Last Tuesday was a lovely morning for a softball game — sunny, with no clouds on the horizon. Not in the sky, and not involving the status of Sonny Lawson Field, where the Homeless Diamond was about to begin its fourth season. It was a much more auspicious start to…
Dear Mexican: While vacationing in Mexico, a couple of times I have had vendors or waiters address me as chica. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but while relating a conversation with one of these guys to a Mexican friend of mine back in the U.S., he…
Dear Mexican: I’m a half mexicana/half gabacha working as an appointment scheduler in a medical office. I’m one of a handful of schedulers there who speak Spanish. I’ve noticed in the years I’ve been working in this field that about seven to eight times out of ten, when a Spanish-speaking…
The state’s mascots gathered around the steps of the State Capitol two weeks ago for the Discover Colorado Rally, a Colorado Tourism Office event celebrating National Travel and Tourism Week. There was Spike, the symbol of the Colorado Railroad Museum; Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill, loaded for bear; Miles, apparently…
In that ballooning budget for Denver International Airport’s expansion, do you think officials could find a little extra cash for some signage? Zooming to DIA two Fridays ago for a one-way flight to Durango (where I was meeting family for a road trip back to Denver), flashing temporary signs outside…
Dear Mexican: Our graphic artist walked out of the room the other day pissed because the publisher asked my opinion on a Cinco de Mayo advertisement they were planning to publish and ended up publishing. The graphic showed a row of chickens with sombreros. The publisher asked if I thought…
Three years ago next month, Denver suddenly woke up to the realization that it could lose the National Western Stock Show — maybe to another city, maybe to that upstart Aurora and its proposed Gaylord Entertainment hotel — an $800 million, Western-themed hotel and entertainment complex by Denver International Airport…
Dear Mexican: I’m a pocha and my husband is a gabacho (by the way, we loved the explanation in your book on why Mexicans and Irish get along so well; it really explained a lot about our marriage). We had the rehearsal dinner for our wedding catered by one of…
Dear Mexican: Is there a pecking order at the places where you see day laborers waiting to be hired? What’s the hierarchy? Are all those dudes Mexican, or are some Central and South American, and if so, who has priority when the random contractor comes by to pick up a…
Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown’s newsletter will be a little late today. That’s because when the Mayor’s office learned that Brown was about to break the news that the city had decided against a temporary alcohol ban in Washington Park, located in Brown’s district, the city moved up a planned…
It was two years ago that Denver City Council passed a ban on urban camping, promising to offer new services for the homeless population that would be pushed off the 16th Street Mall and out into nearby neighborhoods. For two years, residents of the Ballpark neighborhood watched as more and…
The stretch of I-70 that crosses north Denver is a rough ride — and the reputation of that 1.2 mile patch of pavement — and plans for its replacement — will get roughed up even further today, at the North Metro Denver Citizen’s Transportation Summit. The Colorado Department of Transportation…
Dear Mexican: Our grandparents came from Mexico. The entire next generation spoke Spanish. However, in my generation, pretty much none of us do. One cousin’s daughter does because the cousin married a fluently bilingual person. Most white people I know have long ago lost both awareness of what their actual…
Ka-ching. Coloradans could vote on at least three new gambling proposals this November, including one that would allow Kiowa County to host a single casino. That proposal’s boosters want legislators to put a measure on the November ballot asking voters statewide to authorize casino gambling in the parched — both…
On April 12, 1864, Black Hawk became the second city in Colorado to be incorporated — three years behind Denver and just a few hours ahead of Central City, the booming mining town up Gregory Gulch. But Black Hawk is the boom town today — thanks not just to its…
Dear Mexican: I like reading your articles — they are funny, sad, insightful, crude, serious and even a little provocative and antagonizing at times. One thing I find a little antagonizing is the use of the term “Latino” as a synonym only for “Hispanic.” I’ve noticed that you tend to…
On April 12, 1864, Black Hawk became the second city in Colorado to be incorporated — three years behind Denver and just a few hours ahead of Central City, the booming mining town up Gregory Gulch. But Black Hawk is the boom town today — thanks not just to its…
Dave Philipps, an investigative reporter for the Gazette in Colorado Springs, just won the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for “Other Than Honorable,” his three-day investigative series that examined how soldiers injured during war were being discharged without benefits. Philipps wasn’t in the newsroom when the announcement of the Pulitzers…
Dear Mexican: The use of the expression ¿Mande? (command me) by Mexicans has always struck me, though I have seen it happen with less frequency in the twenty years since I came to the United States. I personally see it as a symbolic legacy of submission, probably originating from the…
Eight years ago, after a $300,000 renovation job that installed low-maintenance plants, easily hosed-off pavement and benches where you could sit, not sleep, the city dedicated Edward J. “Eddie” Maestas Park at the corner of Broadway, Lawrence and Larimer streets, renaming Triangle Park after a longtime businessman and neighborhood Good…
Dear Mexican: I’m a second-generation Orange County-raised pocho. Both sides of my family have been civil-rights activists since the 1940s. My mother’s family took part in the landmark case Mendez et al. vs. Westminster et al. in 1946. My father was a Chicano activist in the 1960s and 1970s. From…
Coloradans could vote on at least three new gambling proposals this November, including one that would allow Kiowa County to build a casino. The proposal’s boosters are asking legislators to put a measure on the November ballot that would ask Colorado voters to authorize casino gambling in the county, as…
