University of Wyoming
Organized in 1956, the Latin American Club of Laramie (Wyo.) served as a social and cultural center for the Hispanic community of Laramie at a time when the rest of the town looked down upon their culture. The club hosted activities such as dances, raffles, potlucks and bingo nights and also rented out the clubhouse to members for quincineras, weddings and anniversaries and other events. In 1961, the Wyoming Federation of Latin American Groups was formed and the Laramie group became members and hosted some of the meetings and conventions, as they were the only group to have their own clubhouse. By 1965, a National Latin American Federation had been formed and the Laramie group became a member of that also, with members traveling to the conventions and even hosting a few conventions.
In 1960, the club was able to purchase a tract of land and a house south of Laramie for $2000 and began collecting funds with which to purchase a larger building. In 1969, more land was donated by a club member and an old Union Pacific washroom was purchased and moved to the land to serve as a more spacious clubhouse. An electrical fire burnt the clubhouse down in 1968 and the entire town of Laramie turned out to help raise $3000 to rebuild. In 2004, the club was disbanded and the land and the clubhouse sold. Proceeds from the sale were used to set up a scholarship endowment for Wyoming Hispanic high school graduates, as continuing education had always been a priority for the group.
The bulk of the collection is made up of the official club records. This includes board minutes, annual membership lists, and newsletters. There are also applications and acceptance letters from scholarship recipients of the club’s annual college scholarship fund. An application for a gaming device and a description of the club land boundaries are also included. There are many newspaper clippings of club event announcements and community recognition of club members and a scrapbook documenting club events in 1995 and 1996. Photographs of past presidents and board members that hung in frames in the clubhouse are also included in the collection. There are artifacts such as a bingo card and a tee shirt which arrived with the collection. The club charter and a laminated poster of newspaper clippings regarding the rebuilding campaign of 1968 and a contribution chart from the same event are located in an oversized folder. Much of the collection originally arrived in binders and their original order as well as their original dividers have been maintained. Collection also includes the records (by-laws, minutes, photographs, and newsletters) of the Latin American Club of Cheyenne (Wyo.).
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the collection is open to the public.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
There are no other known archival collections created by the Latin American Club of Laramie (Wyo.) at the date of processing.
Records were donated by the Latin American Club of Laramie, via
The collection was processed by Suzannah Tuell in February 2005 and updated by Jamie Greene in November 2020.
Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Latin American Club of Laramie (Wyo.) records, 1961-1997, Collection Number 11427, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.