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This folder contains newspaper clippings about minorities, racism, discrimination, and human rights efforts in Boulder County. The clippings were compiled by the Reference Staff at the Boulder Public Library.

A series of presentations on Latino experience and culture organized by Frasier Meadows staff and residents.

Euvaldo Valdez discusses his family's roots in Abo, New Mexico, on a "merced" land grant, his life growing up in Abo and Albuquerque, and how he came to live in Boulder in 1969. He talks about his employment as director of community information and services for the Boulder Valley Public School District and his position as one of only a few Hispanics working in the school administration at the time. He discusses steps he took to make the Boulder Valley School District more welcoming to minority families and descibes his levels of acceptance by the Latino and Anglo communities in Boulder in 1969. Throughout the interview Euvaldo emphasizes the fact that one must "give before they ask", always help people, and recognize the help one gets from others, beliefs inspired by his mother. One person he is currently leading efforts to recognize is Emma Gomez Martinez, a leader in Boulder's Hispanic community. He asserts that one issue Boulder must focus on is balance, particularly on achieving the balance of social goals with political and environmental goals. He ends by emphasizing the need to educate HIspanic youth to help them reach their goals.

Eleanor Montour, whose mother founded Clinica Campesina, talks about her family and her life growing up in Lafayette, Colorado. She describes what it was like for her grandfather and father working in the fields and mines. She also discusses the racism and discrimination that she experienced in junior high school and high school. She explains why her mother started Clinica Campesina, details her mother's involvement wtih the community, and her philosophy of the importance of health care, education, and speaking out for what is right. She also talks about her own 30-year career at Clinica, her involvement with the school that was named after her mother (Sanchez Elementary), and her own present-day multicultural family.

Oli Duncan is a native of Longmont. Three of her grandparents were from New Mexico and one from Texas. They came to Boulder in the 1920s as sharecroppers. Her father was a coal miner, and was active in the union. She went to high school in Boulder, married, and had three children. When her husband died in 1988, she went to New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, studied English, and became an English teacher. She started a project to do interviews with Latinos in the 1980s after two unarmed Latino youths were killed by police in Longmont. She talks about discrimination that existed in Boulder County for her parents (such as “whites only” signs), ethnic identity, the importance of education, and the way people mispronounce Hispanic names. She also discusses various terms that are used for people of Hispanic origin and explains that she defines herself first and foremost as an American.

Salvador was born in Guanajuerta, Mexico in 1996. When he was 4 years old he came to Colorado with his parents and brother to join his grandma, who was already in the U.S. His parents said they came for their children: a better education, more opportunity, a better life. His father has worked in a series of unskilled jobs; his mother works in a tortillaria. Salvador went to Columbine Elementary School, Trail Ridge Middle School, and had just finished his junior year at Skyline High School, all in Longmont. His teachers treated him well, but he was aware of discrimination elsewhere. He hopes to go to college and become an architect.

Kelly was born to Guatemalan parents who immigrated first to California and then to Colorado. She was born in the United States. She attended elementary and middle schools in Longmont and Niwot High School for her freshman year. She was unhappy there because of the racist attitudes on the part of some of the white students who made her feel ashamed of being a Latina. For the next two years whe went to Skyline High School in Longmont, where she felt accepted. She discusses the Pre-Collegiate Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder), to help prepare students of color for college; LYFE (Longmont Youth for Equality), organized by CIRC (Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition), which works for political change and to help people in the community. She discusses her goals for making positive changes in the community and in the political system.

Deisy DeLuna was born in Mexico and lived there until she was eleven years old. Her grandparents had come to work in this country through the Braceros Program, and later, her father worked in the United States as well, visiting the family back in Mexico every three years. When she was 11, her immediate family moved to Longmont to join her father. She describes her schooling in Longmont schools, which included a 1-year bilingual newcomers program, after which her schooling was entirely in English, with mostly white students. She reflects on the positive schooling experiences that she had. Her teachers even raised money to pay for part of her first year at college. She discusses the ASSET law, which will lower her cost for continuing to go to college. She talks about the importance of education, the ways in which she sees being bilingual as being an asset for her, and her dreams for the future.

Linda Arroyo-Holmstrom, born in 1956, is a partially retired teacher. Her Arroyo grandparents came from Mexico to the Trinidad, Colorado, area as coal miners; then moved to Lafayette to work that area's mines when the southern mines closed. Her other grandparents, who were from Northern New Mexico families that had lived in the United States for many generations, moved to Aguilar as coal miners. Her parents moved to Boulder in 1945, where they bought a house in the Gove-Gross area. She talks about her experience of growing up in Boulder alongside a very close extended family. She reflects on her parents' desire for their children to speak English rather than Spanish. She describes her experiences at Casey Middle School, Boulder High and the University of Colorado at Boulder, discussing the support that she received from MAP (Migrant Action Program). She touches on her teaching career, important role models in her life, and her current work of mentoring the teachers and students in the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program in the Boulder Valley School District.

This interview begins by covering Virginia Alvarez's early life in northeast Boulder County where her parents were farm workers. Her parents moved to Boulder County from Mexico in 1929, before Virginia was born in 1942. When she was a child, they did farm work in the Longmont area, moving around from one farm to another annually. Virginia talks about feeling isolated when she was very young because there were not many Hispanics in her elementary school and initially she did not speak much English. She went to school in Longmont from first grade through high school, and she remarks on the dynamics between Hispanics and Anglos in the schools, which were, for the most part, lacking conflict. IBM brought in many new Latinos in the 1960s. She describes her family as being poor, too poor for her to join clubs at Longmont High School, for example. She worked for an OEO program with senior citizens in the 1960s throughout Boulder County. She learned her life philosophy from her family, which is to respect people and to do whatever job you're doing the best that you can. Virginia says she sees less division now between Anglos and Hispanics in Longmont, in part because Hispanics have opened businesses that non-Hispanics also support, and in part becasue Hispanic children are getting educations that are opening doors for them.

Miguel Medina describes his childhood years in Puerto Rico, his immigration to the United States as a teenager, and challenging years in Cleveland and Chicago when he struggled to bring up seven children as a single parent. Eventually he moved to Longmont and opened Casa Medina, which became not only a successful music business, but also community hub. Mr. Medina talks about the ways in which he has aided members of the Latino community, from taking new arrivals under his wing to translating and assisting many Spanish-speaking members of Colorado's minor and major league baseball teams. He also has been an active participant in community endeavors such as creating Longmont's Multicultural Plan and supporting Democratic Party politicians.

Carmen Ramirez, born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1960, is the program coordinator for the Community Relations Division of the City of Longmont. She also has been the head of the Latino Task Force of Boulder County and an active committee member of the Boulder County Latino History Project. She speaks about her early childhood with her grandparents and aunt in El Paso, and about her difficult teen years, when she lived on the streets. She started college but dropped out after marrying and having a child whom she had to support. Later she married Ray Ramirez and moved to Longmont. She talks about the importance of family and education in her life, her current job as a cultural interpreter and mediator, and her participation in the Next Generation Leadership Program, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. She describes forms of racism and ethnic discrimination experienced in Texas and Colorado and speaks warmly of the support given to her by her husband.