Tulsa World: Look at all this diversity!

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Look at all this diversity!

Maria Carlota Palacios, managing consultant for diversity and community relations at Williams Co., says the BOK Tower is one of the places she would show off to visitors from her native Venezuela because “This is where I work,” she said. CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World

By MARK BROWN World Scene Editor
Published: 11/26/2009 2:19 AM
Last Modified: 11/26/2009 11:03 AM

Sometimes, it takes an outsider to make you see what's right in front of you. Maria Carlota Palacios — a consultant in the Diversity and Community Relations division of Williams Cos. and former chairwoman of the Greater Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce — isn't exactly an outsider. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Palacios came to Tulsa to study. She's been taking notes ever since.

It's been a while since anybody came from Caracas to visit, but when they do Palacios shows them these Tulsa-area sites, in no particular order.

The University of Tulsa

"It was an extremely important place for me. It's where I first discovered American culture. I spent a lot of hours there growing as an adult. It's fantastic that it's progressed and grown."

The land

"I would want to show off Native America and take them to places such as Tahlequah and the Osage, to see the bison."

All of Tulsa

"All four quadrants of the city, and I'd explain the issues around the physical division of Tulsa and discuss how economic development is distributed in the city, sprinkled with issues about race, culture and religion."

Philbrook and Gilcrease

"Gilcrease for the Native American artifacts, so I could discuss how Oklahoma came to be. And the older paintings in the permanent collection at Philbrook; they transport me."

Oral Roberts University

"The history of the hands, the unique architecture and talk about who Oral Roberts is."

The Arkansas

"I would drive them down around and stop at the river, then explain what this river means to Tulsans."

Bank of Oklahoma Tower

"Where I work! Its history, the important role Williams has had in the Tulsa community and continues to have."

(For a past Ask a Local's take on the BOK Tower as an architectural wonder, go to tulsaworld.com/askalocal .)

By MARK BROWN World Scene Editor

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