Rafael de la Colina Riquelme

Rafael de la Colina entered Mexico's foreign service in 1918 and learned consular work in the United States. In Philadelphia, he helped Mexican railway workers document their hours and contest withheld pay. After other American postings and study at Harvard, he became consul in Los Angeles during the Depression. He organized trains for thousands of unemployed Mexicans returning home and traveled on some journeys to check conditions. His later oral history described both the assistance provided and the pressure that drove families to leave. ¹

De la Colina moved to the Washington embassy as minister counselor in 1943 and later became ambassador. He recalled delivering Mexico's final payment to the U.S. Treasury under the settlement of property claims. In April 1951, he joined Foreign Secretary Manuel Tello in talks over a proposed Mexican troop contribution to the Korean War; Tello explained why Mexico would not send a division. ^{1, 2}

De la Colina subsequently represented Mexico at the United Nations and in Canada and Japan. His long service at the Organization of American States included work on reforms to its Charter and the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance. The Senate awarded him the Belisario Domínguez Medal in 1974. He died in Virginia in 1996. ¹