Mexican families in East Texas learn how to reunite with relatives back home

Published 5:40 am Monday, March 16, 2026

WASKOM – Representatives of a Dallas-based organization recently came to East Texas to help provide a “bridge” to people from Mexico hoping to reunite with family members back home.

Dallas-Mexico Casa Guanajuato was created in 1994 to serve that area’s Hispanic community. It also helps Mexican families reunite through its reunification program.

“Casa Guanajuato is a legally constituted organization here in the United States that offers services to the migrant community, such as advice on immigration issues and literacy in primary and secondary schools,” said Nancy Garcia, one of the organization’s members who stopped at a Waskom church. “The organization also provides advice for procedures at the Mexican consulate, music classes, citizenship classes, English classes, boxing classes, support for dual-citizenship procedures in conjunction with the state government and … family reunification.”

The organization is named after the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Founder Tereso Ortiz created it after immigrating from Guanajuato to Dallas.

Casa Guanajuato has nine core values that center around embracing cultural heritage and assisting immigrant community members.

“Of those nine objectives that (Ortiz) always talks about and shares, one of the main ones is that Casa Guanajuato is a bridge – a bridge in which it can help the community with various procedures,” Garcia said.

Manuel Aguilar, also with Casa Guanajuato, explained that the organization’s role is to serve Mexican immigrants in need.

“It’s not only for the people of Guanajuato, like (Garcia) mentioned, it’s also for people of all (Mexican) states and above all people can feel that they have a place they can go to where they can seek help if needed,” Aguilar said.

The reunification program has been helping families for the past decade.

“The program is aimed at people who are in Mexico for the visa process. Casa Guanajuato, being a legally constituted organization, endorses people, supports people in the process, the entire process is done in Mexico,” Garcia said. “Here in the United States, they can register. They can also register in Mexico. We also have calls in different places, more than anything in Guanajuato, but we can support any state in the republic to carry out their process.”

The family reunification program allows Mexican parents aged 57 or older to apply for tourist visas with guidance and support from Casa Guanajuato. The organization also helps facilitate the stay of family members throughout the application process in Mexico and, if approved, in the U.S.

“Family is the main link we have as human beings, so reunifying, reuniting and the right to family coexistence is a universal right,” Garcia said. “So Casa Guanajuato takes this right to universal coexistence so that those parents, those children who left at early ages from their places of origin can meet again, have a coexistence again and that they never expected. Perhaps those mothers, those fathers, can have the opportunity to see other family members, and really, this is something that’s good for everyone.”

At the Waskom event, the room was filled with dozens of community members who later signed up to start the reunification process.

Irad Morales is a Waskom resident and member of Conexion Migrante, which is another immigrant support group in the state of Guanajuato.

Morales was invited to learn more about Casa Guanajuato and liked the resources the organization provided, but asked members to come to Waskom because of the distance.

“The intention was to bring (Casa Guanajuato representatives) and what they do a little closer to here in our community,” he said.

The cost of applying for a visa for a family member is almost $3,000.

“This is the first informative meeting we have here,” Garcia said. “We’re grateful for the support. We’re grateful to the people who support us, those who opened the doors and those who already know us and have been able to bring a family member.

“That is why we were invited, and we want to continue to have these meetings so that ultimately we can continue to reunite families.”

For more information about Casa Guanajuato, visit dallasmexicocasaguanajuato.com or follow its Facebook page.