Dear Mexican: Do Mexicans know that if one of their grandparents was born in Spain, they can immigrate immediately not just to Spain, but also to any other country in the European Union? I know this is not an option for a lot of Mexicans, but it certainly seems like…
Scouts for Equality, a national nonprofit dedicated to overturning decades-long prohibitions against homosexuals in the Boy Scouts of America, will hold its national spring gathering in Estes Park this coming week, when members will discuss their agenda for continuing the fight in 2015 and beyond. The BSA lifted its ban…
In December 2013, Araphaoe High School student Claire Davis died days after she was shot by another student, Karl Pierson. Davis’s name isn’t mentioned in Senate Bill 15-213, a measure expected to be heard by a Colorado state Senate committee today. However, she was the inspiration behind the legislation, which would…
Dear Mexican: I’m a 23-year-old Latina attending a Texas university. I’m taking a class centered around Latino culture and history. I’m a first-generation Tex-Mex kid, and lately all of the coursework has been making me feel angry/sad/confused, for lack of better phrasing. I don’t know how to handle these feelings,…
On the same day that President Barack Obama issued a public statement calling for an end to gay conversion therapy — the widely debunked approach to psychologically stripping people of their homosexual tendencies — a bill to ban the practice in Colorado for those under age eighteen died in a state Senate…
Homeless advocates across Colorado hope to combat local laws banning individuals from sitting on sidewalks and sleeping on the street with a proposal scheduled to be heard in the House Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on April 15. If approved by legislators and signed by the governor, they say, the…
Last week, we posted a Denver human waste map that’s being used as part of a push to fund more public restrooms in central Denver. And while such facilities wouldn’t only be used by members of the homeless community, members of Denver Homeless Out Loud contends that such facilities would be greatly beneficial…
This week, Mayor Michael Hancock prohibited the use of city funds for “non-essential” travel to Indiana, citing the recent religious-objections law passed in that state. Not only did that announcement raise the question of why, exactly, city officials would ever think of using Denver funds for “non-essential travel” anywhere, but…
Lakewood baker Jack Phillips is appealing a May 2014 ruling that he cannot discriminate against same-sex couples seeking wedding cakes. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled that Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop, had violated Colorado’s anti-discrimination law when he declined to make a cake for same-sex couple Charlie Craig and…
Dear Mexican: Why do cholos like the song “I’m Your Puppet,” by James & Bobby Purify? Is it this song, or is it all oldies they like? Aspiring Puppeteer Dear Gabacho: It ain’t just cholos who are down with oldies. Mexican-Americans of all social classes have kept that music genre…
On March 29, the Denver Zoo lost one of its five lions when Baby, a seventeen-year-old female who mothered three cubs from two litters, was euthanized. “Baby had been battling several, chronic age-related health issues over the last few years,” zoo veterinarian Betsy Stringer said in a statement. “When she began…
Brad Evans, founder of the Denver Cruisers, decided not to run for mayor of Denver — a quixotic mission he’d explored last fall — but he’s definitely got a campaign under way. Last week he founded Denver Fugly, a Facebook page dedicated to documenting some of the aesthetic disasters in…
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…
