The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

66 NOVEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL including WilliamA. Garesché, who served from 1886 to 1891, and wrote: “The island itself was a dream of Paradise.” Besides Mayor Rapha, Consul Hartzfeld, and the U.S. consular agent in Martinique, Leah McGaw Maurice, the cer- emonies were attended by various personalities, including the subprefect of Trinité and St. Pierre, the president of the Assem- bly of Martinique, Senator Catherine Conconne, other mayors, the consular minister of the Embassy of India in France, and the honorary consuls of Brazil, Guatemala, Italy, and Sey- chelles in Fort-de-France. Such a gathering of consular officials is unusual in Martinique and shows that today’s St. Pierre, labeled “Town of Art and History” by the French Ministry of Culture, has the desire to remain open to the world. Next year, May 8, 2023, will be another anniversary of the 1902 catastrophe; but it will also be the centenary of the rebirth of the town of St. Pierre (which had been removed from the list of the municipalities of France in 1910). At that time, the municipality will pay a general tribute to the seven consular officials who died in the eruption of Mount Pelée, as well as to the 10 consulates established in the Little Paris of the West Indies before the volcanic disaster: those of the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. n Ceremony at the location of the former U.S. Consulate in St. Pierre, May 8, 2022. From left: Consul Jessica A. Hartzfeld, U.S. Embassy Bridgetown; Mayor of St. Pierre Christian Rapha, and Sub-Prefect of Trinité and St. Pierre Nicolas Onimus. HILDAMAYORGA TAKE AFSA — AND THE FSJ — WITH YOU! Send your address updates to member@afsa.org