The squat brick building at 400 Hillside Ave. is not the most elegant business address in Needham. But upstairs, mixed in with medical and legal offices, is an important conduit between New England and the greater global economy: The regional Ecuadorian consul, Needham resident Beatriz Stein, has a small suite of offices where she helps Ecuadorian citizens — most of them students or immigrants — with passports, official paperwork and government-related interactions.
Stein has been the consul for 24 years. “I was appointed by President Gustavo Noboa to run the consulate in Boston,” she said. “I lived in Needham and realized it would be a good place for the consulate.” She realized that, for a regional office, easy access to Route. 128 would allow people to come from all directions. There was a small population of Ecuadorians in the area in 2000, when she started. Now she estimates it’s about 35,000.
“As a consul, I do passports, powers of attorney, visas,” she said. “The community has gotten very big. Sometimes I see 60 people in a day.” Outside the office where she was being interviewed, five people sat waiting. Stein’s assistant came in so Stein could sign an official document with her flourishing, graceful signature.
Her role also includes trade representation. Ecuador is a large exporter of seafood, so Stein attends the annual seafood trade show in Boston each year. The flowers Ecuador exports brighten U.S. homes. The country is also a large exporter of bananas and cocoa.
The immigrant population ranges from working families to the students at the region’s top schools. “A lot of them are roofers,” she said. “When you see workers on rooftops, they’re probably from Ecuador.”
Stein herself immigrated to the U.S. in 1970. “I had gone to Milan to study in 1964, then back home. But I wanted to learn English.” She began studying in Washington, D.C. “Then I got married to a nice guy from Austria, and we’ve been married for 49 years.” The Steins have four adult children.
Though the news will tell you that these are rough times in Ecuador as the young, U.S.-educated president, Daniel Noboa, who is from Ecuador’s wealthiest family, has launched a massive internal effort to quell the illegal drug business, Stein prefers to talk about the longer view. Yes, there’s a lot of interest in emigration now, she said. But emigration has always been a goal for part of the population as people seek to raise their education levels and standard of living. “I’m a positive person,” she said. “Things will get better there.”
Save as PDF