TULSA, Okla — Tulsa County Libraries are ringing in Hispanic Heritage Month. Each year, it’s celebrated from September 14 through October 14.
While the Hispanic Resource Center is located at the Martin Regional Library in east Tulsa, libraries all over are providing free resources and programs so that everyone can join in on the fun.
“This is open for everyone,” Stephanie Rodriguez said. “Everybody is welcome to come and learn and immerse themselves in the culture.”
Rodriguez is the Hispanic Resource Center Coordinator for the Tulsa County Library system. She said she’s been in this position for about a year now.
“For this Hispanic Heritage Month, we have a lot of programs planned at a lot of the different library systems,” Rodriguez said. “Programs for little children to teenagers to adults, some arts and crafts, lots of books discussions.”
“What I’m really excited about this year is bilingual story times at different library locations. Usually, our bilingual story times are here at the Martin Regional Library or at the Maxwell Park Library, but I’m excited to be out with the branches and doing a little more for this Hispanic Heritage Month,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says many families are mixed with both American and Hispanic or Latino roots and want to keep developing both languages at the same time.
Because of this, she emphasizes it’s important to provide programs in both English and Spanish.
“We want to keep both the culture and the language,” she said. “I feel like people might not include language as part of the culture, but it is. So we like to keep that here.”
Being Mexican-Peruvian, Rodriguez said she wants people to learn more about the diversity in Hispanic and Latino cultures.
“I just want to explore and for people to learn more about all the Latin American cultures because even within their countries, they’re so diverse and just like how we are here,” Rodriguez said. “I just want everybody to learn a little bit about that.”
Libraries are planning activities celebrating Hispanic and Latino culture even after Hispanic Heritage Month is officially over.
For the full schedule of free events, you can visit the library’s site for more information.
Isabel Flores is your North & East Tulsa reporter.
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