These Tulsans raced to help Venezuela after earthquakes. They say their work isn’t done. 

Beatriz Urbina sat on a yoga mat at Broken Arrow’s Haikey Creek Park in early July, wearing a shirt representing her home country of Venezuela. 

Joining her on the grass was a cousin, brother and members of Angeles en Tulsa, a local nonprofit organization focused on helping Hispanics in the community. The group spent the next hour taking deep breaths, honoring each other and praying for the people of Venezuela recovering from twin earthquakes that claimed thousands of lives June 24.

It was the first time the group gave themselves a moment to breathe after a jam-packed emotional week gathering donations in Tulsa to send to their home country.

“We’re human beings,” said Urbina, a member of the Angeles en Tulsa board, in Spanish. “We’re human beings that feel things. We’re human beings that think about what we’re going to do. I mean, it’s a big responsibility in what we got ourselves into.”

Angeles en Tulsa gathered more than 700 boxes of donations from people across the Tulsa metro area in the two weeks after the quakes. 

“There was a lot of anguish in our group,” Urbina said. “There’s seven of us board members, and it’s a hard job. We didn’t know we would have so much to do. We were calm and doing our projects, and then this happened suddenly.” 

The group partnered with local businesses to raise awareness and set up donation drop-off locations across town. One of those businesses is El Arepaso Venezuelan Cafe at 8036 S. Yale Ave. in south Tulsa.

Owner Carolina Marino said Tulsa’s Venezuelan community united quickly to support their home country, gathering medicine, water, diapers and more.

It was a community effort that stretched beyond Tulsa’s Venezuelan population, she said.

“What happened is a big tragedy,” Marino said in Spanish. “There’s thousands of families who were left sanctified and living on the street. The government isn’t supporting them the way they should.”

Marino said she hopes people don’t forget about the tragedy too quickly.

“Venezuela needs a lot of support for a long time, and we have to keep helping one way or another,” she said. 

Angeles en Tulsa will continue collecting donations for Venezuela throughout July at various locations.

Founded in 2018 by Urbina and her cousin, Angeles en Tulsa holds annual toy drives to send back to Venezuela. She says she came up with the idea after seeing videos of children in her home country who said they didn’t have Christmas gifts. One child only wanted a box of crayons — and it motivated her to do something.

Urbina came to Tulsa about 22 years ago. She was able to apply for asylum and became a U.S. citizen when her daughter turned 21. She says the nonprofit and helping people are her missions from God.

Angeles en Tulsa officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization last year. Now they are working to expand their work beyond toy drives, starting with sponsored events, such as Cafe, Canas y Amor. They plan to host other events to teach people how to use technology and how to learn English. 

Most importantly, Urbina said, is expanding their reach beyond only helping Venezuelans back home and in Tulsa. She wants to help other Hispanics in Tulsa as well as other countries.

Right now, Angeles en Tulsa’s main priority beyond donations is raising funds to send supplies back to Venezuela. The organization is hoping to raise $30,000. 

The organization is selling angel keychains for $30 each to help raise funds. Those who purchase a keychain will enter into a car giveaway. 

“It’s a lot, but we have faith that we will get the money,” Urbina said. “And all these people will have everything we’re collecting.”

This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma. 

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