Dear Mexican: Why are we put down by our own people for being educated and articulate (I’ve been called gabacho, and I’m as brown as the next guy) while the Anglos accept us for being smart? I work in Santa Ana as a high-school teacher and am considered very good…
On the afternoon of Friday, March 20, more than one hundred marchers set off from the First Unitarian Society of Denver, bound for the federal immigration court downtown. Arturo Hernandez Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who has taken sanctuary in the church to avoid deportation, stood on the stone steps to…
Dear Mexican: Why do wabs, regardless of age and body size, always have one hand rubbing their bellies under their shirts? Is this something that is inherent in all wabs? I’m a pocho, and I’ve never seen other pochos do it. Pocho With Albóndigas Grandes Dear Pocho: What’s with the…
With a million-dollar war chest, the deadline past for any new candidates and a lack of strong opposition, Michael B. Hancock is a shoo-in for re-election as Denver’s mayor on May 5. Over the past four years he’s presided over a roaring economy, the rollout of recreational marijuana sales, and…
Dear Mexican: So there I was, sitting in Spanish class, like the good half-frog/half-wop (i.e., “frop”) that I am, when I observe the Spanish teacher write the word esposas up on the board. Imagine my shock/horror when the teacher told us that esposas has two meanings: “wives” and “handcuffs”! Please tell…
Today at the State Capitol, Colorado faith leaders, as well as local business owners and community leaders, will appear at a press conference in opposition to two pieces of legislation they see as religious right-to-discriminate bills. We previewed one of them — House Bill 15-1161 — last month in a…
Dear Mexican: Recently, I visited a viejecita in an assisted-living home and wondered how I would fare in such a place. Fortunately, I like to eat cottage cheese, but I would like some salsa with it, or better yet, an occasional jalapeño en escabeche. Are there places for those of…
Last November, when we introduced you to Gordon Klingenschmitt, the exorcism-doing, gay-slammer who’d just been elected as a state representative, he was already a darling of the progressive media types. From their perspective, he was the walking, talking embodiment of ultra-conservatism’s worst tendencies — and one with the potential of…
In recent years, Colorado has been something of a purple state — a blend of Republican red and Democratic blue. But there are certainly some notable Republican strongholds that stand out on a national level. A recent study by UCLA professor Chris Tausanovitch and MIT prof Christopher Warshaw includes their ranking…
In a recent profile of Shahid King Bolsen, the New York Times branded the Boulder native as “the unlikely apostle for a distinctive blend of anti-globalization sloganeering and Islamist politics that is fueling a new wave of violence against businesses across the country.” Since the piece’s publication, Bolsen has repeatedly rejected…
Dear Mexican: As I’ve been doing a lot more business in the city of Santa Ana (one of the most Mexican cities in the U.S.), I’ve realized that a shitload of Mexicans are the Fox News-type conservative, yacking out the same kind of shit you hear at a Glenn Beck…
In 2014, ten undocumented immigrants entered sanctuary in churches around the country in order to avoid being deported. Arturo Armando Hernandez Garcia was one of them. As explained in this week’s cover story, “Sacred Ground,” Arturo has been living at the First Unitarian Society of Denver church for four months,…
The results of the last election resulted in shared power at the Colorado General Assembly. Democrats remain the majority party in the House, but Republicans gained control of the Senate. Will good ideas from one chamber face ignominious defeat in the other one? A new proposal making progress in the…
Arturo Armando Hernandez Garcia balances on an orange workman’s ladder in the front hallway of the cavernous First Unitarian Society of Denver church. The fit 42-year-old wears work boots, jeans and a T-shirt that says “Chinos Construction” on it, a souvenir from a friend’s business. He dips a paintbrush into…
Each session of the Colorado legislature spawns controversial bills — like, for instance, Representative Timothy Dore’s call for grants to Colorado counties to offset the impact of legal pot whether sales are allowed there or not. But this year has also spawned a slew of legislation that appears to target…
Governor John Hickenlooper has long been a cycling proponent. Now, he’s calling for the construction of a bike trail that would allow riders to cross the state from Wyoming to New Mexico — and a new bill backed by a Republican state senator may offer a way to make it…
Our January 15 cover story, “Tell No One,” delved into an evolving sexual harassment quagmire at an Aurora outpatient clinic operated by the Department of Veteran Affairs; several female health care workers who complained of inappropriate conduct by a male nurse say they’ve suffered retaliation from administrators, including punitive job…
Arturo Hernandez Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who has been in sanctuary at the First Unitarian Society of Denver Church for three months, has suffered another setback in his case. Attorneys for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have declined to join Garcia’s motion to re-open the case. If ICE had agreed…
Vanessa Collier, a 33 year-old mother of two and wife to her partner, Christina, passed away on December 30th. Her funeral at New Hope Ministries was to feature photos of Vanessa proposing to Christina, and family pictures with their daughters, Madison and Kylie. Fifteen minutes after the service was supposed…
With less than a week until Martin Luther King Jr. Day, activists, arts organizations and politicians are all gearing up for a series of events to mark the holiday, which will be followed by continuing discussions of racism. (Mayor Hancock’s office promises that the schedule for those discussions will be…
The First Unitarian Society of Denver Church, on the corner of 14th and Lafayette streets, has been home to Arturo Hernandez Garcia since October 21, 2014, when he officially sought sanctuary. He is fighting to stay in the United States under President Barack Obama’s deferred action program. But in the…
After ten years in the House of Representatives and six as a U.S. Senator, Mark Udall would prefer to go out known as a champion of individual liberty and the environment, rather than the faltering “Senator Uterus” who one-noted his re-election campaign and badly underestimated the Republican who unseated him,…
