Guatemalan consul joins students for ‘High Tea’

Guatemala’s new diplomat in Palm Beach County made it clear to Lake Worth elementary school students on Monday: He is here to help their families.

The Guatemalan government opened a consulate in Lake Worth last month to assist native Guatemalans with passports, identification cards and birth certificates so they don’t need to travel to the larger consulate in Miami.

Palm Beach County’s Guatemalan population is estimated at 25,000, with a big concentration in Lake Worth. South Grade Elementary, which consul Mario Rene Azmitia visited on Monday, has more than 100 students who speak Kanjobal or Mam, two indigenous Guatemalan languages, out of about 700 students.

Azmitia joined a class of fifth-graders for “High Tea,” the culmination of a series of table manners lessons taught by art teacher Rebecca Hinson. Azmitia said these lessons in fine dining and manners were not so different from what he studied in diplomacy school.

“I had to learn politics, economics, geopolitics, how to put a table together, how to introduce yourself,” said Azmitia, 51, who lives in Lake Worth with his wife. “This is the elementary version.”

Students said the lessons have been enlightening and dramatic, especially when they can tap a knife to a glass to call for a toast. They said they have used some of their new skills at home, to their parents’ puzzlement.

“My mom noticed I wasn’t talking with my mouth full,” said Esther Clairvoyant, 11.

Student Ashley Oxlaj Perez said her younger siblings asked why she held her fork in her left hand and facing her as she used a knife to cut with her right hand. This is how Hinson taught the class to hold utensils.

“I do it at home without realizing it,” she said.

And Ester Miranda Marcos Diego, 11, said her mom was shocked when at the end of a meal she placed her utensils in the “resting position,” crisscrossed on her plate.

“She was surprised I’m learning manners at school,” Ester said.

About 15,000 Latinos live in Lake Worth, or 42 percent of the population, according to a 2013 Census Bureau survey. Guatemala represents the secondlargest international contingent in the Palm Beach County School District, with 2,694 students, second to Haiti, which has 6,338 students in public schools.

Assistant Superintendent Eddie Ruiz said the district is working with each of these communities to encourage parental involvement. He said staffers focused on the Haitian community this year, with parent lessons on how to help with homework, analyze a report card and communicate with teachers.

He said they will reach out to Guatemalan parents in a systematic way next year.

Azmitia told the students he wants their families to be successful in the United States.

“My goal as consul is to make sure anything you aspire to do, I will support you and get others to support you as well,” he said through a translator.