The United States or "New Spain" in 1819.

Cinco de Mayo rolls around every year, and a bizarre claim crops up in news stories, political speeches, and in schools: Hispanics are “the newest immigrants” to  arrive in the United States of America. ... Really?

Jo… Read full post »

Armed strikers near Trinidad, Colo, c. 1914, during the Colorado Coalfield Wars. Photo courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. All Rights Reserved.

In Colorado, April 20 is marked for one of two reasons. Thousands of people gather on college campuses and in public p/… Read full post »

If you were alive in the 1960s and 1970s, there's a good chance you remember the Delano Grape Strike.

The strike began in 1965 when Filipino American laborers walked off farm fields in California to protest low wages. Soon after, Mexican American farm workers, led by César Cháve… Read full post »

Music blared from the dance floor, and young men pressed in all around us, their animated faces covered with a sheen of sweat.

We wore glittery paper hats and tiaras, twirled noisemakers, and tossed confetti as we drank and laughed effusively. It was New Year's Eve 1983, and… Read full post »

Today is World Water Day, and I’m reminded of the narrow, rugged mountain creeks that overflow with spring runoff in Colorado every year.

As the northern hemisphere tips toward the sun and the days grow longer, snow begins to melt along the Continental Divide and cascade do… Read full post »

“Ay, m’hija. Why would you joke about something like that?” Mom asked me, her voice tinged with incredulity.

“Your whole life you’ve advocated for the rights of the down-trodden. Why would you blurt out something like that to people who hardly know you?&rdq… Read full post »

A new Pope, un nuevo Papa, has been chosen, and I can't help but remember World Youth Day 1993 in Denver.

I had just graduated from journalism school, and my Associated Press news editor asked me to go out into the streets to get a feel for how the international event was transforming… Read full post »

My son and I wait for the concert to start.

She said she was celebrating her quarter-century birthday.

Petite and determined, she had pushed her way from the back of the large sweaty crowd to the front of the pit, and I could tell she was high on something. She… Read full post »

Lance Armstrong, Sports Illustrated cover, 2001 (Google Images). 

I learned to ride when I was six, and haven't stopped pedaling since.

My father pushed my bike down our street, and let me go. In one momentous instant I felt betrayed, terrified, proud, and grateful. I flew as my… Read full post »

Photo courtesy of the Fundación Carpe Diem

I can’t help it.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

There are Spanish expressions that sometimes fit the bill better than anything in English.

That’s just how it is when you speak two lang… Read full post »

Kronda Seibert, left, and Jamie McCurdy participated in "Colorado Rises," a human chain demonstration, on Sunday, July 22, 2012.

AURORA, Colo. – Linking arms in a human chain encircling a large swath of green grass in front of the Aurora Municipal Building, a young married… Read full post »

My grandson, a seventh-generation Coloradan, in his Batman T-shirt. He loves the masked hero, and wore his caped shirt to the Denver Zoo.

Here we go again.

Colorado, my home state, is on the world stage again because of a mass shooting that has left a dozen people dead.

I'm sure… Read full post »

We weren't buckle bunnies, but we were chasing cowboys. All along, our good guy was right there in front of us.

She was a good old girl who wore vests, jeans and Roper boots, and thought it was high time we experienced one of the West’s last greatest… Read full post »

As my husband and I prepare to celebrate 15 years of marriage this year, we wonder what all the stir is about 

My husband and I met the usual way—in a dive bar. Over the years I’ve spun the story to make it sound less like a cliché.

 … Read full post »

Editor’s note: This is an old post. I deleted it a few months ago, but I’m reposting it today in honor of Sally Swift’s birthday ... and in praise of her pretty feet ... even if… Read full post »

John Francis Sr., striking a pose in his Army uniform in 1953. 

Happy Father’s Day to Bam Bam and all the other good ones ...

No one loves the man whom he fears. — Aristotle

Life must be lived forward, but can… Read full post »

Editor’s Note: Happy Birthday Mom.

Let me tell you about the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees, and the moon up above ... and a thing called love.

Let me tell you about a 25-year-old girl dressed in knee-high boots and an/… Read full post »

Mexican novelist, essayist, diplomat and social commentator, the formidable Carlos Fuentes (Wikepedia Photo).

He said he wrote to keep from dying, but in the end he couldn’t strike death from his opus on life.

Carlos Fuentes, the inimitable Mexican novelist, essayist, diplomat a/… Read full post »

My son, Daniel, playing his beloved electric guitar two years ago at age 12.

My son’s little pink hand rose from the other side of the green surgical sheet that separated us, looking like a dahlia sprouting from my body that Monday after Mother’s Day in 1998.… Read full post »

 New Spain in 1819 (Google Images).

Cinco de Mayo rolls around every year, and a bizarre claim crops up in news stories, political speeches, and in schools: Hispanics are “the newest immigrants” to  arrive in the United States of America. ... Really?

Journalists,… Read full post »

Armed strikers near Trinidad, Colo, c. 1914, during the Colorado Coalfield Wars. Photo courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. All Rights Reserved.

In Colorado, April 20 is marked for one of two reasons. Thousands of people gather on college campuses and in public p… Read full post »

(Photo courtesy of CocinaGratis.net) 

Several years ago I was getting ready for work when my then-7-year-old son began a conversation with me I will never forget.

"Mom?"

"Aha," I responded as I glopped thick velvet-black mascara on my lashes—my war paint—with my mouth wide op… Read full post »

Penélope Cruz in espadrilles, carrying a red tote, and wearing hoops in the 1992 Spanish film "Jamón, Jamón."  

   When I was detained for my "petty crime," I was sitting on a packed bus, heading south from Caracas to Ciudad Guayana, which is some ni… Read full post »

I don’t know how to make chilaquiles, but I do know how to make a mean Southwestern green chile. I might seem like a tragic, little pocha to some, but I know who I am.

My Grandparents, Circa 1920s, Trinidad, Colo. 

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. - “You don’t… Read full post »

Roly poly or "pillbug." (Google Images)

 The recent, tragic murder of a 7-year-old Georgia girl has me remembering another case from the 1960s that has haunted me for decades, and the day I trusted a stranger.

We called it a raspberry tree, but I still don’t know its bo… Read full post »