Consulate General of Mexico in Vancouver

The relationship between Mexico and the west side of Canada, particularly with British Columbia, is as old as the arrival of Spanish naval officers and explorers, José María Narváez and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Cuadra, to these lands. They had strong connections with Mexico, and participated in the expedition that ended with the establishment of the first European colonies on Vancouver Island, where the city of Victoria is located.

Spanish captain and explorer José María Narváez, who was commander of the ship Santa Gertrudis, departed from the port of San Blas in Nayarit, Mexico. There, he traversed the Strait of Juan de Fuca and made blueprints for possible locations of ports in 1788.

On July 5th 1791, Narvaez became the first European explorer to arrive to Vancouver Island. Between the years of 1790 and 1792, he founded Buena Esperanza, arrived to the San Juan Islands, and plotted nautical charts that were later used in the expeditions led by Commander George Vancouver and Commander Alessandro Malaspina.

Commander Narváez had an important role in Mexico, which included tracing the route from San Blas to Tepic (1809), finding the astronomical positions of Lagos and Aguascalientes, plotting a blueprint of Jalisco and Zacatecas (1821), as well as being named provincial representative for the state of Jalisco and Commander of San Blas (1824). Narváez died in Guadalajara, Jalisco in 1838.

Apart from Narváez, Spanish naval officer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, Commandant of the port of San Blas Nayarit, is considered as one of the explorers of Vancouver Island. Under his administration, in 1791 they built the Sutil and Mexicana ships in the port. These ships were part of the expedition to Nootka when Spain and Great Britain signed an agreement to abandon the region and hand it to British Commander George Vancouver.

Along with Vancouver, Bodega and Quadra also found an island to name after them. He returned to San Blas on February 1st, 1793 and died in Mexico City in 1794.

In 1906, British citizen W.E. Porter Worsnop requested the opening of a Mexican Consulate in Vancouver, due to the establishment of a steam line between the port of Vancouver and Mexico. Porter Worsnop was appointed as Honorary Consul on April 13th, 1907. The Consulate opened its doors on August 17th that same year. By decree of the Congress of the Union, in November of 1907 the Mexican consular office was elevated to the category of Consulate of Mexico. Since its opening in 1907, the category of Consulate was modified several times.

Among those who headed the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver in its origins is Don Manuel C. Téllez (1909-1911), a member of the Mexican Foreign Service. In addition to having been Ambassador of Mexico to the United States of America, Italy and Hungary, he was Secretary of Interior and Secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1932.

Currently, the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Mexico in Vancouver also covers the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. Today, the Consulate serves a community of more than 16,000 Mexicans and Mexican-Canadians, of which, more than 4,000 are studying. It is projected that around 6,000 temporary workers will arrive to provide their services in the agriculture sector. Likewise, the number of Mexican tourists has increased significantly since the visa requirements were lifted in 2016.

Heads of Mission