Stories

Mark Ruiz (Mexican-American)

"I was sort of transplanted to Oklahoma and well, just stayed."

Mark was born in Los Angeles, California. In 1950, he came to high school at St. Gregory's in Shawnee, Oklahoma. After graduation, Mark entered the seminary and was a monk, teaching at St. Gregory's for the next 20 years. In 1975, he left the monastery, and began teaching 4th grade, as well as swimming and sailing. He is now a retired from South Rock Creek elementary, but Mark continues to teach CPR and First Aid trainings, sponsors Camp Fire Girls, and volunteers his labor to his church. The Ruiz family continues to live in Tecumseh, OK.

Clockwise from top: Mark Ruiz speaking at Kwanis Club; Mark Ruiz and his wife, Betty, enjoying vacation; Mark teaching sailing and water safety, c.1970s.

Gregorio & Dominga Martinez (Mexico)

Gregorio Martinez was born on a hacienda in San Luis Potosi in 1888. He fought with Pancho Villa during the Revolution and immigrated to Oklahoma in 1917. He first worked in Richards Spur at the Dolese Brothers quarry; a year later, he moved his family to Oklahoma City and signed on as a section hand with the Santa Fe railroad. Always employed by short-term contracts, Gregorio worked for several railroads, seasonally at the quarry, and eventually at downtown Oklahoma City hotels. Gregorio and his wife, Dominga, raised six children, all born in the state, except one. The Martinez family is one of the oldest Hispanic families in Oklahoma City.

From left: Dominga Martinez with eldest son, Pete. c.1917; Gregorio & Dominga, with son Pete. c.1920s.

Pearla Gonzales (Mexican-American)

Pearla was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1921, to Gregorio and Dominga Martinez. The family moved to Oklahoma City in 1917, where the kids grew up in Walnut Grove, attended Webster and graduated from Central High School. Pearla's first job was with the Sugar Board, and then worked for Tinker Air Force Base for 18 years. She was one of the first Hispanic women to do so. After WWII, Pearla married Jesse Gonzales when he returned home from Europe. During the 1960s, Jesse and Pearla moved to Chicago, however, they never lost track of their Oklahoma family roots.

From left: Jesse Gonzalez, c. 1944; Martinez, c. 194

Bernadette Martinez (Mexican-American)

Bernadette "Bernie" Martinez was born in Oklahoma City at St. Anthony's Hospital in 1947. In 1966, Bernie graduated from Central High School; then she attended Central State University in Edmond. "I knew the whole time I was in college that all I wanted was to do my art. However, at that time and with my family, I dare not say that I wanted to be an artist!"

Bernie worked as a respiratory thearipist at St. Anthony's until 1984, when she quit and decided to become a serious artist. Some of her earliest and favorite mediums are pencil portraits, then to color pencils, and later much of her work is in pen and ink.

"I came home and I did my first exhibit which was in 1984, and that was when my art turned for me, instead of drawing what I saw, I started drawing what I felt."

Right: What Would Dora Draw?

Anita and Jesse Martinez, (Mexican-American)

"I met Anita at the Treonon ballroom, one Saturday night...When Anita and I got married you could almost count them, the Mexican people living here in the city. Cause everybody knew everybody at that time. Now they're all scattered out throughout the city. They're not in a neighborhood like there use to be, 50 years ago." - Jesse Martinez

The Alvarez Family (Cuba)

"In Cuba, Fernando Alvarez had worked as a radio telegraph operator under the military dictatorship of Batista. When he was overthrown by Castro, Alvarez feared he would be accused of being a spy, so he fled with his wife and two young sons. Once in Miami he was offered the choice to relocate to Puerto Rico or to Tulsa. He chose Tulsa. They came to Oklahoma in the winter and were bewildered by the bare trees…'I had never seen such a thing before, I thought this place was dead. Everyone told me this was winter and that the leaves would grow back. I thought they were lying because Castro had been lying to us for years.' But of course spring came and the leaves returned, 'Absolutely beautiful, I still love the four seasons to this day.' It wasn't long before Alvarez had learned the language and was thinking about a career. 'I wanted to get into a service-on-demand business…everyone needs a haircut. The hair will never stop growing, even in tough times, so I became a barber.' Alvarez studied under Vidal Sassoon in Kansas City and has had several barbershops in Tulsa."

