Mexican Consulate Awards the Ohtli Award

Mrs. Cristina Flood Urdangarin, is the Community Health Coordinator for the organization of St. Mary’s Health Clinics, an allied agency for the implementation of the Ventanilla de Salud (VDS) strategy of the Consulate of Mexico in Saint Paul Minnesota. 

  From 2012 to date, Mrs. Flood Urdangarin has been responsible for the operation of the VDS, focusing her work on the search for new alliances with health provider organizations to expand the services offered by the Ventanilla, in order to guarantee access to health services for people without health insurance plan due to their immigration status and/ or economic barriers.  

 Cristina has focused her work on finding additional free and/or low-cost services, as well as ensuring that they are offered in Spanish and directly in communities through the implementation of culturally appropriate community health days, creating alliances with churches and community centers, among others. She has been the coordinator of Binational Health Week (SBS) activities, in which each year health providers offer free services to more than 2000 people. 

 During the health emergency due to COVID-19, Mrs. Flood Urdangarin established the first alliances with the health authorities and hospitals to care for infected patients. Likewise, she established a collaboration network with health institutions to carry out COVID-19 detection clinics at the consulate headquarters and other community centers friendly to the Mexican Community. 

Cristina has been an essential part of the organizing team of the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 for the Mexican community. 

 Thanks to her efforts and her coordination of the VDS team, each year more than 10,000 people benefit in health matters. 

 Therefore, THE INSTITUTE OF MEXICANS ABROAD THROUGH THE CONSULATE OF MEXICO IN SAINT PAUL presented the Ohtli Award to Cristina Flood Urdangarin, for her outstanding work and commitment in eliminating barriers to access to health services for the Mexican community, as well as for her outstanding work during the health emergency caused by COVID-19 and for the search for better welfare conditions for the Mexican community. 

 Since 1996 Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced the Ohtli Award aimed at highligthing the contribution of people that are deeply committed to the improvement of the standards of life of the mexican immigrant communities. For that reason, the award was named after the Aztec word for Pathway, OHTLI.