Outside a family-owned Mexican restaurant near I-44 and North May Avenue, three giant letters now spell out OKC, each one filled with symbols of Oklahoma City's history — a nod co-owner Alejandrina Camarena says was built to say thank you to the city that gave her family a start. Azteca Mexican Grill unveiled the custom letters as part of its latest remodel, and Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt showed up to see it in person.
Camarena told News 9 that the tribute embraces both her own roots and her adopted home of Oklahoma City. She said people can be proud of where they come from while also embracing Oklahoma City as home. The letters incorporate several symbols representing the Sooner State, including a Scissortail flycatcher, the Devon Tower and a Route 66 shield, according to the station's report.
Symbols Built Into Every Letter
The Scissortail flycatcher was adopted as Oklahoma's official state bird back in 1951, and it has since inspired the design of major city landmarks including Scissortail Park and the Scissortail Bridge over I-40, per the Oklahoma Digital Prairie archive. The Devon Energy Center, the skyscraper depicted alongside it, was completed in October 2012 and stands 844 feet and 50 stories tall, making it the tallest building in the state, according to its Wikipedia entry. The Route 66 imagery arrives at a fitting moment too, since the historic highway reaches its 100th anniversary in 2026, with Oklahoma City hosting official centennial celebrations tied to the state's more than 400 drivable miles of the route, per Visit Oklahoma City.
Camarena said the building itself means a lot to her and her family, according to the same account. The structure at 4024 N May Ave was originally built in 1971 as a Dairy Queen store, long before Camarena and co-owner Raul Perez opened Azteca there in 2017 inside a former San Marcos restaurant space, as detailed in an Oklahoma Gazette feature. Camarena's very first job in the United States, the article notes, was at a Dairy Queen — an echo she now sees in the building she owns.
A Mayor's Visit and a City's Growing Latino Community
Camarena said she invited Mayor Holt to the unveiling because she had watched him embrace the community, per News 9's report. Holt, who took office in April 2018 as Oklahoma City's 38th mayor and its first Native American leader, has built a reputation around nonpartisan civic unity and inclusive economic development across the metro, according to background from the Economic Innovation Group. He won re-election to a third term in February 2026 with 86.5 percent of the vote, per Ballotpedia.
In a Facebook post celebrating the remodel, Holt called Azteca “an unofficial embassy of Mexican culture in OKC,” writing that Nina and Raul's place is a small business success story and an example of the city's Mexican-American community. Hispanic and Latino residents make up roughly 22 percent of Oklahoma City's population, making them the city's largest racial or ethnic minority group, according to U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by Census Dots. Pew Research Center analysis cited by KOSU indicates that about 80 percent of Oklahoma City's Hispanic population traces its origin to Mexico, reflecting the deep cultural ties behind family-owned establishments like Azteca.
A Menu and Décor Rooted in Guadalajara
Camarena, known to regulars as Nina, and Perez are both natives of Guadalajara, and the Oklahoma Gazette reports they continually update Azteca's menu based on customer feedback, adding coastal seafood dishes and a specialized Azteca Fit menu alongside traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex staples. Camarena has also woven her heritage into the restaurant's interior, telling the Gazette that the upside-down baskets suspended from the ceiling symbolize pouring blessings and abundance into the dining space for guests. The new OKC letters extend that same instinct outward, turning a storefront sign into a public thank-you note for the city that let a Guadalajara transplant build a life — and a business — one Dairy Queen building at a time.
