SAN ANGELO, Texas — It was the Mexican Independence Day celebration at the San Angelo city hall in September of 2019 - and the tremendous outpouring of support from the community that followed - that inspired members of the San Angelo Hispanic Heritage group to form a committee that would be dedicated to taking the group's efforts to the next level.
"We were very impressed, and we thought, 'Wow, we didn't really think that people were that interested or wanting to know more about it," said Del Velasquez, the president of the new San Angelo Hispanic Heritage committee.
Velasquez and his fellow committee members plan on taking the group's efforts to the next level by planning more community events and raising funds and awareness for their ultimate goal, which is creating the first-ever San Angelo Hispanic Heritage Museum and Cultural Center.
"I think there's a lot of misinformation and maybe not accurate history or portrayal of what our Hispanic community has been involved in throughout the history of San Angelo. We want to be able to showcase that," Velasquez said.
Velasquez said the cultural center would not only be a place for a lot of different activities and events to occur, but it would also be a place for Texans to learn about the ways in which the Hispanic community has made a difference in San Angelo.
"We can showcase the contributions in the past, what's current, and what could be in the future in terms of Hispanic involvement in the community here in San Angelo. We have a history that's really never been told, and we thought this would be a way to go down that path," he said.
Velasquez said the group is very, very far from getting an actual buildling, but they want to use this time to put the idea out there and see what kind of support they can get.