mexico is still in O.C., for now

As a respected Mexican diplomat for nearly six years, Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro spent hours each week listening to the problems of Orange County’s poorest residents.

Now, as a new consul takes the helm of the Mexican consulate in Santa Ana, Ortiz Haro finds himself telling his own tale of woe.

Ortiz Haro, 47, a former elected official in Mexico City who had no previous diplomatic experience, was replaced last month in what Mexican officials described as a routine change of consular heads. But he was not offered another job or the chance to stay in office until his two daughters, 10 and 14, finish the school year.

He remains living in an apartment in Irvine, unemployed, with a borrowed 1993 Mercedes and his wife’s cellphone.

In one of the most Spanish-speaking cities in the United States, Ortiz Haro won the hearts of Mexican nationals who reveled in his plain talk and liberal open-door policy. More than 400 people came to say goodbye at a five-hour party Jan. 30 at the consulate that took the tone of a funeral, as employees, immigrant leaders and heads of local organizations broke into tears during tributes to him. After Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006, Ortiz Haro had assumed his tenure would end. Consular positions are often changed following elections. Ortiz Haro said he would return to Mexico when the school year ends but had no specific work plans.

In Santa Ana, the new consul, Carlos Alejandro Rodriguez y Quezada, is forging relationships with immigrants who were reluctant to see Ortiz Haro go. With a more conventional style, he’s unlikely to affectionately call female visitors mamacita, as Ortiz Haro did, but he is attending immigrant events and creating strategies to promote trade and tourism between Orange County and Mexico.

He has met with local officials, including Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and interim Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson. Rodriguez y Quezada, 55, is a career diplomat who has worked in Mexico’s Foreign Ministry since 1969. He has served in Cuba, El Salvador and Lebanon. Most recently, he was Mexico’s ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro.

Following cues from Calderon, who wants to promote tourism and foreign investment in Mexico, the consul said he would conduct a business workshop at the end of March.

Inside the consulate, Rodriguez y Quezada has ended the informal atmosphere in which immigrants routinely stopped by to say hello and even dropped off tamales as gifts. Rodriguez y Quezada moved his office from the ground floor to an upstairs suite and told consulate employees not to wear jeans.

He said he wouldn’t continue Miercoles Paisano (roughly translated as “Compatriot Wednesdays”), which Ortiz Haro developed as a day to listen to anyone who wanted to ask him questions.

“All the consuls want to help people. But each person has his own style,” Rodriguez y Quezada said. “The job of a diplomat is 24 hours a day. I don’t need to put a name on that service or a day on it. I will attend to everyone who comes here anyway.”

Deputy Consul Manuel Herrera, who served under Ortiz Haro, said the vast experience of his new boss reflected how the foreign ministry was placing increasing importance on the Santa Ana office.

“In the entire history of this office, no one has come here with as much experience, nor with the distinction of having served as an ambassador,” he said. “A person with such experience has a greater capacity for negotiating with local officials and for diplomacy.”

Although immigrant activists were uneasy at first with the more formal atmosphere at the consulate, they have felt welcomed by the consul.

Immigrant leader Mike Gonzalez, who invited the consul to a Valentine’s Day gathering at a local restaurant, said he was surprised that Rodriguez y Quezada accepted.

“People thought they would have a lot of trouble accepting a new consul. But he has turned out to very, very capable. They couldn’t have sent a more qualified person here,” Gonzalez said. “This consul has just started, but I’m getting a good vibe.”

Even so, Bertha Robiatti, who heads a group of immigrants from Nuevo Leon, a state in northern Mexico, said she hadn’t been able to walk into the consulate since Ortiz Haro left.

“It’s been hard for me . . . because I know [Luis] Miguel isn’t there,” said Robiatti, who had traveled to Mexico and met with her state’s governor to protest Ortiz Haro’s removal.

Blocks from the consulate, Ortiz Haro and his family remain until the end of the school year. He uses a room in a local law office to drum up temporary work and tie up loose ends.

A group of immigrants from Guerrero state, southwest of Mexico City, recently held a dinner in his honor. The Santa Ana City Council is expected to give a proclamation for his years of service at its meeting Monday. The Orange County Hispanic Bar Assn. was to honor him at a dinner Saturday.

When he walks the streets of Santa Ana, many people still recognize him.

“You really helped people in need,” says one woman, who hands him a $2 bill for good luck.

“Consul, you were a person who really cared, just like the Mother Teresa,” says another.

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jennifer.delson@latimes.com