As a born and bred Queens, NYC Latina, I sure don’t need statistics to tell me that the Ecuadorian population is steadily growing. It’s the reason there are more Ecuadorian food trucks and carts from Jackson Heights to Flushing. It’s the reason my own daughter loves guatita y sopa de bola. Markets blast Ecuadorian music and flyers glued to the wood planks outside of new buildings advertise such talent as Caramelo Caliente. the numbers tell me what I have been living.

Census figures show about 102,000 Ecuadorean immigrants, more than from any other Latin American country, live in Queens.

With a population of about 162,900 citywide, Ecuadoreans are New York’s fourth largest Hispanic contingent, behind Puerto Ricans (770,100), Dominicans (587,330) and Mexicans (260,620), according to the census.

So it makes sense that Ecuador’s consulate branch on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens is the first in New York to be located outside Manhattan.

“We wanted to be where our people are,” Ecuador’s consul, María Eugenia Avilés, said in an interview. “We wanted to have a place that would be just ours, where there would be no guards checking IDs and where you wouldn’t have to wait for an elevator to take you to the front door.”

The office officially opens next month but celebrates today (and apparently will be celebrating with Kola Champagne).

Via / Hispanic Tips, NYT