Search results

Philip Hernandez is a Boulder native whose family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the early 1960s. He discusses implications of immigration for his own family and for Mexcian Americans in the United States in general, noting that some families have been here so long that there is a saying that "we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us". The interview explores issues of inclusiveness, diversity, and discrimination, including such subjects as Latinos who fought in the Vietnam War, segregation, lynching, elitism, and working for social change. He talks about his own involvement with social change action, including representing interests of the Latino community on non-profit boards, serving as the State of Colorado affirmative action director, and working to document Latino history.

Edwina Salazar is the executive director of the OUR Center in Longmont, Colorado. She was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1948. Her father's family, of Jewish origin, was from Northern New Mexico but had moved to the San Luis Valley in Colorado. Her mother's family members were farm workers who settled in Erie. Ms. Salazar attended a liberal Catholic school in the 1960s where the nuns and priests were active in civil rights and anti-war movements. Her mother, who died when Edwina as 14, cleaned houses and insisted Edwina get an education so she could do better. Ms. Salazar attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins where she discovered her passion for social work. She describes civil rights and anti-war agitation while she was there. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in social work. She moved to Longmont in 1992, where she helped arrange for a monument in Kensington Park for two unarmed Hispanic youths killed by police in 1980. She describes the OUR Center and her work with it.