'Celebrating Our Culture': Hispanic Business Expo Hosts Event For Local Entrepreneurs, Businesses In Tulsa

'Celebrating Our Culture': Hispanic Business Expo Hosts Event For Local Entrepreneurs, Businesses In Tulsa

A taste of several cultures was found at McCollough Park at the second Hispanic Business Expo.

The Tulsa Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hosted the event to bring the community together and help entrepreneurs showcase their businesses. For many, it was about more than just making money.

The park was full of people checking out many of the vendors and learning about Hispanic culture in Tulsa.

From folklórico dancing to food, to personalized gifts and crafts, culture could be found all around McCollough Park.

"Tengo frutas, a basket of fruits," Maria Coria said showing some of her homemade crocheted items. "I'm making too many things in my house and my kids told me, 'You need to go somewhere mom," she said.

Coria and many others were a part of the Hispanic business expo, showing off their culture and their goods.

"What we do here is try to promote our businesses to get people to know us and to share what we do and what we are trying to provide to our community," said vendor Milexis Prada.

This was Prada's first time participating in the event. She said it helped her with more than just getting the word out about her services.

"I feel like because it's the Hispanic community, we get to share all the same, similar cultures and different things we have in common, so it feels like family," Prada said.

But it wasn't just about shopping. Several showed off the dances and songs of their culture to the audience.

"Everyone is different. We all come from different countries, we speak Spanish but it's different dialects, but at the end of the day we're able to come together and unify as one as a community," said one of the dancers Stephanie Collier.

She said being at the event helped shed light on the Hispanic community in the city.

"There's just so many wonderful people and amazing opportunities you can be able to go and enjoy, and also just enlighten what is the Hispanic culture of Tulsa."

People at the event said not only was this a way to celebrate culture, but it also helped them learn about other businesses in the Hispanic community they didn't know about before.