(Photo and content courtesy ¡Latinos Presentes! Oklahoma Centennial Hispanic History Project)

Yolanda Velarde-Charney (Mexican-American)

Settled in U.S.: Parents, 1916

"My parents were loyal Americans and proud Mexicans. They instilled in their children the love and culture of their homeland and an appreciation of their adopted country."

"My sisters, brother, and I feel blessed to have been raised bilingual and bicultural. We are blessed to have been born Americans and proud to be of Mexican descent."

"Coming to the United States about the time of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Verlarde-Charney's parents settled in El Paso, Texas where they raised her and her siblings."

(Photo and content courtesy ¡Latinos Presentes! Oklahoma Centennial Hispanic History Project; Shan Gosborn, Photographer.)

Sergio Juarez Jr. (Mexican-American)

Settled in U.S.: Parents, 1970s

What is your favorite thing about the U.S.?
"Football, I absolutely love college football."

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or your experience?
"I am a United States Marine and am very proud to be one. I had the opportunity to go to a college of my choice after high school. Instead I chose to give back to the country that gave my family so much, only to come home to an American that wants to expel the 'immigrants' that gave their life to protect this country."

(Photo and content courtesy ¡Latinos Presentes! Oklahoma Centennial Hispanic History Project; Mark Moore, Photographer.)

Alicia Marcano (Venezuela)

"For about the past 10 years, Venezuelans have been fleeing the leftist regime dictator, Hugo Chavez. Chavez ended Venezuela's former stable civilian rule when he gained power in 1998 and rewrote the country's constitution. Many Venezuelan-Americans today come for personal safety and stability.

According to Osvaldo Munoz, the owner and editor of El Venezolano, another major impetus for leaving Venezuela is that 'You have large groups of disillusioned university graduates and young professionals who see little opportunity under the new regime. They come to the United States in search of a better life.'

Unofficial figures indicate that as many as 150,000 Venezuelans have relocated to the United States as a result of Chavez's Castro-influenced rule."

(Photo and content courtesy ¡Latinos Presentes! Oklahoma Centennial Hispanic History Project; David Varmecky, Photographer.)

Freddy Valverde (Cochabamba, Bolivia)

Settled in U.S.: July, 1988

Did you come alone or with family?
"I came with my brother and my mother. The following year my three brothers came to join us. In 1994 I moved back to Bolivia and got married, so I came with my wife and our son in 1995."

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or your experiences?
"I want to thank this country for the opportunity. I want to remind everybody that at one point in our family tree we were all immigrants to this country. So if you see an immigrant try to lend a hand like others did for your family members when they first came here."

Photo and content courtesy ¡Latinos Presentes! Oklahoma Centennial Hispanic History Project; LaQuita Hinton, Photographer.

Lisa Escalon (Mexican-American)

Settled in U.S.: Grandparents, 1917

"I am an only child. I was born in Kansas City, Missouri while my mother was traveling from Chicago to OKC on the Santa Fe Chief; she had to get off the train to have me. I went to school in Chicago then came to OKC to finish high school and have been here ever since.

My husband, J. Escalon, is also of Mexican heritage and is from Throckmorton, Texas. He is a Human Resources Director for API, Enterprises here in OKC. We met in Oklahoma City in 1989. He was born in Navasota, Texas and grew up in Throckmorton, Texas and is one of 21 children!!!! His family, himself and brothers and sisters worked as migrant workers at a very young age. He is the only one of his brothers and sisters to finish high school and graduate from College."

"Before becoming Museum Coordinator, I had been a docent at the Overholser Mansion off and on for about 10 years. I fell in love with the Mansion the first time I toured it (sometime around 1993). I feel a great sense of history and Oklahoma pride working around the Mansion and the grounds."