Greece reopens honorary consulate in New Orleans: ‘It was long overdue’

Alexandra Papadopoulou is now one of Greece’s senior diplomats, the country’s deputy foreign minister. In 1987 she was 28, newly posted to lead the Greek consulate in New Orleans, and unsure of herself.

On her second day a local Greek American businessman walked into her office. They were from the same part of Greece. “OK, now you come to my house,” he told her. “They adopted me,” she said.

On Monday she was back in New Orleans to reopen Greece’s honorary consulate, closed after Hurricane Katrina. Among those at the ceremony were Mayor Helena Moreno, Antonis Alexandridis, Greece’s ambassador to the United States, and the Rev. Protopresbyter George Wilson, dean of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

The businessman who took her in was Dennis Georges, chair of Imperial Trading. Almost forty years later, Papadopoulou has named one of his sons, John Georges, honorary consul of Greece in the city. Georges and his wife, Dathel, own The Times-Picayune and The Advocate.

The new Honorary Consulate of Greece sits on St. Charles Avenue in Georges’ executive office — the same building that houses The Times-Picayune. A ribbon-cutting was held there on Monday.

“I’m honored to help strengthen ties between Greece and America and, in particular, New Orleans, where nearly every ship that passes by the city is Greek flagged, owned or crewed,” Georges said. His family first came from Greece to the New Orleans area four generations ago. “Both places are going through a renaissance.”

Honorary consulates are a lighter diplomatic presence where a country has no full consulate or embassy. New Orleans has about fifty of them. Honorary consuls are volunteers. They can help citizens, promote trade, stage cultural events and represent the home country.

“The opening of this consulate was long overdue and I’m glad this moment came,” Papadopoulou told the gathering. “The Greek American community here wanted this, and we need to have a presence in the southern United States.”

The first honorary consulate in the United States

New Orleans is better known for French and Spanish roots, but its Greek ties run deep. Nineteenth-century immigrants built one of the South’s strongest Greek American communities.

Bret Clesi, honorary consul-general of Albania and dean emeritus of the Louisiana Consular Corps, said New Orleans held the first Greek consulate in the United States. Cotton merchant Nicolas Benachi founded it in 1866 to represent Greek citizens and to push trade. Around the same time he helped establish the city’s Greek Orthodox church — the first formally recognized in the Americas.

Other local business leaders followed. Greek-born oilman William G. Helis Sr. took the role in the 1930s, then his son William G. Helis Jr. In 1937 the Helis family donated a building in Washington that served for decades as the Greek ambassador’s residence.

For 139 years the New Orleans post was a diplomatic and parish hub. Katrina wrecked that run. The consulate was based in the World Trade Center; the building was damaged, and Athens did not reopen the office elsewhere.

‘Understands both worlds’

Papadopoulou, consul in New Orleans from 1987 to 1991, kept the city on her map. She later served on several continents, became in 2020 the first woman to serve as Greek ambassador to the United States, and in 2023 deputy foreign minister.

As ambassador she wrote that an honorary consulate should return. By the time the file was ready for a decision, she was the minister who could approve it. She also helped arrange a 2024 meeting between House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose district is in north Louisiana, and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Reopening New Orleans was on the agenda. The city now has 50 active consulates.

Johnson said in a statement that Louisiana’s Greek American community represents “the very best of our two nations.”

Georges said he wants cultural exchange first: Greek Independence Day and the feast of the Annunciation next March. He sits on the board of the Hellenic Initiative, which worked on Greece’s recovery after the debt crisis, and has held leadership roles at Holy Trinity, home of the city’s Greek Fest each May.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise called him “a true champion for the Greek community in New Orleans and around the world” and credited him with a role in the city’s post-Katrina rebuilding. Kimberly Guilfoyle, U.S. ambassador to Greece, called him someone who “understands both worlds — the boardrooms of Piraeus and the docks of New Orleans.”

Stay updated with the latest news from Greece and around the world on greekcitytimes.com.
Contact our newsroom to share your updates, stories, photos, or videos. Follow GCT on Google News and Apple News.