Austin Community College professor Gary Moreno has been selected to receive the Muriel H. Wright Award at the Oklahoma Historical Society’s annual awards banquet. The event will take place on Thursday, March 19, at 6 p.m. at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
The award recognizes the outstanding article published in “The Chronicles of Oklahoma,” the scholarly journal of the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS), during 2025. Moreno’s article, titled “Crossing Cultural Frontiers: Mexicans in the Wild West Shows,” examines Mexican performers such as Vicente Oropeza and José Barrera who introduced bullfighting techniques and charro style to Wild West shows in the early twentieth century. The article follows these performers’ lives and explores how charro culture became popular both in rural Mexico and the United States.
Moreno earned his Ph.D. in Latin American history from the University of Oklahoma in 2015. He specializes in cultural history with a focus on fashion and the evolution of traje de charro through literature, art, and performance. Since 2020, he has served as Director of the Latin American Cultural Center at Austin Community College and teaches U.S. and Mexican-American history courses.
The Muriel H. Wright Award was established in 1974 and includes a $500 prize along with a plaque. It is named after Muriel H. Wright, daughter of Choctaw Principal Chief Allen Wright, who began editing “The Chronicles of Oklahoma” in 1943 before officially becoming editor in 1955. She wrote six books about Oklahoma history and retired from OHS in 1973; she passed away two years later. In 1993, she was inducted into the first class of the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.
Tickets for the banquet are available online, with guests asked to RSVP by Monday, March 9. Steven W. Taylor, former chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, will deliver the keynote address while OHS Board Member T.S. Akers will emcee.
According to its official website, OHS serves as Oklahoma’s official historical agency and preserves historic sites throughout the state while providing public access to collections and educational resources. The organization operates its main museum and research facility at the Oklahoma History Center. OHS focuses on collecting, preserving, interpreting, and sharing information about state history across all regions through various programs and publications such as books produced by its press (source).
For more information or sponsorship inquiries regarding this event, contact State Historian Matthew Pearce.
