The Oklahoma Hispanic Cultural Center: A History of the Latina/o Community in Oklahoma City

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to reinsert the Latina/o community and the Oklahoma Hispanic Cultural Center into the history of Oklahoma. The Latina/o community has contributed to the overall history of Oklahoma. However, as a marginalized group, often times their contributions are not recognized and are not documented. The Latina/o community, as well as other marginalized communities, are continually having to develop their own places and spaces. These places and spaces allow communities to preserve their history, culture, and language in a country whose assimilation efforts are persistent. They also create the support needed to survive in systems that were not meant for them to thrive in. My thesis will focus on the Oklahoma Hispanic Cultural Center that existed in the 1970s and 1980s in Oklahoma City. There are many questions surrounding the center, its history, and what work initiated by the center can tell us about the community’s needs today.

More importantly, I seek to reinsert the population, and with it, community spaces such as the Oklahoma Hispanic Cultural Center, into the history of the city. Like other silenced and erased communities, there are so many contributions and voices that must be written back into history. Places and spaces like the Oklahoma Hispanic Cultural Center and Oklahoma City are crucial to communities, and these contributions, stories, and voices must be documented in history. They are a part of our history and should be recognized as such.