Guardians of heritage: Hispanic museum in Corpus Christi fights to survive, grow

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Located at the end of Heritage Park on North Chaparral Street in downtown Corpus Christi is the cozy, yellow Lichtenstein House. There, people can find the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica de Corpus Christi — the city’s only museum celebrating Spanish culture and heritage.

The museum opened in 1976 when Juan Jose Gussoni, Sergio Villarreal, Dr. Efren Suris, Dr. Jose E. Antoni and Evaristo Tercilla met to discuss the possibility of creating an organization to represent, promote and expand the Hispanic culture in Corpus Christi. These five held a meeting in October of the same year at Dr. Marc Eugenio’s home.

Tercilla was elected as the first president of the organization and Eugenio was named the first president of the board.

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