UPDATE: The steep price of putting in new airport train messages hasn’t stopped Denver from recording two new greetings to kick off 2015. The latest voices of the DIA people mover are new Denver Bronco DeMarcus Ware and pro skier Lindsay Vonn. For more than a decade, the trains ran…
Dear Readers: The Mexican just got married to a chica caliente, and he’s taking her on a honeymoon to the motherland so she can learn the proper art of tortilla-making. In the meantime, I offer this Best Of edition, because I plan to do all of my work this week…
What’s your favorite place in Denver? This morning the Denver Department of Community Planning and Development — whose office is definitely not the favorite place of people applying for building permits and zoning variances — launched the Favorite Place in Denver campaign, part of an attempt to “launch a citywide…
Dear Mexican: I’m not Mexican, but my son-in-law is. He is intelligent, bright, enthusiastic and pleasant to spend time with. He came here, illegally, at the age of eighteen, with his aunts. He and my daughter are married, have a three-and-a-half-year-old son, and have gone through the entire process of…
Dear Mexican: I’m a handsome exemplar of the bronce race living in the motherland. I’m dating a beautiful and wonderful gringuita who is soon taking a trip over the border from the U.S. to Mexico for the first time to visit me and my pinche big family. There are a…
Dear Mexican: What is with the many gringos/gabachos who constantly slaughter Spanish words? Spanish is easy to pronounce (and spell) compared to English. The vowels (a, e, i, o, u) are always pronounced the same way. In English, vowels vary a lot — difficult for new learners. All of the…
Dear Mexican: I am from an Arabic-speaking country. After my education is completed here, I’ll be returning to my country or to Kuala Lumpur. Since I’ve been in this country, I’ve noticed there’s a rising tide of hatred toward Mexicans. I’ve talked to Mexicans, and they all say they’re proud…
Dear Mexican: I have some questions and observations. During George W. Bush’s administration, there was a lot of talk about comprehensive immigration reform (amnesty, to some). One remark that I recall was made by a Mexican and was something like, “Go back to Europe!” Aren’t Mexicans of European descent, also?…
The newly renovated Union Station isn’t hosting its official grand reopening until July 26, but it’s already seeing plenty of looky-loos – and there’s plenty for them to look at, including more than 600 pieces of art. For our money, though the real masterpiece is the historic sign that just…
Dear Mexican: I noticed that Mexican people don’t generally smoke. I’m not condoning smoking, but it’s interesting to see how some groups do or don’t smoke, and I have yet to see a Mexican person smoke cigarettes. Does the tobacco industry not target Latinos?Fulminating Fumador Dear Gabacho Smoker: American Lung…
“In honor of your service at Rocky Flats,” proclaimed the message on the outside of an envelope from Cold War Patriots. And inside, a personalized letter announced that “a commemorative coin has been designed to honor you as a former Rocky Flats worker and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the…
Dear Mexican: The tragedy currently playing out on the U.S. southern border has reminded me to once again ask my (slightly tweaked) question, posed three years ago and perhaps more relevant than ever: If the U.S. had sponsored and funded infrastructural, educational, social and economic development in Mexico and Central…
Update below: Since the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its ruling on June 25 invalidating Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall has been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples — seventy at last count. But Colorado Attorney General John Suthers questions…
Dear Mexican: I think I might be Mexican, but there are some people who might disagree. Being that you are the source of all knowledge mexicano, I thought I might ask you. Here’s the deal: My ancestors left the U.S. in 1847 knowingly and entered recognized territorio mexicano. The U.S…
He’s back! It’s seemed so quiet since Steve Horner, the anti-ladies’-night crusader, left town. A half-dozen years ago, he kept bars and restaurants around town hopping as he filed complaints with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, charging that their ladies’-night deals were discriminatory, since men cannot enjoy the same deals…
This week I told the remarkable story of PeaceJam, the Colorado-based non-profit that a down-and-out Denver artist was inspired to start after the Summer of Violence. From those unlikely beginnings, PeaceJam has grown to a powerhouse that includes thirteen Nobel Peace Prize laureates on its board and hosts activities around…
Their story is more fantastic than anything that screened during the Monte Carlo Film Festival last week, a more unlikely saga than even the fairy-tale life of Grace Kelly, who started the festival in Monaco more than five decades ago, after the Hollywood star had married Prince Rainier, the ruler…
Dear Mexican: Why do some Mexicans expect us to learn Spanish instead of them learning English? (Note: I said some, not most or all!) I’m offended whenever I am assaulted by listening to anything in Spanish on phone menus or see it on forms that I have to fill out…
“Rocky Flats Then and Now: 25 Years After the Raid,” a three-day panel at the Arvada Center this past weekend that coincided with the 25th anniversary of the FBI’s raid on the former nuclear weapons plant, raised more questions than it answered. One of the stumpers: What’s the status of…
Behind these rolling grasslands dotted with wildflowers stand the foothills and still-snowcapped peaks; far off in front is the skyline of downtown Denver, sixteen miles to the southeast. Sixteen miles downwind. This expanse of open space is a lovely surprise amid encroaching suburbia. But the real surprise is the ugly…
Dear Mexican: If dark-skinned people are so “undesirable,” unwelcome and put down by gringos, how come gringos bake in the sun like zopilotes to get dark? Summer is fantasy time for all of them, when they can actually get some color in that white skin of theirs. Maybe the whole…
Dear Mexican: I am a Mexican who owns a successful wholesale liquidation business, which happens to be an industry dominated by Jews and Asians and some gringos. So why does almost everyone, including mexicanos, who visits my warehouse think my business — or any successful business, for that matter —…
